The Year of the Hangman

By Gary Blackwood

The year is 1777, known to all as the year of the hangman- both because of the 7s eerie resemblance to a gallows and the massive number of executions happening across the British Colonies. In this alternate history novel, the American rebels have lost the Revolutionary War. Those few who remain are huddled in New Orleans, a French colony, awaiting a new leader. The British continue to control all of Eastern America and viciously attack all those suspected of being Patriot sympathizers. It is into this land of turmoil that Creighton Brown, a seventeen-year-old British boy who prefers gambling and carousing to labor and responsibility- is taken against his will. Creighton’s mother, fearing her son would not grow into a model upper-class gentleman, shipped him to the colonies to work under his uncle.

Once there, Creighton finds all is not as he thought. And through his work with the infamous Benjamin Franklin, he begins to see another side to the story. To find out if the Patriots rise again, read Blackwood’s fast paced and engrossing novel.

Molly