Only seven were hanged

By Stuart Martin

On Christmas Eve, an eminent Criminal Court judge finds his defence of capital punishment challenged by the man serving him: a substitute waiter who is also a former prisoner. Inside an exclusive club devoted to crime and detection, their encounter becomes a searching contest between legal authority and lived experience, asking whether the state can ever be certain enough to take a life. The argument unfolds through embedded cases of murder, investigation, trial, imprisonment and execution. Each offers evidence to be weighed rather than a simple puzzle to be solved. The judge advances deterrence and retribution; the waiter tests those claims against wrongful conviction, uncertain evidence and the limits of courts and juries. Moving beyond the meeting room into London's criminal courts, prisons, police facilities and execution sites, the novel examines the machinery of justice from verdict to punishment without reducing its questions to easy answers. Structured like a courtroom debate, this crime novel makes opposing ideas the source of its tension. Its cases probe the distance between law and morality, while its prison-life perspective brings the consequences of legal judgement into direct view. The central confrontation gives the narrative a distinctive shape: not merely who committed a crime, but who may judge, how certainty is established, and what happens when certainty proves fallible. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9309333189
• ISBN13: 9789309333187
• Release Date: January 2027
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"