The Executioner's Tale

Book excerpt: The Executioner’s Tale is a vigilante plot with a twist: justice is in the shape of a female pensioner – a reluctant one at that, who is accidentally drawn into the role of executioner. “I believe most people have considered murder at one time or other in their lives. Some actually go so far as imagining the act. A very few put their fantasies into action. An accident made me one of that number.” This is the fictionalised autobiography of a serial killer, or, as she would see herself, ‘an instrument of justice’. The first death is accidental, when she confronts the husband of her neighbour, a notorious wife-beater. But at this point she realises that her age, rather than being a negative, is actually a positive. No one would look at an older woman with suspicion: in fact, most people barely notice the elderly at all. So begins her new ‘career’. “I’m not a monster. I am someone who crossed a line and chose not to step back.” One of the significant factors is her loss of faith, but in its place she adopts the utilitarian principle of ‘the greatest good’. All the ‘victims’ are, to her mind, worthy of removal, and range from murderous nurses to paedophiles and drug dealers. In fact, every killing is made to protect or save the vulnerable. Our anonymous subject sees that the courts so often do not, or cannot, provide this justice, and believes in the Old Testament ideal of ‘an eye for an eye’ – or at least a punishment to fit the crime... The Executioner’s Tale is a gripping, refreshingly original crime novel whose heroine Ginny dubs ‘a modern Miss Marple’ who goes beyond detection to judge – and executioner.