A review by cator_and_bliss
The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers

4.0

An earthy, evocative novel rich with the texture of the Yorkshire (or Jorvikshire) landscape. Set at the dawn of the industrial era, when craft work was giving way to machinery and that windswept landscape was on the cusp of permanent change, the novel pits a band of 'coiners' (themselves representatives of a type of artisanship) against the businesslike and legalistic forces of the Crown, represented by exciseman William Deighton.

This is an enjoyable story that blends landscape writing with the conventions of the crime thriller and which examines philosophical questions of resistance, independence, social change and greed.