Crow Court
English
By (author): Andy Charman
LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA DAGGERS HISTORICAL AWARD 2022
Spring, 1840. In the Dorset market town of Wimborne Minster, a young choirboy drowns himself. Soon after, the choirmastera belligerent man with a vicious reputationis found murdered, in a discovery tainted as much by relief as it is by suspicion. The gaze of the magistrates falls on four local men, whose decisions will reverberate through the community for years to come.
So begins the chronicle of Crow Court, unravelling over fourteen delicately interwoven episodes, the town of Wimborne their backdrop: a young gentleman and his groom run off to join the army; a sleepwalking cordwainer wakes on his wifes grave; desperate farmhands emigrate. We meet the composer with writers block; the smuggler; a troupe of actors down from London; and old Art Pugh, whose impoverished life has made him hard to amuse.
Meanwhile, justice waits