The Sunday Hangman

By: James McClure

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Tollie Erasmus, an unsavory bank robber on the run, is hung from the neck until dead. Unfortunately, execution was administered without the benefit of South African judge or jury. Somewhere there's a killer who knows far too much about the hangman's craft, and Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu assistant Mickey Zondi must find him before his trail of death continues.

©1977 Sabensa Gakula Ltd. All rights reserved. 1977 © Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo

Audible - Fix This

Audible has the practice of listing books without their publication date. Hence, it offered Harlan Coben's "Miracle Cure" as if it were new, when in fact it was written in the early 1980s and is a dated failure. He got much, much better and should have consigned this attempt to the shredder. (Reader reviews noted the problem almost right away, but I bought the accursed thing before any reader logged in.)

"The Sunday Hangman" was published in South Africa in 1977. Its casual racism is undoubtedly true to the time and place, yet the story of a white police force full of what the writer seems to think are good guys speaking about black people as if they are all annoying stray dogs jars me out of any interest in the plot I manage to develop. His hero calls his "boy" a name to his face, not as an insult, but as a description of his lowly status. Had I known the date, I would have been more careful about the download. James McClure is a good writer, but I hate this book and cannot finish it. As depicted here, this culture makes the old South seem civilized.

Pathetic Reader

What disappointed you about The Sunday Hangman?

The reader clearly has no idea of South African accents or pronunciations. Hi effort is a travesty.

If you’ve listened to books by James McClure before, how does this one compare?

n/a

Would you be willing to try another one of Steven Crossley’s performances?

I have heard Steven read before and thought he was good. But why he accepted the job to read a South African story is a mystery His performance is pathetic.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

The reader is pathetic.

Any additional comments?

The reader is pathetic.