Title: Who Goes Hang?
Description: At one time the author served the House of Commons as Research Librarian. His time in Parliament inspired his remarkable debut novel, *Who Goes Hang?*
 
The book opens with the discovery by Fred Armytage, a workman carrying out repairs to the Clock Tower, of a mummified corpse in the wall cavity beneath Big Ben's bell chamber. The body is that of a man about 40; it is dressed in the clothes of the mid-nineteenth century. The crushing of the skull indicates that murder has been done.  
Amongst those attending the inquest - conducted by the Coroner of the Royal Household and quite splendidly described - is a young M.P. called Hubert Bligh. He becomes intrigued by the case and gathers together a non-partisan committee of M.P.s to investigate further, with each member following a different line of research.  
This is only the start of a beautifully constructed story which boasts as many twists as an Agatha Christie, together with many rarer delights. The way in which Hyland feeds into his narrative substantial chunks of history without distracting interest from the central puzzle is especially impressive - the more so when one reads his note at the end of the book, which reveals just how much fact there is within the fiction. It even appears that repairs were indeed effected to the Clock Tower in 1956, although not with the dramatic results that occurred in the novel.