In the prologue of Henning Mankell's The Return of the Dancing Master, I thought I recognized a character from a recent TV movie called 'The Last Hangman', featuring the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint, played by Timothy Spall. I was wrong about the novel character's exact identity; Mankell's hangman was a fellow called Davenport. As for the connection between the prologue and the rest of The Return of the Dancing Master, my movie association did function as a helpful template in discovering one of Mankell's crucial themes, the need for impartial justice.