A further argument of this book is that it is possible to observe a gradual process whereby local practices for marking out wrongdoers and others of whom their peers were wary came under increasing influence of emerging political authorities, namely kings and their councillors."

[7] The book concludes with a chapter, "Themes and Trajectories: The Wider Social Context", that summarises the key findings and notes "Perhaps the most significant observation is that execution cemeteries developed in the period of the formation and expansion of the earliest English kingdoms, and not in the shadow of the late Saxon state as is often presumed".

[8] Catherine Hills of the University of Cambridge positively reviewed Reynolds' book for the journal Antiquity, announcing it to be a "significant contribution" to the study of both Anglo-Saxon England and of the archaeology of burial and justice.

She noted that Reynold's ideas appeared "less novel" than they should be because he had already presented many of his conclusions in published papers and talks, and that the tome contains a number of traces betraying its origins as a doctoral dissertation.

Lambert argued that the fifth chapter was unable to unite the separate analysis into a "coherent whole" and that, despite "some interesting ideas", Reynolds' ultimate conclusion was rushed and "inexplicably terse".

[12] Reynolds' ideas were also positively discussed in the paper "Living On: Ancestors and the Soul", authored by Alexandra Sanmark, a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the Millennium Institute Centre for Nordic Studies and Lecturer at the University of Western Australia's Department of History.