Charlatan is story of a notorious nineteenth-century court case. With a driving narrative and novelistic pacing, this scrupulously researched account of the life of Thomas Guthrie Carr – who lied, fought and sleazed his way around Australia and New Zealand between 19865 and 1886 – is more than just a fascinating piece of social history. It’s also a mystery, a piece of true crime, and a delicately humorous portrait of a man whose eye for the main chance and ferocious pursuit of publicity makes him an oddly contemporary figure. With a star-studded supporting cast, including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Mad Dentist of Wynyard, the Nunawading Messiah, and a host of shady mesmerists, spiritualists, phrenologists and hired goons, Charlatan delves deep into a side of colonial history not often explored, and unearths a Victorian-era celebrity who should never have been forgotten.