As the Special Investigator to the Lord Chancellor’s Visitor in Lunacy, Sebastian Becker (The Kingdom of Bones, The Bedlam Detective) delivers justice to those dangerous madmen whose fortunes might otherwise place them above the law. But in William James he faces a different challenge; to prove a man sane, so that he may hang. Did the reluctant showman really burn down a crowded pavilion with the audience inside? And if not, why is this British sideshow cowboy so determined to shoulder the blame?