Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Attempted murder, lies, legal and political backdoor dealings, this work of historical true crime—“A two-volume mystery!” Mark Twain called it—brings to life the riveting story of Australia’s most notorious scandal.
Sydney, 1895. Richard Meagher is a brilliant criminal defense solicitor with ambitions in politics. He takes on the case of George Dean, a handsome, popular ferryman accused of attempting to poison his own wife. The evidence pointing to Dean’s guilt is damning, but, in Dean’s protests of innocence and the clamor of public support, Meagher senses a great opportunity is at hand—until it all blows up in his face.
Determined to recover his reputation and vindicate his actions, Meagher begins a twenty-five-year quest to rewrite the ‘Dean case’ and reclaim all he has lost. That quest will put him in the glare of public scrutiny, arouse enemies at every turn, propel him to high political office, and entwine his cause with the making of the Australian nation.
In a work of true crime with a twist, moving from sordid Sydney streets to the corridors of parliament, and spanning the critical years of Australia’s history in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, The Stained Man tells the riveting story of a sensational scandal—and of how an indelible stain was eventually expunged.
“Patrick Mullins is the most accomplished Australian biographer of his generation and among our most brilliant storytellers. His colorful tale of Richard Denis Meagher, one of the notorious ‘wild men of Sydney’ is a sparkling account of Australian society, politics, and the law in a critical period of national formation.”
—Frank Bongiorno, author of Dreamers and Schemers
“A remarkable story of moral failure, mob hysteria, misogyny, vanity, cruelty, and persistence. Beautifully written and fast paced, this rollicking tale still echoes in modern Australia.”
—Julianne Schultz, author of The Idea of Australia
“Patrick Mullins tells a stunning tale of attempted murder, secrets, politics, and lies. In this extraordinary story we can read the tea leaves of the century to come: the strong forces at work in scandal, the volatile power of celebrity, and the immense damage that reckless ambition can do. This book is a serious achievement.”
—Sean Kelly, author of The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison
“Meticulously researched and elegantly written, this is the story of poisoning, scandal, legal and political shenanigans, and the rise and fall and fall again of a deeply flawed pugilistic man and his long struggle for public vindication.”
—Judith Brett, emerita professor of politics at La Trobe University and author of The Enigmatic Mr Deakin