Mike Dash is a master of atmospheric and entertaining historical narrative. In Satan's Circus he vividly opens up the world of twentieth-century New York, telling the gripping story of police officer Charley Becker's rise and fall and of the sensational murder trials that led to his gruesome death in the electric chair. With a cast of colourful characters, from Big Tim Sullivan, the election-rigging vice lord, to future President Theodore Roosevelt and beloved gangster Jack Zelig, Satan's Circus brings to life an almost forgotten Gotham - a raucous, gaudy and utterly corrupt city.