Filled with real-life characters, this book combines archival and newspaper sources in a highly readable narrative about humorous crimes and criminals. As it describes a wide variety of colonial crimes and their courtroom sequels, these true-life narratives contain a mixture of transient folk and locals who claim they only broke the law due to drunkenness.

With no particular agenda, this is an amusing look at the harsh realities of wrongdoings in an era where the punishment did not always fit the crime.