This rather simple plot is a most compelling drama that bristles with suspense as it contains all the elements of a classic 19th-century mystery including, reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, and a tense courtroom scene.

Set in the fictional frontier town of Dawson's Landing on the banks of the Mississippi River in the first half of the 19th century, the book turned from a farce to a tragedy in the course of Twain's writing and the result was a profound meditation on race and identity in America. His female character, Roxana, the light skinned slave, is a compelling tragic heroine.

David "Pudd'nhead" Wilson is a wise yet unorthodox lawyer who collects fingerprints as a hobby. Considered to be quite eccentric, people do not frequent his law practice until he solves a local murder in which two foreigners are falsely accused. Murder and mayhem precede a courtroom scene that ranks as one of the most memorable in American literature.

Witty, absorbing, and widely acknowledged as the greatest of his later works, this was Twain's last novel about the antebellum South, His most searing ironic vision of race in America, his satire humorously and pointedly lambastes everything from small-town politics and religious beliefs to slavery and racism.