Spring, 1997. Hugh Hardie needs a ghost for his Tours of Old Edinburgh, and Andrew Carlin is the perfect candidate. So with cape, stick, and plastic rat, Carlin is paid to scare the tourists, pretending to be the spirit of Colonel Weir, a religious extremist burned at the stake in 1670. But who was Weir? Carlin's research draws him into the past and, in particular, to James Mitchel, imprisoned in 1674 for the attempted assassination of the Archbishop of St Andrews. Through the story of Carlin and Mitchel, The Fanatic reveals an extraordinary history of Scotland: a tale of betrayals, witch hunts, Puritan exiles, smuggled journeys, and disguised identities. A gripping, richly imagined novel.