An early example of a psychological mystery and modern crime fiction, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner details the experience of its criminal anti-hero. It is set in Scotland within a world where angels, devils, and demonic possession exist. The book was a response against the antinomian society, or a society that does not believe in laws or moral norms (in a Christian sense one believes that they do not have to follow the Ten Commandments because of the principle of salvation by divine forgiveness), that was growing on the borders of Scotland at the time. - Summary by Elsie Selwyn