Chameleon: The True Story of an Impostor's Remarkable Odyssey

In 1908, a series of newspaper reports brought scandal and disgrace to well-known New York social and civic icon Henry Sanger Snow, who had turned to embezzlement in the wake of the Great Panic stock market crash of 1907.

Rather than surrender to the police, Snow abandoned his wife, children, and even his identity, fleeing to Caracas, Venezuela, just days before fear of plague closed the port. It was the beginning of thirty-seven years of duplicity and deceit.

En route to Venezuela, Snow as...