Explores the psyches, motives, and methods of con artists to reveal why they are consistently successful, identifying common hallmarks of cons to share additional insights into the relationship between artists and victims.

After her husband Alan’s massive white-collar crimes are exposed, Suzanne’s wealthy, comfortable life shatters: Alan goes to prison, and Suzanne files for divorce. Ignoring a steady stream of calls from her ex at Norfolk State Prison, Suzanne thinks she can cleanse herself of all connections to her ex-husband and their old life together. Instead, she decamps to a Massachusetts beach town where she creates a new life and identity. Then Alan is...

When Malcolm gets a school assignment to write a research report on a long-dead local hero who wrote a book about his adventure-packed life, he is shocked to meet the author's ghost, who reveals that he was a fake.

"When Riley Cowan finds her estranged husband Jeff dead in his palatial home, she's sure it's no coincidence. The police rule it a suicide, but Riley thinks someone's out for blood--specifically someone Jeff's father ripped off in one of the biggest financial fraud cases of all time. She suspects that someone is trying to send a message to Jeff's father: Tell me where the money is, or everyone you care about will die. Riley's in-laws might be billionaires,...

Isabel Dalhousie comes to the aid of a renowned, much respected doctor whose reputation is at stake following the death of a patient because of allegations of scientific fraud in respect to a newly marketed drug.

In the near future, privileged classes live and work "Inside" cities, while non-citizens scratch out a miserable existence "Outside" in a vast desert. People cannot leave their designated zones without special visas known as "papelles." When fraudulent papelles surface, Seattle fraud investigator William Geld travels to Shanghai to ferret out the culprit and meets Maria Gonzalez ... a woman with whom he has a passionate affair, but breaks one of society's...

"It's summer in the Dordogne. The heirs of a Périgordian sheep farmer learn that they have been disinherited, and their father's estate sold to an insurance company in return for a policy that will place him in a five-star retirement home for the rest of his life. But the farmer never gets his life of luxury--he dies before moving in. Was it a natural death? Was there foul play? Bruno begins the investigation that leads him to several shadowy insurance...

Stephen Crane is a con artist, swindler, and purported savior of a struggling sports car company. Sacked from an investment bank after one dodgy deal too many, Stephen lands a job at Douglas Motors, a business distinguished by old-fashioned craftsmanship and plagued by decades of familial mismanagement. There he finds himself playing surrogate son to the family patriarch, confidant to the adulterous son-in-law, and lover to the beautiful but willful...