swindlers and swindling

As a boy in the late nineteenth century, Mal's only friend was Essie, daughter of the Roe witch, and it was she who discovered that he is a "blank," not affected by magic, setting him on a career as a con artist, traveling the globe in search of a legendary magical dagger that can steal a witch's power.

Early 1900s: Tricky Vic first conned Chicago mobster Al Capone. Eventually, he went to Paris to "pull off something big, a con that would secure his future for years to come.".

Provides a detailed account of the life of Bernie Madoff and his sixty-five-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, examining interviews and details from court filings, lawsuits, and government investigations, and discussing the suicides, fractured families, and other personal disasters that have occurred since Madoff's downfall in 2009.

Con man Will Shea may have met his match in scammer Andrea Dufresne as they make a high-stakes deal that will determine who gets to stay at Connaughton Academy, one of the most elite and privileged preparatory schools in the country, and who must leave.

Master con artist Julep Dupree has managed to stay at her private school, but now her life is in danger and, against her better judgment, she takes a shady case.

Having learned to be a master con artist from her father, Julep Dupree pays expenses at her exclusive high school by fixing things for fellow students, but she will need their help when her father disappears.

Locke Lamora, a member of a group of orphans know for their wits and talent for thieving, finds himself pulled into the city's criminal underworld and struggles to free himself from the group before his life is destroyed.

"When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an innocent accident is anything but (this is Hiaasen!). Behind the wheel of the offending car is Merry Mansfield--the eponymous Razor Girl--so named for her unique, eye-popping addition to what might be an otherwise unexciting scam. But, of course--this is Hiaasen!--the scam is only the very beginning of a situation that's going to spiral crazily out of control while gathering in some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose on the page. There's the owner of Sedimental Journey--the company that steals sand from one beach to restore erosion on another...Dominick "Big Noogie" Aeola, the NYC mafia capo with a taste for the pinkest of sands...Zeto, the small-time hustler who gets electrocuted trying to charge a Tesla...Nance Buck, native Wisconsinite who's nonetheless the star of the red neck reality TV show, "Bayou Brethren"...a psycho who goes by the name of Blister and who's more Nance Buck than Buck could ever be...the multimillionaire product liability lawyer who's getting dangerously--and deformingly--hooked on the very product he's litigating against...and Andrew Yancy--formerly Detective Yancy, busted to Key West roach patrol after he beat up his then-lover's husband with a Dustbuster--who's convinced that if he can just solve one more murder on his own, he'll get his detective badge back. That the Razor Girl may be the key to his success in this deeply ill-considered endeavor will be as surprising to him as anything else he encounters along the way--including the nine-pound Gambian pouched rats getting very used to the good life in the Keys..."--Provided by publisher.

Journalist Brian Ross presents a behind-the-scenes look at the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by financier Bernie Madoff and his wife prior to his conviction on charges of investment fraud, and details the extent of Madoff's scheme which devastated his victims, leaving many without savings and homes.

Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.