Empire of Deception: From Chicago to Nova Scotia ― the Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation - Couverture souple

Jobb, Dean

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1443476595 ISBN 13 : 9781443476591

Editeur : HarperCollins Publishers, 2025

Synopsis

FINALIST for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-fiction * Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Nonfiction * Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award * Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award for Non-Fiction * Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

A Globe and Mail and National Post Best Book of the Year

WINNER of the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award, Traditional Non-Fiction

In the tradition of bestselling books such as The Devil in the White City and The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, Empire of Deception combines investigative journalism and spellbinding storytelling to examine one of the greatest con men of the twentieth century It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. As Model Ts rumbled down Michigan Avenue, gang war shootings announced Al Capone’s rise to underworld domination. Bedecked partygoers thronged to the Drake Hotel’s opulent banquet rooms, corrupt politicians held court in thriving speakeasies, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million-upwards of $400 million today-in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. It was an ingenious deceit, one that out-ponzied Charles Ponzi himself, who only a few years earlier had been arrested for a pyramid scheme. Leo had a good run-his was perhaps the longest fraud in history-and when his enterprise finally collapsed in 1923, he vanished. The Cook County state’s attorney, a man whose lust for power equaled Leo’s own lust for money, began an international manhunt that lasted almost a year. When finally apprehended, Leo was living a life of luxury in Nova Scotia under the assumed identity of a book dealer and literary critic. A salacious court hearing followed, and his mysterious death in a Chicago prison rivaled the rest of his almost too-bizarre-to-believe life. Destined to become an instant historical true crime classic, Empire of Deception is timeless and riveting.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

DEAN JOBB is the author of The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream, winner of the inaugural CrimeCon CLUE Award for true-crime book of the year and longlisted for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His previous books include Empire of Deception, which the New York Times Book Review called “intoxicating and impressively researched” and was named the Chicago Writers Association’s Nonfiction Book of the Year. Jobb has written for major newspapers and magazines including the Chicago Tribune, the Globe and Mail and the Irish Times, and was hailed by Esquire magazine as “a master of narrative non-fiction.” Dean Jobb is a professor in the master of fine arts in creative non-fiction program at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: HarperCollins Publishers
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1443476595
• ISBN 13: 9781443476591
• Reliure: Poche
• Nombre de pages: 400
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
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