Did you already binge The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna on Netflix? If you were enthralled by these stories about con artists, and you’re looking for some reading material to follow up with your latest TV obsessions, you’ve come to the right place. From stories of true crime to fictional masterpieces about scammers and swindlers, here are some books that will blow you away!
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Burner by Mike Trigg
A tragic love story meets psychological thriller in Burner by Mike Trigg. Shane Stoller, the mastermind of an online populist movement and leader known as Burner_911, has just been arrested and imprisoned. Meanwhile Chloe Corbin, the daughter of a tech billionaire, was just abducted by the followers of Burner_911. Unbeknownst to everyone, these two are in love and desperate to save one another. Shane, unable to contact his followers, is desperate to get Chloe out. But can he save Chloe in time, before she becomes just like him?
My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Rachel DeLoache Williams tells the true story of her friendship with Anna Delvey, a self-proclaimed German heiress. Anna was generous with her money, paying for expensive dinners and sauna treatments—even paying for celebrity personal trainers. After Anna suggests the two friends go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech, Rachel thought this would be an amazing vacation. After arriving, Anna finds that her credit cards aren’t working and asks Rachel to front the costs for dinners, shopping, flights, and the private villa, totaling over $62,000, promising she would reimburse her once they return. Back in New York, Rachel finds that Anna had been leaving a trail of debt and lies wherever she went, and was left with no choice but to take legal action that would erupt in one fascinating story of a con artist.
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Tom Ripley is a young man who has just found himself in Manhattan trying to leave behind his past as a bullied orphan and making a life for himself through small-time scams. Shortly after arriving, Tom meets a wealthy man who hires him to locate and bring home his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, who is spending his days partying in Italy. Although he is fully aware of his assignment, Tom finds himself obsessed with Dickie and Dickie’s admiration toward the American Marge.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
A non-fiction book that reads like a thriller, Bad Blood is about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes who was originally thought to be the next Steve Jobs. Holmes was a Stanford dropout whose startup business included a breakthrough device that performed lab tests from a single drop of blood and was expected to change the medial industry forever. After being backed by investors, Theranos was valued at over $9 billion, with Holmes worth at half of that. While this may sound like a promising story, there’s one problem. The technology Holmes created doesn’t work and even put patients in danger, leading to misdiagnoses while Holmes and her business partner worked as hard as possible to silence anyone who knew the truth.
The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers
This story opens as wife Phoebe visits her husband, Jake, who is serving a life sentence in prison for operating a Ponzi Scheme that left most of the people they know broke. Then, we go back in time to when Phoebe first met Jake as teenagers, seeing how not only their relationship grew, but Jake’s obsession with wealth and status. Although Phoebe trusts Jakes unconditionally, she is soon to realize that his desire to be successful walks a fine line with deception.
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Lucky by Marissa Stapley
Lucky Armstrong is starting a new life with a new identity after pulling off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. After an incident, Lucky finds herself navigating her new life alone without the help of her boyfriend or father, the two men who taught her everything she knows about being a con artist. Staying true to her name, Lucky soon realized that a lottery ticket she bought is worth millions, but she can’t cash it in. Stuck in an unlikely position, Lucky realizes that if she cashes in the ticket, she would be arrested for her crimes and end up in prison with nothing.
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Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
Nina thought her fancy degree from a liberal arts school would make her successful, but quickly realized she was wrong. Nina’s mother was a con artist who taught Nina everything she knows, so now Nina and her boyfriend Lachlan have begun to steal from the rich in L.A. When Nina’s mother becomes ill, Nina’s path crosses with Vanessa, a young heiress and Instagram influencer and Nina sees an opportunity to help her mother. But there’s only one hitch: Nina and Vanessa have quite a convoluted past once they realize they already know one another.
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