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A review by jmbz38
A Deal with the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History by Melanie Hicken, Blake Ellis
2.0
Full disclosure, I'm not the biggest fan of non-fiction books most of the time. I read this book as part of the 2019 Read Harder Challenge. It's subject matter intrigued me because my wife's grandmother was at one time emailing with a psychic scammer. So I picked up "A Deal with the Devil."
I have mixed feelings about this book. I started reading it in print, but just couldn't get into it, so I finished it via audiobook. The audiobook recording made it much easier to follow and much more entertaining in my opinion. The authors do present a compelling mystery. Personally I'd have rather read a dramatized version of the story, but the journey the reporters take to find the truth behind the scam did have some interesting twists and turns. Fans of non-fiction and/or true crime will almost definitely find something to like about this book.
Now that being said, I found the last few chapters to be unnecessary. The book could have concluded with the last paragraph of the final chapter and then the Afterword. Instead, the authors recap almost every detail of the investigation they've just described throughout the book (twice!) and then spend way too much time trying to create a emphatic connection between the psychic and one of the victims of the scam. It just felt really out of place and unneeded. I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, then had to force myself to finish it, though I'm glad I was able to make it to the end.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I started reading it in print, but just couldn't get into it, so I finished it via audiobook. The audiobook recording made it much easier to follow and much more entertaining in my opinion. The authors do present a compelling mystery. Personally I'd have rather read a dramatized version of the story, but the journey the reporters take to find the truth behind the scam did have some interesting twists and turns. Fans of non-fiction and/or true crime will almost definitely find something to like about this book.
Now that being said, I found the last few chapters to be unnecessary. The book could have concluded with the last paragraph of the final chapter and then the Afterword. Instead, the authors recap almost every detail of the investigation they've just described throughout the book (twice!) and then spend way too much time trying to create a emphatic connection between the psychic and one of the victims of the scam. It just felt really out of place and unneeded. I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, then had to force myself to finish it, though I'm glad I was able to make it to the end.