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Hey! What’s that over there????

Made you look! 🤪

Oh, pranks. They are fun for the prankster, but not usually for the poor sap who gets duped. They make for great storytelling material, though. 

This book list is filled with stories that deal with famous frauds, trickery, and gullibility, either through satire or retelling real-life cons. 

This book list accompanies Vol. 5 of The Novel Envelope, which features Mark Twain’s sketch, “A Ghost Story.” The famed author specialized in satire and humor. He probably got a huge kick out of a good hoax, but he frequently condemned cons and con men in his writing—most famously in Huck Finn. 

I hope you find something you’ll love on this list!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)

I’d be remiss not to include this one, given the famous figures of the King and the Duke, two traveling swindlers who con entire towns with fake theater shows and revival scams, embodying Twain’s love/hate relationship with humbug. 

The Giant and How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy (2012)

Here’s a fun children’s chapter book that details the ins and outs of the Cardiff Giant hoax, including fresh illustrations and historical photos, showing how quickly manipulation and greed can get out of hand. 

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)

A taut cat-and-mouse novel in which disguise, false identities, and deception are essential to survival after an assassination attempt goes wrong.

The Great Impostor by Robert Crichton (1959)

A novelized account based on the real-life trickster Ferdinand Waldo Demara, who successfully passed himself off as everything from a surgeon to a prison warden.

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding (1980)

Frank W. Abagnale wasn’t old enough to vote when he started his criminal career of impersonating teachers, doctors, and airline pilots. Though autobiographical, it reads like a novel — a masterclass in charming deception and audacious impersonation, which inspired the hit movie. 

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser (1989)

A Dickensian labyrinth of false heirs, forged wills, and elaborate conspiracies, where inheritance fraud drives the sprawling Victorian-style tale.

Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart (1991)

In the 1980s, four men dominated Wall Street by creating the biggest insider trading ring in history. This is the story of how a few rumpled detectives pursued justice even in the face of some of the world’s most powerful men (and their silver-tongued lawyers). 

The Illusionist by Jennifer Johnston (1995)

A woman meets an illusionist on a train—and they marry. All is well until it…isn’t. A haunting literary novel where a charming illusionist’s lifelong “performance” conceals darker truths about the way he manipulates those closest to him.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (2001)

Historical fiction about a 1920s stage magician whose illusions and showmanship blur the line between performance and con, woven into a mystery involving real figures like Houdini and President Harding.

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind (2003)

The authoritative account of how two reporters took down the behemoth Enron, leading to one of the most notorious scandals in the American business world.

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (2004)

A witty novel of academic obsession, where a supposed archaeologist may be staging the greatest dig of all time — or an elaborate fraud. Meanwhile, an Australian detective pursues a murderer, and when the two plots converge, it’s explosive. 

Deception: From Ancient Empires to Internet Dating by Various Authors (Anthology) edited by Brooke Harrington (2009)

Focuses on cons through history, blending historical research with storytelling to capture the drama of each scam.

The Woman Who Wasn’t There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception by Robin Gaby Fisher and Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. (2012)

Tania Head rose to fame when she told her harrowing and emotional story of surviving the 9/11 attacks. The only problem? She wasn’t there. Tania spent years using her fame to support survivors’ charities and causes, all while keeping her dirty secret. 

The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister (2015)

Historical fiction about a famed female illusionist known as the Amazing Arden, who becomes a suspect in her husband’s murder — raising questions about what’s real and what’s illusion. Described as Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus.

The Billion Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman (2015)

Reads like a thriller: the true story of a Soviet engineer who secretly spied for the CIA, full of deception, clever ruses, and high-stakes intrigue.

The Impostor by Javier Cercas (2017, novelized nonfiction)

A hybrid of novel and investigation about Enric Marco, a Spaniard who falsely claimed to be a Holocaust survivor for decades — a fascinating look at a life built entirely on hoax.

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton (2017)

This is cyber crime at its most dramatic. This book chronicles the FBI’s two-year hunt for the mastermind behind the Silk Road, a dark-web store for illegal goods. But how do you find a digital ghost who goes only by the name of the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Hoax: A History of Deception: 5,000 Years of Fakes, Forgeries, and Fallacies by Ian Tattersall and Peter Névraumont (2018)

A comprehensive history of scams and forgeries, starting from ancient times and moving to more recent schemes, such as the one that inspired Charles Ponzi, ranging from the realms of art and science to literature and finance.

Fakers: An Insider’s Guide to Cons, Hoaxes, and Scams by H. P. Wood (2018)

This little nonfiction book is geared to inquisitive kids, profiling some of the funniest, weirdest, and most influential cons and con artists of all time. But don’t worry! The book doesn’t encourage such behavior. 

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope (2018)

The wild account of a gutsy Mylasian-born social climber who managed to comb billions of dollars from an investment fund without getting caught for 10 years, all while spending the money on politics, Hollywood, and luxurious living.