Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

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Description

From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue by one of the most decorated journalists of our time. Patrick Radden Keefe's work has been recognised by prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US to the Orwell Prize and the Baillie Gifford in the UK, for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from the New Yorker. As Keefe observes in his preface: 'They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.' Keefe explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines; examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist; spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain; chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black-market arms merchant; and profiles a passionate death-penalty attorney who represents the 'worst of the worst', among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in the New Yorker is always an event; collected here for the first time readers can see how his work forms an always enthralling yet also deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up to them.

Reviews

Eminently bingeable, religiously fact-checked and seductively globetrotting . . . A preternaturally attentive reporter at work. * Observer *
A new book by Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; youll be turning pages for hours . . . Highly entertaining * Los Angeles Times *
Keefe follows his award-winning opus with a collection of 12 pen portraits . . . that are no less compelling for being sketched on a smaller canvas. * Financial TimesBest Summer Books of 2022 *
Reflects the collective preoccupations of the unsettling era in which we now live: mass shootings and terrorism, mental health issues, and the many flavors of financial corruption . . . Keefe is a virtuoso storyteller, able to create suspense with his descriptions of how these crimes unfolded. * Washington Post *
Each [piece] could be a book in its own right . . . [Keefe] has an eye for the smallest detail that reveals something big. * Sunday Times *
A wonderful book, not only because Keefe's prose is masterful, but because he has a preternatural gift for reading people. * National Public Radio *
Extraordinary * Wall Street Journal *
One of the finest non-fiction writers of his generation * Toronto Star *
A king of contemporary nonfiction * Entertainment Weekly *
Iconic . . . Keefe delivers masterpieces * Oprah Daily *
I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it . . . hes a national treasure. -- Rachel Maddow

Author Bio

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, as well as two previous critically-acclaimed books, The Snakehead, and Chatter. He is the writer and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change on the origins of the Scorpions' power ballad, which The Guardian named the #1 podcast of 2020. He is the recipient of the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.