The Mark Inside

A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con

De: Amy Reading

Narrado por: Richard McGonagle

In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did—he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling.

Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control of his story. Instead of crawling back home in shame, he vowed to hunt down the five men who had conned him. Armed with a revolver and a suitcase full of disguises, Norfleet crisscrossed the country from Texas to Florida to California to Colorado, posing as a country hick and allowing himself to be ensnared by confidence men again and again to gather evidence on his enemies. Within four years, Frank Norfleet had become nationally famous for his quest to out-con the con men.

Through Norfleet’s ingenious reverse-swindle, Amy Reading reveals the mechanics behind the scenes of the big con—a piece of performance art targeted to the most vulnerable points of human nature. Reading shows how the big con has been woven throughout U.S. history. From the colonies to the railroads and the Chicago Board of Trade, America has always been a speculative enterprise, and bunco men and bankers alike have always understood that the common man was perfectly willing to engage in minor fraud to get a piece of the expanding stock market—a trait that made him infinitely gullible.

Amy Reading’s fascinating account of con artistry in America and Frank Norfleet’s wild caper invites you into the crooked history of a nation on the hustle, constantly feeding the hunger and the hope of the mark inside.

interesting

an interesting history of confidence men at the turn of the last century but especially interesting for what it says about police corruption back in the day...

a scattering of interesting facts

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This is a very interesting story, but could have been dispatched in a long magazine article (e.g., New Yorker or Atlantic) rather than in a full-fledged book. If you are willing to tolerate wading through all these interesting facts, then the book could be to your liking. If you are, like me, sometimes impatient with extraneous material with little to do with the plot line, you may find it hard going.

Did Richard McGonagle do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The narrator was very good.

Excellent story based on real facts.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you have ever been conned or have almost been conned like me, you will find this more than interesting. While I have been basically aware of the main ingredient of a con, that is to “promise you something you don’t deserve”. I was surprised by the inventiveness and dept of the story here told.
The author has done a great job of explaining the history of the con.

A very pleasant surprise!

Because I selected this book for the subject matter and not for any terrific reviews that were written about it, I wasn't really expecting much. But this is a wonderful piece of work!

Ms. Reading is a superb researcher and a very gifted writer. I hope she's got something new in the works.

And the narration is among the best I've heard in 30 years of listened to narrated books of various kinds.

Sometimes Hard to Believe, but a Ton of Fun

This book is a lot of fun. The central character, a real man who got involved in some really outlandish and dangerous situations, is like someone from a movie. In fact if, like me, you love the movie The Sting, this is a must-listen. The narrator is especially well-cast, and makes even the duller moments engaging. But there aren't a lot of dull moments.

Occasionally I would think that some event presented as fact was just too outlandish to be true, that we only had the man's word for how it happened. To her credit, the author usually points this out, often with a funny or wry comment. Other times, against all probability, she provides additional evidence that some wild event really did happen, an independent witness or article.

If you've any interest in con artists or complicated true tales of vigilante justice, this is a perfect choice.