Heist/grift Books?

[chrisfischer]

Does anybody know af any good books on heists/grifts?

Something like the movie oceans eleven, or matchstick men?
Something with technical surprises and twists.

 

[Minniemal]

At the risk of stating the obvious: The Grifters? This isn't technically a recommendation in that I haven't actually read it. But it became a good movie.

 

[chrisfischer]

Cool, anybody else?

 

[Minniemal]

Hey, I just came across a site recommending fiction about con men and scam artists— http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv168.html
—and I thought of you.

 

[chrisfischer]

That is good site, thanks.

 

[The Hitcher]

Does anybody know af any good books on heists/grifts?

Something like the movie oceans eleven, or matchstick men?
Something with technical surprises and twists.

You need to check out James Swain. He has a series of books about a man who hires out to casinos trying to catch cheaters. He takes on the big cons they can't figure out on their own. Start with Grift Sense

Partial review of Grift Sense from Amazon

The first four pages of this casino-themed debut are smashing--literally. Then James Swain, himself a gambling expert and professional magician, gets to the real story, and at that point, the plot starts churning out more twists than a corkscrew factory on overtime. Soon the characters are so enmeshed in their own self-serving lies, scams, and schemes that the only thing for a reader to do is just take a deep breath and let the steady barrage of surprises wash over him.

 

[funes]

I prob'ly should give it a little more thought, but the name that comes to mind is Jonathan Gash - his Lovejoy series usually involves some sort of grift or fraud in the antique world. There is also a guy named Gerald Browne who wrote a number of books about gem thieves.

 

[gkbk]

At the risk of stating the obvious: The Grifters? This isn't technically a recommendation in that I haven't actually read it. But it became a good movie.

+1 The Grifters was great, and just about all of Jim Thompson's other books are great too. They are not all about cons, but they all have twisty plots.