Five Books About Imposters, Swindlers, and Con Artists

[james_davis_nicoll]

Beware of smooth-talking hustlers, frauds, scammers, and charlatans!

Five Books About Imposters, Swindlers, and Con Artists

Comments

[petrea_mitchell]

Master Li Kao springs to mind, but I'm sure you've already mentioned him in another column.

The anime Akudama Drive features a group of hardened super-criminals plus a couple of people who get included in their mission by mistake. One of those people adopts the nom de guerre "Swindler" and then has to fake her way into living up to it. (CW: lots of violence and extreme devotion to the Rule of Cool.)

[roseembolism]

Rather less Cyberpunk or violent, Great Pretender is a stylish, colorful anime about as self-professed "greatest con artist in Japan", who meets a REAL confidence man- and gets roped into a crew concocting an international scam. The first season is a lot of fun.

[jsburbidge]

There's always Moorcock's "Behold The Man"... (And, although it's only a cameo, Malaclypse the Elder impersonating Jesus after his death in Illuminatus!. Come to think of it, Malaclypse impersonated a number of people.)

[kgbooklog]

Today's Darths & Droids comic:

"Of all the ill-conceived ruses I have witnessed, impersonating a tax official in an anarcho-tribal barter society... Well. It’s probably just barely inside the top ten."

[petrea_mitchell]

I've just been reminded about Mob Psycho 100, where the protagonist's mentor is a conman taking advantage of him... but still winds up being the mentor he needs, somehow.

[(Anonymous)]

If we are to believe Snorri Sturluson, the Aesir began as a family of con artists who escaped the fall of Troy and set themselves up in northern Europe as gods to the naive masses.

Teka Lynn

[james_davis_nicoll]

Tor dot com article 563, 2025 article 32

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