The Reading Lounge: Cons and Schemes

Page turners with plenty of trickery, clever deceptions, and ingenious plots

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  Hello! I had the best time browsing my backlist and revisiting stories involving cons, schemes, and trickery. There’s something intriguing to me about reading a story and being kept in the dark about what’s really going on or who’s really telling the truth. Oh and who will pay the price in the end? I love the suspense and tension that can be built around waiting to find all of this out. When done well, the wide variety of characters who may or may not be involved in the con/scheme and the storylines themselves can be pure gold. For this reader, I LOVE to be fooled. I don’t mind when an author builds tension and creates intrigue by subtly manipulating me. In fact, if I’m reading a psychological thriller, I expect and hope to be manipulated so much that I’m left unsure as to who or what to believe. That. Is. The. Best

The books I’m recommending today all have some element of a con, scheme, deception, and/or trickery. Some have every single one! I loved all of these books and hope you find a new to you title in the bunch

Book Recommendations

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz - A propulsive read about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it.

The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale - A dramatic thriller for any woman who's ever been involved with a bad, bad man and who knows how it feels to be broken, broken-hearted, and bent on revenge.

Sunburn by Laura Lippman - A novel of psychological suspense about a pair of lovers with the best intentions and the worst luck: two people locked in a passionate yet uncompromising game of cat and mouse. But instead of rules, this game has dark secrets, forbidden desires, inevitable betrayals--and cold-blooded murder.

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti - A captivating novel about an ambitious young woman who gets trapped in a charismatic con artist's scam.

The Bluff by Michael Kardos - At twenty-seven, magician Natalie Webb is already a has-been. When Natalie becomes dazzled by a poker cheat's sleight of hand, she soon finds herself facing a proposition that could radically alter her fortune-- help pull off a $1.5 million magic trick that, if done successfully, no one will ever even suspect happened.

The Singer’s Gun by Emily St John Mandel - Corruption is a family affair. Parents who deal in stolen good, a son who traffics in forged passports and social security cards. What happens when the son decides he wants out? A cat and mouse story with blackmail, arm chair travel, and surprising twists

A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates - A professor’s life is turned upside down when he takes in his charming, wildly dangerous nephew, whose wealthy parents have just died under mysterious circumstances, in this propulsive, edge-of-your-seat debut psychological thriller

The Last Mrs Parrish  by Liv Constantine - A mesmerizing debut about a coolly manipulative woman and a wealthy "golden couple”

Pretty Things  by Janelle Brown - Who's really following you on social media? The scam of a lifetime brings together two wildly different women in this page-turning thriller about greed, legacy, and betrayal

The Last Flight by Julie Clark - Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Finding Mrs Ford by Deborah Goodrich Royce - On a sunny summer morning by the sea in New England, Susan Ford's cocoon of privilege is threatened when an Iraqi man from her distant past boards a plane in Baghdad to come find her.

Current Read

After being encouraged by several other readers in last Friday’s Thread (hop over and comment if you haven’t already), I’m FINALLY reading The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith! I’ve only read a few pages, but I have to say I was intrigued from the very first page.

What books involving cons & schemes do you recommend? Let us know in the comments, and if you’ve read any of my recs, what did you think?