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A review by edzee_lcnm
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Snuck this one under the wire as I am seeing Patrick Radden Keefe this coming weekend at the 2024 Santa Fe Literary Festival. I had high hopes/expectations with this one as Keefe's "Empire of Pain" was one of my top books/reads of 2021. This is a collection of previously published (??) articles (long-form journalism) each is about an hour's worth of reading -- and a staggering depth and exhaustive breadth of people and stories -- from white collar crime to death row inmates to crime families to the world of fine wine (and forgery). Being a pop culture fan, the pieces re: Mark Burnett, the man behind of 'Survivor' and now more infamously 'The Apprentice' and thus the rise of Donald Tr&mp and the last piece about Anthony Bourdain were personal favorites.
Much like fiction short story collections, your miles may vary going from piece to piece. Despite always fascinating topics, I will admit there are some pieces that I zoned out on and some dragged on a bit longer than I would have preferred -- but no one can fault Keefe for not being thorough as well as being an incredible writer as well.
Overall, landing on 4 stars based on my variable interest in some of the stories -- but again, there's no doubt in my mind that every reader will learn something new in each one of them.
Much like fiction short story collections, your miles may vary going from piece to piece. Despite always fascinating topics, I will admit there are some pieces that I zoned out on and some dragged on a bit longer than I would have preferred -- but no one can fault Keefe for not being thorough as well as being an incredible writer as well.
Overall, landing on 4 stars based on my variable interest in some of the stories -- but again, there's no doubt in my mind that every reader will learn something new in each one of them.