#AmReading – The Mark Inside

The Mark Inside-A Perfect Swindle, A Cunning Revenge, and A Small History of The Big Con by Amy Reading (2013)  Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – 1919 Texas rancher J. Frank Norcross goes into town to sell some acreage so he can buy a better piece of property.  Before that can happen, Norcross is swindled out of his money.  It was the worst mistake the confidence men would ever make.  Norcross dedicated the rest of his life to tracking them down.

The whole thing reads like a mid-level movie script. Yet, it’s all true.  Or most of it’s true.  Some of it’s true?  Norcross did dedicate his life to finding the men that scammed him out of a small fortune.  The details surrounding the hunt may be found on both sides of the fiction line.

Reading (what a great name for an author!) gives us not only Norcross’s story but a look at how the confidence man and his swindle became a deeply rooted part of American life.  A con game gets its name from the confidence man (or woman) who runs it.  They inspire confidence in their prey (the “mark”) and then build on that confidence and our own native greed to make a profit.  The author notes that from the earliest days, large numbers of victims will “invest” more money in the swindle, even when they know it’s a swindle, in the gambler’s vain hope of “getting even again”.

Norcross is every bit the American archetype that his con-men opponents were. Self-reliant, firm in his belief in his own abilities, and equally firm in his desire to wreak justice on those who did him wrong.  His pursuit would go on for years, and make him a media darling along the way.

The sections on the history of the con are fascinating. Especially when you note that so little has changed in a century.  The essential parts of the “big con” (a multi-person bit of teamwork that is designed to keep the mark off balance and moving forward at all times.  If you want to see a fun version of it, watch “The Sting” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  I kept thinking about the movie and all the elements of the big con on display there).

Amy Reading does a great job presenting all of this, including Norcross’s tendency to embroider the story now and then, in an enjoyable read.  Her storytelling wobbles a little at times, especially when dealing with the question of what Norcross sometimes claimed he had done.  At times, it felt like she was trying to convince us not to believe anything he said.  In the end, it’s not enough to keep it from being both educational and great fun. History the way most of us enjoy it.  It seems to be her only book to date.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that there will be more in the future.

Rating – *** Worth A Look