Rogues True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

Patrick Radden Keefe — 2022

From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, twelve enthralling stories of misbehavior and skullduggery by one of the most decorated journalists of our time. "I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it. . . . He's a national treasure." --Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Blowout Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. In Rogues, Keefe brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker, which, as he says in his preface, "reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial." Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international blackmarket arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the "worst of the worst," among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.

Reviews

Cody Degen@codydegen

Jan 12, 2024

There’s something just intrinsically less satisfying to me about shorter form reporting (even if these all run long enough to tell a pretty detailed story) so closer to 4.5 stars than 5 stars with a bullet like the last two books Keefe has written. I wished the present-day updates had been more fleshed out. Not even re-reported, since I know that’d be a massive undertaking, but something more than a few sentences would’ve been nice given how much a lot of them have had significant developments in the intervening years. The one story I was most familiar with (Bourdain’s) in particular reads significantly differently (more layered? Idk) knowing that he took his life in the years following, so I come away wondering which, if any, of the other stories would’ve had the same changes.

Jawahir M@jawahirthebookworm

Aug 16, 2023

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this anthropology of sorts of unheard deviants. This isn't my first read of Patrick Radden Keefe. His narrative style and accuracy in his investigations is what I like about him.

Which is why it's disappointing to see this prejudiced opinion presented as "fact". In "The Worst of the Worst", Keefe writes:

" Tamerlan, meanwhile, was becoming more radical, walking around Cambridge in the kind of flowing white robe one sees in Saudi Arabia".

That is overtly offensive. The "white robe" firstly is a cultural way of dressing not a religious outfit. In fact, that "white robe" is the national clothing of not only Saudi Arabia but other Middle Eastern and African countries such as Oman and Sudan.

Keefe is meticulous with his writing as he states in his acknowledgments: "Each piece in this collection passed through many sets of hands careful hands" So there's really no excuse for this xenophobia and islamophobia in "objective investigative journalism".

Do better

Liz B@lizbayer

Dec 29, 2022

This is basically a collection of long-form essays on interesting people, and if you listen to the audiobook it's like binging a really well researched and well written podcast's back catalogue. Some of the chapters were more interesting than others to me, but all of them were engaging. A great audiobook (or regular book) to pick up and put down as you have time.