Why I Am Excited to Recommend:

I enjoyed the telling of the opioid crisis and the Sackler family by Patrick Radden Keefe in Empire of Pain, (even after watching Dopesick on TV) as his attention to details and inclusion of facts creates a vivid setting and action packed story. First made aware of this upcoming collection from SJP on her Instagram account in early June, prior to its publication, I was excited to pick up a copy of Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks.

My Review:

Originally published in The New Yorker Magazine, Keefe shares 12 compelling and informative short stories about various topics, people and events. From insider trading and the Boston marathon bomber’s death row defense attorney, to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and his travels in Vietnam, the drug lord El Chapo and Mark Burnett and the rise of Trump on reality tv, we are treated to exceptional reporting and storytelling. As a master of the “write around” (story done about a person without that person’s cooperation) Keefe at times constructs his stories based on research and interviews with everyone except the main subject, and I find that to be fascinating. His journalistic style is a winner for me and I thoroughly enjoyed this narrative nonfiction. Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks is a great gift for news junkies, history buffs and nonfiction lovers.

About the Author

Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The Snakeheadand Chatter. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, New York, and The New York Review of Books. He received the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, for his story “A Loaded Gun,” was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and is also the recipient of an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellowship at the New America Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship.