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Ghislaine Maxwell: Jeffrey Epstein and America's Most Notorious Socialite

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— Her jetset world was not only made up of Presidents, top billionaires, Hollywood stars, Kennedys and Rockefellers, but also of princes, princesses, dukes and duchesses, all as regular friends - including university friend Prince Andrew, the favorite son of the Queen of England. Yet she still wanted more. Ghislaine met shadowy billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and amassed a fortune of almost $30 million over the course of their friendship. Her arrest by the FBI in July 2020 - almost a year to the day of Epstein's second arrest on sex charges - proved a stinging fall from grace as $30 million bail was refused. Having always strenuously denied all allegations, she contested the allegations in court after being held for a long-time in a Brooklyn facility pending what the press dubbed 'the trial of the century'. GHISLAINE MAXWELL leaves no stone unturned and is the first investigation based on all new sources available. An explosive true story, GHISLAINE MAXWELL is a riveting tale of wealth, and the law, reaching deep into the highest levels of our society.

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 27, 2021

80 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne

316 books127 followers
Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

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5 stars
53 (20%)
4 stars
63 (24%)
3 stars
72 (28%)
2 stars
41 (16%)
1 star
27 (10%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Liv.
170 reviews34 followers
April 25, 2022
✰ 1 ✰

completely baffled that this ever got published. for one, the typos, grammar, bad formatting etc make it difficult for even one sentence to be readable. this needed to be proof read about ten more times. structurally, this is one of the worst books i've ever read. it had no structure. this review has a better structure. the repetitiveness was exhausting. also this is a book about ghislaine maxwell that is really just about prince andrew. of course, he is a scummy man and he needs to be held accountable but it's obvious cawthorne just lifted lines from his previous book. it ALWAYS went back to prince andrew. i picked this up on a whim because i felt in the media maxwell had escaped accountability and wanted to know more about her involvement in the epstein case, but unfortunately i can't take anything nigel cawthorne has written about in this book seriously.
39 reviews3 followers
October 31, 2021
One of the worst books I've ever read, from its juvenile gossip rag style, to grammatical and formatting errors this is a book to be avoided.
Profile Image for Annie Booker.
510 reviews5 followers
May 25, 2022
I didn't actually finish because the plethora of spelling and grammatical errors drove me to quit. Mr Cawthorne needs to employ a decent editor or at the very least use a spellchecker.
19 reviews
March 23, 2023
This book gave a riveting description of the idle rich, living in luxury and indulging their sick sexual lusts. It also made clear that justice is not applied to all. Ghislaine Maxwell deserved her punishment. However, Prince Andrew, a none too bright royal never appeared in court and continues to live is some style and at public expense.
2 reviews
July 8, 2022
A really good book

Seems to be well researched and a good read. It doesn't just focus on the Epstein criminal sex trafficking stuff (except at the end) but gives a full account of Ghislaine Maxwell's life, explaining who she is and how she ended up doing the things she did.
Profile Image for Smitha Parameswaran.
154 reviews3 followers
October 6, 2023
Truly appalling the length to which people go to satisfy their cravings. I wanted to know what was it that led such an affluent person, moving among the most famous people in the world to do this. Makes us wary of trusting anyone.
Profile Image for Alex Murray.
10 reviews
March 6, 2024
Good timeline of events but the grammar, punctuation in addition to the lack or misplace of words made this hard to read in places. I felt this ruined the flow and got annoying after happening repeatedly.
Profile Image for Dee Marks.
31 reviews1 follower
November 9, 2025
awful editing

This is actually a very interesting book but it’s awful editing practically destroys it. Hard to read, annoyingly words are left out and some sentences made no sense.
Bit of an insult to the purchaser.
3 reviews
December 26, 2025
not bad, learned a lot of new info

I’m on a reading binge about these cases in particular, and am reading all of the information I can find. This was a good one, but the ending could’ve been better written.
Profile Image for Ruth Hosford.
570 reviews3 followers
June 19, 2022
I’m intrigued that no one has commented on the book. Is it because of all the grammatical errors or the quality of the content?
Profile Image for Jan Pallister.
1 review
July 20, 2022
Lots of pages missing from this book.

Inconveniently, so many pages missing.
Had to try to imagine the missing info.
Lots of good reading though, just marred by some of it missing.
4 reviews
October 5, 2024
Not as good as I thought it would be

It just went on and on. I got fed up with it. I will never GWT my time back ever.
Profile Image for Tameika Nicholls.
11 reviews
January 2, 2026
Interesting, but they were various errors in structure and grammar, as well as repetition and spelling mistakes. Seeing so many errors in editing made me question the information in the book.
Profile Image for Ned Charles.
276 reviews
August 25, 2022
A small book and just 207 pages with plenty of photographs. Thankfully.
There is quite a collection of details but the book was ruined by an apparent lack of the regular checks. It really does look like a case of manuscript today and on the book sellers shelf tomorrow.
The book paints a poor picture of Robert Maxwell, a Czechoslovakian refugee whose parents and two siblings died in a concentration camp. He is reported as a bully and in total control of his family. Despite her upbringing, Ghislaine admired and respected him. The author did not blame Ghislaine's adult behaviour on her upbringing.
We can only wonder why she behaved in such a manner, but there is little doubt she is an extremely talented manipulator, this she proved on all levels of society.
Profile Image for Shayna.
33 reviews
February 20, 2023
I’ll give it a 2.5. There were so many unfinished sentences, typos, ramblings & repetitive. I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over without gaining any actual information about her life and the crime she took part in.

There are not much positive things to say about this book, but I highly think it’s because of the author and the lack of structure.
Profile Image for Larissa.
22 reviews1 follower
November 19, 2022
It’s interesting to get the background on who she is and her family. I look forward to reading an updated book a few years down the line, when she’s only a memory and the girls that suffered are the victors
2 reviews
December 28, 2021
The Rich have no empathy for Poor

We live in a judgemental world .
With an unforgiving society.

Sadly , these girls will never be children again .

Profile Image for Debbie.
13 reviews
January 25, 2022
Interesting information sure but this book needs a really good edit. The sheer amount of errors (typos, formatting, grammatical, spelling, etc.) throughout it is woeful.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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