Fakes and Forgeries: The True Crime Stories of History's Greatest Deceptions: The Criminals, the Scams, and the Victims

by Brian Innes

Book by Innes, Brian

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Angelique Simonsen]

some really cool info but a little too jam packed for my liking. good reference book though

[Christina Marta]

I found this in a Little Free Library, and one of the first illustrations is the shroud of Turin. Buckle up! It's a lot of fun, and many citations in case you are interested in digging further.

I only took away a few stars because the chapter on counterfeit money was way too long, and to me, the least interesting.

[Nathan Shumate]

Good entry-level survey/introduction to a bunch of things that should be read about in more depth.

[David]

Book #: 13
Title: Fakes and forgeries : the true crime stories of history's greatest deceptions : the criminals, the scams, and the victims
Author: Brian Innes
Series: no
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover, ILL
Pub Date: First published September 1, 2005
Started: 1/20/25 Finished: 1/27/25
Awards: none
Categories: non-fiction; GR15 A book of secrets, lies, or deception; GR36 A book with a common household object on the cover;
Goodreads Rating: 3.67; 51 ratings; 12 reviews
My Rating: *** three out of five stars

One of the categories of this year's challenge was "A Book of Secrets, Lies, or Deceptions", and this
appeared in the library display, so I picked it up. It's essentially a coffee table book. It doesn't go deeply into any particular topic, but covers counterfeit money, infamous con artists, fake artwork, governments printing fake documents and money of hostile powers, and medical hoaxes. It ends
rather abruptly, I didn't know I was at the end until I turned the page and saw I was looking at an index.

[David Ward]

Fakes & Forgeries: The True Crime Stories of History's Greatest Deceptions: The Criminals. the Scams, and the Victims by Brian Innes (Amber Books Ltd. - a Reader's Digest Book 2005)(364.163) is an interesting summary of stories about forgeries in art, currency, and documents and the folks who create them. My rating: 5.5/10, finished 3/19/12.

[Stephen]

This book is a case overview of many of the famous forgery cases. It ranges from paintings to fake money to identity papers. One of the more interesting cases is the Nazi attempt to destabilize Great Britain during WWII. Both financially and through propaganda.

[Bob]

I was hoping to learn more about art forgery but was rewarded with an overview of famous hoaxes from every aspect of life.

Shroud of Turin anybody...?

[Jennifer Daniel]

The fakes and frauds were presently nicely, lots of photos. Disapointingly they didn't do much debunking or provide much evidence disproving the myths.

[Midnight Blue]

Very interesting and informative.

[Martin Bode]

A fun summer book. Some parts are definitely better than others. The book just stops after one of its less entertaining stories without any summary or conclusion.

[Elena Papadopol]

O scurta incursiune in lumea cazurilor (mai mult sau mai putin celebre) de inselaciune si falsificare.

[Terry]

I eat this stuff up...

[Angel]

Comprehensive and interesting