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