title: The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con
author:  Amy Reading 
description: Not only does she artfully relate Norfleet's revenge, but [Reading] also places it in the context of scammers dead and living. This is not a history of Ponzi schemes, and it does not reach the heights (or should I say depths) of Bernie Madoff's operation. It is, however, an engaging book for anybody who wants to better understand misconduct in the realm of financeand the consequences of such misconduct for everybody involved.<br /> Steve Weinberg, <i>USA Today<br /><br /></i>In these pages are brilliant portraits of Florida before retirement groves, of wild-west Denver before the tech boom, and of Texas before the Bush family decamped there from Greenwich, Connecticut. The country was younger then, though not more innocent. . . . A ripping good read.<br /> David M. Shribman, <i>The Boston Globe<br /></i><br />In the era of Bernie Madoff, Nigerian spam scams, and other sordid rackets, its heartening to remember that swindling once took a touch more finesse. . . . <i>The Mark Inside</i> is an astounding tale, brought to vivid life by an historian who has had to become an expert at distinguishing fact from romantic fiction.<br /> Jim Kelly, <i>Businessweek</i><br /><br />Reading doesnt swindle her readers. . . . She delivers the goods, with enough scholarly information on America's con men to keep intellectually minded readers from feeling guilty about reading such a whopping good tale.<br /> Doug Childers, <i>Richmond Times-Dispatch</i><br /><br />Amy Reading brings to life one actual con in a book as riveting as a movie. . . . An amazing piece of historical research that will ensnare the reader.<br /> Arthur T. Vanderbilt, <i>Newark Star-Ledger<br /></i><br />Engrossing. . . . [Reading] gets to the center of both Norfleets story and the mass appeal of the con artist as a figure in American culture.<br /> Ian Crouch, <i>The Paris Review</i> <i>Daily</i><br /><br />Vibrant characterizations. . . . This narrative of vigilante justice flows like fiction, as con artistry is illuminated throughout, with resonance in todays world of high-tech con artistry.<br /> <i>Publishers Weekly<br /></i><br />Fascinating . . . Norfleets quest seems both quixotic and inspiring.<br /> <i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br /><br />Most scholarship reads like a trip to the dentist. <i>The Mark Inside</i> reads like a trip to the track.<br />David Mamet, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of <i>Glengarry Glen Ross</i> and <i>House of Games<br /></i><br />With pitch-perfect storytelling and stylish prose, Amy Reading weaves a gripping tale of a grand swindle and even grander act of revenge, a solo manhunt throughout North America thats as hilarious as it is compelling. Rarely has history been this fun, fast-paced, and fulfilling. <i>The Mark Inside</i> is a book you wont put down and a story youll never forget.<br />Karen Abbott, <i>New York Times </i>best-selling author of <i>American Rose</i> and <i>Sin in the Second City<br /></i><br />Part page-turning crime drama, part juicy tale of vengeance and obsession, part informative social history, and part intriguing epistemological rumination about literary truth, Amy Readings <i>The Mark Inside</i> is always great fun. From the first page Ms. Reading hooks the reader as shrewdly as any of the bunco men she writes aboutonly she makes good on this enticement, delivering narrative gold.<br />Howard Blum, best-selling author of <i>The Floor of Heaven</i> and <i>American Lightning<br /></i><br />An astonishing story of one victims determined quest to bring down a ring of swindling confidence men. We have rigged fights, fake stock exchanges, gun battles, jailbreaks, a hardy Texan, an honest dentist and a righteous DA. Heres early twentieth-century capitalisma great humbug run by the ghost of a grinning P.T. Barnum.<br />Ann Fabian, author of <i>Card Sharps and Bucket Shops</i><br /><br />Its tempting to say that <i>The Mark Inside</i> reads like a historical novel, but really its more like a great heist film. Amy Reading entertains while explaining why all Americansfrom Ben Franklin to Bernie Madoffare part trickster and part sucker.<br />Scott A. Sandage, author of <i>Born Losers</i>
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  ### The Chaperone’s Secret
  
  
    
  
  
  As chaperone to the Season’s most desirable
  
  
  young miss, Amy Corbett has two specific duties: to ensure that her
  
  
  charge’s reputation remain spotless, and to see her betrothed to an
  
  
  exceptional beau. Given that the coquettish Lady Rowena manages to
  
  
  maintain an air of propriety while being a flirt of the highest
  
  
  caliber, Amy knows her job should be easy—if only the calculating
  
  
  young aristocrat weren’t so set on toying with men’s hearts,
  
  
  including that of her latest prey, the debauched Lord Dante
  
  
  Pierson.
  
  
    
  
  
  Like other gentlemen of high standing and low
  
  
  tastes, Lord Pierson’s restless desire for excitement had driven
  
  
  him into a life of squalor and scandalous social blunders. Finding
  
  
  himself drunk and mud-spattered in a gutter one night, he spies an
  
  
  angelic apparition in a passing carriage and is overcome 