Skip to main content

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

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 detail and inclusion of facts creates a vivid setting and action-packed story. First made aware of this upcoming collection from Sarah Jessica Parker 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 (Doubleday).

LITERARY JOURNALISM AT ITS FINEST

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, to 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” (a 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.

This story appears through BookTrib’s partnership with BookNationByJen. It first appeared here.


RELATED POSTS

A Shocking Telling of the Opioid Crisis in “Empire of Pain”


About Patrick Radden Keefe:

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and author of the New York Times bestsellers Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, as well as two earlier nonfiction books: The Snakehead and Chatter. His most recent book is Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks.

Patrick started contributing to The New Yorker in 2006. He received the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing in 2014. Say Nothing received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, as well as the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the “10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade.” Empire of Pain was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year.

He is also the writer and host of Wind of Change, an 8-part podcast series, which investigates the strange convergence of espionage and heavy metal music during the Cold War, and was named the #1 podcast of 2020 by The Guardian.

Patrick grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts and went to college at Columbia. He received masters degrees from Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Yale. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, and fellowships from the New America Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

He lives in New York.

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Jennifer Blankfein

Jennifer Gans Blankfein is a freelance marketing consultant and book reviewer. She graduated from Lehigh University with a Psychology degree and has a background in advertising. Her experience includes event coordination and fundraising along with editing a weekly, local, small business newsletter. Jennifer loves to talk about books, is an avid reader, and currently writes a book blog, Book Nation by Jen. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two sons and black lab.

Leave a Reply