Rogues

True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

By: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing—and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue

"An excellent collection of Keefe's detective work, and a fine introduction to his illuminating writing." —NPR

“Fast-paced...Keefe is a virtuoso storyteller." —The Washington Post

Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface “They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.”

Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the “worst of the worst,” among other bravura works of literary journalism.

The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.

Critic reviews

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, GOODREADS

“The journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a career out of deep dives into fascinating characters — and he’s very good at it. In between his regular contributions to The New Yorker, he has published an exposé of the Sackler family and an account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland…With ROGUES: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks we’re treated to the same level of journalistic rigor, and the same passion for breaking open mysteries, in an unmistakably bingeable package.”
— New York Times Book Review

“A new book by Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you’ll be turning pages for hours. “Rogues” is a collection of Keefe’s New Yorker articles about criminals and con artists and more. It’s highly entertaining, of course, but what shines through most brightly is Keefe’s fascination with what makes us human even when we’re at our most imperfect.”
— Los Angeles Times

"Rogues is a wonderful book, not only because Keefe's prose is masterful, but because he has a preternatural gift for reading people."
— NPR

“Rogues is a fast-paced and frequently suspenseful read...Keefe is a virtuoso storyteller, able to create suspense with his descriptions of how those crimes unfolded."
— The Washington Post

"Extraordinary"
— Wall Street Journal

"Patrick Radden Keefe is the Sherlock Holmes of long-form nonfiction, a relentless investigator who turns his reporting into irresistible storytelling."
— Tampa Bay Times

"One of the finest non-fiction writers of his generation."
— Toronto Star

"A king of contemporary nonfiction."
— Entertainment Weekly

"Iconic...Keefe delivers masterpieces."
— Oprah Daily

"[Keefe] excels at shining a beam into the murky inner workings of the world and the human psyche. It’s a superpower that produces riveting and revealing tales that, as Keefe writes in the preface, may help us better fathom our own inner workings."
— Nashville Scene

"[Keefe] makes full use of journalistic tools for fact-finding: keen observation, meticulous research and insightful interviews ... As a result, each essay is a taut, highly honed yet powerful reflection on the creative and corrosive effects of obsession."
— Bookpage (starred)

"From the prize-winning, bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing—and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue."
— Bookshop

A wonderful listen!

I loved this book, especially Anthony Bourdain! It is a book you don't expect

From Scamps to Psychopaths

While I prefer Radden Keefe's book-length works, this is a fascinating curation of well-told tales of scamps to psychopaths. Anthony Bourdain and a lawyer who takes capital cases to see if she can keep people from being executed hang out with mass murderers and arms dealers in this collection of previously-published, longform magazine stories about who's on the naughty list. I'd read Radden Keefe re-writing the phone book - this guy can WRITE. That he's obsessed with troublemakers and the spectrum of rascals to deviants just amps up the drama. For audio book fans, Radden Keefe reads his own work - and very well, thankfully!

lots of great, well narrated, excellent stories

enjoyed the collection of well-written and narrated stories about real people, real action, real consequences.

Loved it

Loved it! Keefe left me wanting to hear more! The stories were very interesting and well told.

collection of New Yorker articles, some fantastic

Like most collections of previously published work, this is a mixed bag. Keefe is a good writer and researcher, and all these stories were very well done. He's also a good narrator of his own work. My problem was that I wasn't that interested in the subjects of each of them. Most of these pieces are excellent: his famous piece on El Chapo, the Anthony Bourdain portrait, the piece about Mark Burnett and Trump's relationship; the gripping tale of Astrid Holladeer and her brother, and the hilarious story of the trade in fake vingate wines. Some of the stories seem a little out of place given the book's title, but on their own each of the articles is clearly good investigative journalism.