A Deal with the Devil

The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History

By: Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken

Narrated by: Donna Postel

While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story.

Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone - with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it. And at the center of it all - an elusive French psychic named Maria Duval.

Based on the five-part series that originally appeared on CNN's website in 2016 and was seen by more than three million people, A Deal with the Devil picks up where the series left off as Ellis and Hicken reveal more bizarre characters, follow new leads, close in on Maria Duval, and connect the dots in an edge-of-your-seat journey across the US to England and France. A Deal with the Devil is a fascinating, thrilling search for the truth and is long-form investigative journalism at its best.

©2018 Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken (P)2018 Tantor

Interesting

A disappointing ending, there was a little too much fluff and repeated content though an interesting insight into a criminal industry that will never stop

a little sophamorish.

it was a struggle to listen to the sing song presentation. might be a better read.

Couldn't Stop Listening

The mystery of all this just hooked me. Writing could have been better, but still captivating.

The Book Itself is a Con

Ellis and Hicken are at best naive, telling their story like breathless children who have been on an adventure in the neighborhood and come home laden down and longing to share their personally significant but meaningless experiences with the grown ups.
At worst, they know this know this is drivel.
It's not that there isn't a story here. Probably, the story of the perpetrators is an interesting one.
But we don't have that. E and H render mundane attempts at research as if they are experiences with real danger and ones that result in real findings, neither of which is the case. I understand: they put some time and even a couple airplane tickets into the journey. But as real journalists--ha--they should have recognized that it came to really nothing.
Everything you would intuit about the 'con' after reading the back of the book or the first few paragraphs is naturally right on.
They offer no insights. Instead? You go to Sparks, Nevada, and visit any number of businesses in a strip mall looking for an elusive address that is associated to a mailing service store in that strip mall. Should be a sentence of summary, right? No. We got into the Chinese restaurant, see the menu, are treated to some dialogue, and so on. Later? We'll hear all about one of the co-authors nearly missing a flight--for a journey that doesn't seem timely at all--reported as if this were a real MI or Bond case.
The manufactured obstacles, the details that purposelessly under focus--either because neither Ellis or Hicken knows the basics of storytelling, or because they want to turn a short article into a book--and the uselessness of the information as a whole mark this thing itself as a con.
It's free, if you're a member, but your time has still ben stolen.