Reanimating history is an important skill in the storyteller’s toolbox, but Telfer is equally adroit at reporting out more recent, and more obscure, femmes de confidence ... Telfer has a keen eye for the larger context of those in perpetual pursuit of marks, and right away zeroes in on why con artists—and especially female con artists—continue to fascinate us ... Confident Women exposes the high-wire dance between con artist and mark, between a certain number of women transforming their own combination of inherited trauma for personal gain and those who fall under their spell.
Telfer profiles those whose misdeeds are more of the grifting than the murdering variety ... Collected here are 13 tales, each around the length of a juicy podcast, about women whose relationship to truth and justice was, at best, a bit wobbly ... The farther away from our own time and place, of course, the easier it is to find charm and romance in these tales. Still, Telfer narrates them with great verve, grace and even humor.
It’s awful stuff, but with Telfer at the wheel, reading these tales of plunder—littered with diamonds, fancy cars, mansions, booze and furs—is a fun, spicy romp ... As Telfer stuffs the stories of these grifters, drifters, spiritualists and fabulists in mesmerizing detail, she more than succeeds in giving them their due. But, she warns, make no mistake about the damage they left in their wake. Confident Women is also a dark cautionary tale about the fragile nature of trust and why we choose to believe.
This is an absolute must read for those of us who choose to spend our 'me time' sitting on the couch watching episode after episode of Deadly Women, Snapped, or similar television shows ... Fascinating, entertaining, and thoroughly researched, Confident Women will have the reader doing a double-take more than once at these outlandish women, and the circumstances that gained each of them a level of notoriety ... Cleverly alternating between touching and hilarious in her details, Telfer pulls no punches in describing what these women did, who they did it to, and when it’s known, why each did what they did.
Whether she’s describing women pretending to be doctors, socialites, or just another nice lady who desperately needed help, Telfer dishes up their scandalous schemes for true-crime fans to relish. Recommended for fans of Rachel DeLoache Williams’ true-crime memoir, My Friend Anna (2019).
Telfer can coherently summarize an intentionally convoluted scheme, such as a real estate swindle targeting China’s elite, while acknowledging the human cost. She also embraces the morbid humor of situations ... Readers who appreciate a well-executed sting will enjoy this thoroughly researched yet breezy guide to notorious women.
In this compulsively readable account, Telfer delivers a darkly humorous tale of some of the most outrageous con women who ever scammed the public ... Assured prose complements the vivid portraits. True crime fans are in for a treat.
