The Man in the Rockefeller Suit — Mark Seal
The Man in the Rockefeller Suit follows the successes and failures of a con man. Christian K. Gerhartsreiter was born in Germany and later posed, among other personalities, as Clark Rockefeller in the States. And yes, he was supposed to be one of those Rockefellers. Gerhartsreiter reinvented himself, his image, and his name numerous times throughout his life. He secured employment, married, and made friends. The amazing thing is that he was able to get away with the ruse in multiple cities using multiple backstories. As someone who has trouble lying convincingly about the most trivial matters, I can’t comprehend the effort involved in creating and maintaining complex cover stories.
It’s easy to see why so many people were fooled. “Mr. Rockefeller” was extremely intelligent, charming, and exhibited a sufficient amount of eccentricity to reasonably belong to a ridiculously wealthy family. When viewed in hindsight, one sees a funny looking guy whose stories are clearly preposterous, whose manner is obviously affected, and whose business acumen is suspect. But we don’t live in hindsight, and neither do the people in this story. Most now admit that something seemed fishy. But what good is that insight after the fact? Throw in an unsolved murder case that includes an addition missing person (Gerhartsreiter is currently undergoing a preliminary hearing to see if he’ll stand trial), and you’ve got a stacked deck that Mark Seal competently deals out. Currently the only format available is an audio book download through ListenAlaska. It’s expertly read and moves at the pace of a thriller.
Like this:
Filed under: ADULTS, AUDIOBOOKS, BIOGRAPHIES, FUN, MYSTERY, NEW BOOKS, NONFICTION, SUSPENSE
