A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL: THE DARK AND TWISTED TRUE STORY OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST CONS IN HISTORY

By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken

A Deal with the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History – an overdramatic and misleading title for a book that was as vanilla as an ice cream cone. OK, maybe a vanilla cone with a few sprinkles on top.

The book chronicles the investigative journey of two CNN reporters, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, as they follow leads on a serious issue – the bilking of money from the elderly through international direct mail scams. The fraud involved a mysterious “psychic,” Maria Duval, and the millions of innocent victims she swindled out of savings by promising rewards of money and good fortune.

In 2016, CNN relayed a five-part series on their website about this investigation; the book is a companion piece to that, giving more details about the inquiry. I think it’s important to have seen the series in order to get the most out of this book. Unfortunately, I did not see it, so my perception of the story most likely is a reflection of that missing element.

Journalists Ellis and Hicken spent many months and many leads tracking down the source of the elusive Maria Duval. Was she a real person, or the creation of some other corrupt entity or business, which had no qualms about preying on elderly, and sometimes ill, men and women?

The story starts out interestingly enough, as the journalists describe their initial involvement in the investigation, and their discussions with family members or actual victims of the scams. They relate in detail their correspondence with the victims and with others who claimed to know Maria Duval, and the arduous task of piecing the clues together.

Unfortunately, these details run on for the majority of the book, and although it is obvious this was a time-consuming and often frustrating job for the investigators, the recounting of their research become repetitious and boring. Fortunately, change happens about two-thirds of the way in, when actual discussions and meetings with critical persons take place, both in America and in France.

There is no doubt that this was a valuable and relevant investigation. I felt there was something missing throughout the book, however, as I expected and hoped there would be more of a resolution as a direct result of the exposé. I was disappointed that there was not a deeper follow-up into what seemed to me to be the real story beneath the psychic cover, but to avoid spoilers, I won’t go into detail. As mentioned previously, if I had seen the series in advance, I would have known more about what to expect and possibly could fill in some of the blanks I thought were missing.

An interesting story, but not as “dark and twisted” a read as I had hoped.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria (Simon and Schuster) for an advanced copy for my honest review.

Reviewed March 2018