Jason Kersten

I felt guilty reading this book. There's not much edifying about a book about a guy who counterfeits...except that the story has all the elements of a great Italian opera, minus the fat lady singing. There's crime, betrayal, family intrigue, the mafia, heists, love and romance, narrow escapes, and a constantly uncertain outcome. Oh, and lots of money...fake money and real. These guys spend it like it's going out of fashion, like they could just make more. Which I guess was the whole point, show more right?

Anyway, all that may be enough to make the story worth reading, especially knowing it's a true story.

I didn't finish the book, but that was only because I was reading it between others, and when I tried to renew it from the library someone else had placed a hold on it. show less

As a fan of literary fiction, I don't often read books that might fall into the 'true crime' genre, first because they are often not well written, and second because... ok, I confess, they can be addicting!

In this case the book is both well-written and addicting.

It tells the story of a boy (Art) in Chicago, both academically gifted yet tough, who while growing up in gangland learns how to be a master counterfeiter. Along the way you will learn a lot: from US currency and printing show more technologies, the criminal code of ethics, and how to survive in the underworld .

Psychological dramas are well explored: between Art and his deadbeat father; what it takes to be a passer of fake currency, and why ultimately even the smartest criminals make dumb mistakes that cause their downfall.

An excellent book and a real page-turner. show less

A fascinating (and true!) tale of a young man from a broken home who finds joy in becoming a craftsman of a dying art: counterfeiting money. In perfectly replicating the new $100 bill he reunites with his estranged father, with terrible consequences for both.

This story explores the full spectrum of human emotion and experience. I bought it out of sheer curiosity as to how a man with limited means could create a convincing counterfeit of a bill designed to thwart the efforts of those with far more resources at their disposal; and, further, how such a man could ever be caught. This book succeeded in answering those questions, but it was so much more. It proved to be a stark depiction of the relationships that tie people together and the show more intricacies that create a criminal mastermind. So compelling was the author's ability to relate to his subject, that by the end, I found myself wanting Art Williams, Jr. to succeed in his endeavors, to overcome his own past and present, his own failings and those of others, just once more, one last time. show less