The best books for people who want to understand the psychology of deception

This book, by Kirk Wallace Johnson tells the story of a bizarre heist that took place at the British Museum of Natural History in 2009.

The thief, Edwin Rist, was a 20-year-old American flute student who broke into the museum to steal hundreds of priceless, exotic bird specimens, many of which were collected by the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in the 19th century.

What first drew me to the book was that I knew Edwin’s dad back when I was in grad school. But what kept me turning the pages was the writing and story. The book explores the world of Victorian-era fly-tying and the obsession that collectors have with rare feathers.

Rist, who was also an avid fly-tier, had planned the heist to obtain feathers for his own collection, which he intended to sell to other collectors. Many of the collectors and fly-tying enthusiasts knew that the feathers probably had an illicit provenance but couldn’t resist.

I loved learning about this arcane subculture as well as the legal strategy which hinged on a psychiatric diagnosis.

By now, everyone knows John Carreyou’s book, Bad Blood, which chronicles the rise and fall of biotech startup, Theranos, and its sociopathic founder Elizabeth Holmes.

The capacity of this college dropout to deceive investors, board members, and the public was truly epic, as is the book. But what I especially loved was that I didn’t have to suffer the painful withdrawal that so often accompanies the completion of an engrossing tale.

The HBO series (esp. Amanda Siegfried’s masterful performance), the author’s subsequent podcast, and Holmes' pre- and post-trial shenanigans has kept this storyline alive.

Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels, written by investigative reporter Paul Pringle is another gem of this literary genre.

What began as Pringle’s investigation of a young woman’s overdose, led him to the prominent dean of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC). Once on this trail, he uncovered the corruption at USC, the incompetence of the Pasadena Police Department, and a coverup at the Los Angeles Times.

After reading the first few pages, I was forced to cancel all meetings and plans. Pringle investigative reporting not only helped to uncover the toxic mix of money and power, but the mechanics and drudgery of getting to the bottom of things.

The Plot a novel by the talented Jean Hanff Korelize follows a struggling writer in a middling college writing program who steals a plot idea from a deceased student and turns it into a best-selling novel.

As this novel becomes a sensation, the writer becomes increasingly paranoid about keeping his secret hidden, fearing that his career will be destroyed if the truth is exposed. His efforts to protect his reputation only lead to further lies and deceit.

The author Jean Korelitz plumbs the psychological depths of ambition and guilt, as the writer grapples with the fallout of his deception. P.S. If you like this one, read Korelize’s other book, The Devil and Webster.

This classic short story by Flannery O'Connor follows a family on a road trip through the South.

Included on the journey is the manipulative and deceitful grandmother, who somehow convinces the family to take a detour to visit an old plantation home that she remembers from her childhood. The consequences of this detour are chilling.

Spoiler alert, but in the context of the ongoing investigations of our former President, one of the passages really struck a chord, “I found out the crime don't matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it”