Rating: 7

36 ”The road the Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Whoever uttered this famous quote—it wasn’t Samuel Johnson—knew what he was talking about.

Such is the tale of CON ED’s Kip Largo, a wannabe reformed con man who gets pulled back into the game to save his son from the States-side edition of the Russian Mob.

In the span of twenty four hours, Largo—recently out of prison and working at a Silicon Valley dry cleaner—is:

• Tempted with $100,000 by a beautiful woman who wants him to pull a con on her older mega-wealthy, venture capitalist, Italian Mob-connected, casino developer husband<./li>
• Visited by his twenty-something, drifter, ne’er-do-well son… who happens to have a $60,000 gambling debt with the aforementioned Russian Mob.
• Called out of the blue by a former con-game associate (who’s also a high-priced call girl turned porn industry producer/entrepreneur).

Too many coincidences, yes?

You can see where this is going… just like Largo did. Just like I did.

Still, I liked this book. Klein tells an entertaining, fast-paced story while sprinkling in a few backgrounder chapters describing classic cons along with how—and why—they work. (Pay attention to these… they’re there for a reason.)

Beware, though. I couldn’t help but feel this was somewhat of a trunk novel, written some time ago and then recently dusted off by Klein.

The copyright date on this book says 2007, but a good portion of the book hinges on the “sign checks first, ask for a business plan later” ethic so popular during the go go days of the Internet boom.

What I know about VCs and how they operate could fill a thimble, but I’m quite certain they do things considerably different than they did since the bubble burst in 2000.