If you plan on constructing a plot for your novel that centers around finding a missing individual, then this book offers in-depth explanations of the people involved in conducting searches. It's convenient to possess this information in one book that is informative.

It's supposed to be a reference to find the lost, abducted and escaped. But the tips could help you become a missing person!

Some of the most interesting sections include:

"How People Purposely Hide Their Whereabouts"

"The Four-Step Formula for Finding Someone"

"Profile of the Lost Family Member"

There's so much more to this book than you can imagine. You're sure to find it a nice collection to your reference library.

This is one of the highlights of the "Howdunit" series: it's not only informative and thorough, but it's great fun to read too. Besides being an experienced and successful PI, Faron is a lively writer who knows how to choose an anecdote to make a point, so the book is engrossing as well as useful. She clearly knows the business inside and out, so she covers aspects of the subject that most of us don't know exist, and her remarks on the seamier sides of the PI's job are priceless. She occasionally seems to remember that she's writing a book for mystery authors, and tosses in a few suggestions for plots or episodes that I found rather pointless, but these don't detract from the general helpfulness of the book. Her more "reference"-oriented final chapters are less entertaining, but I greatly appreciated her summaries of what kind of information is available from a particular source and how easily accessed it is: many books that purport to give information on how to find people are just unselective lists of sources without commentary. And her state-by-state breakdown of PI licensing laws and legal information was great: I'm working on a couple of mysteries set in the state where I used to live, and her guidance was very helpful. I hope Faron keeps the book updated: the Internet has transformed searching (for people or information), and some of her suggestions are already out of date. But, as a whole, this book is a terrific "checklist" of how and why people go missing and how to look for them, and well worth reading.

When I ordered this book, I was hoping for more than a cursory look at some of the great scams and cons throughout history. It fell woefully short in many respects. It seems to me that Ms. Faron has learned all she knows from watching a Discovery Channel special or movies, such as The Sting, Traveller, or Paper Moon. It provides nothing in the way of original insight or research. The author's writing style is disjointed and confused. It jumps between subjects quickly without segues. I can see how non-writers can be interested in this book, but as it sells itself as a guide to help an author with character and plot development, I expect a little more than "You might want your character to do this..."
I do admit that the title is fully fitting. Ms. Faron has conned us buyers.

The Howdunit series is a wonderful resource for writers. These books can save hours of legwork and research. Unfortunately Fay Faron's book does not really belong in the series. This is not to say it's a bad book. If you are interested in con games and want to protect yourself, it is as good as most of the other books on the market that cover this topic. As a research tool, however, it falls woefully short. Most of the cons are given only the most rudimentary descriptions, and some (such as the notorious shell game, which is still prevalent on the streets of major cities) are not mentioned at all.

The book does well with some modern con artists, such as the Travelers, but is completely devoid of historical information. Certainly in a book for writers, some mention must be made of the great con artists of this century; people such as The Yellow Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Buck Boatwright, and Charley Gondorff. Remember, not everyone sets their fiction in the present day.

The author plays it close to the vest when it comes to her sources. Certainly a book such as this should have an extensive bibliography, but this one only lists a few books. There are some notable omissions from the list, the worst case being the absence of The Big Con by David W. Maurer. Written in 1940, Maurer's book is still the best resource for information of how con games are played, and the book I would recommend it over Rip-Off to any aspiring writer interested in writing about con games.

This is a great book! It gives details of all types of deceptive crimes. Many of them really get you thinking, "Now how'd they do that?" Now let me tell you, this book is not ONLY for the writer. If you deal with the public (at all, and that is nearly all of us) this book is for you! It'll get you thinking back to this book each time you bump into someone, make change, or even stand in the elevator with a croud!

Rip-Off covers such crimes as: glamour scams, impostors, counterfeits, buisiness frauds, street cons, carney cons, gypsies, gambling scams, and so much more. The book describes each rip-off and gives an example to demonstrate it in action. It even goes into detail about hand signals given by the 'look-out'. There is so much information in Rip-Off: a writer's guide to deceptive crimes, you'll just have to check it out yourself.

Rip-off is really a humourous book. I never realized just how sly these people are. Before reading this book, I definatley could have been scammed. Rip-off rates in 3rd place for my favorites in the Howdunit series.