Book info

• Title Catch Me If You Can
• Author Frank Abagnale
• Year 1980
• Genre Memoir

Frank W Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams and Ringo Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and co-piloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as a member of hospital management, practised law without a licence, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks all before he was twenty-one. Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as 'The Skywayman', Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the run - until the law caught up with him. Now recognised as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades and ingenious escapes - including one from an aeroplane - make Catch Me If You Can an irresistable tale of deceit.

Thoughts

I watched and enjoyed the film adaptation of this story a long while back but hadn’t got around to reading the source material. I’m aware quite a lot of the claims in this ’true story’ have been debunked but if you go in with that knowledge and read it as a semi-fictional account, then it still really works. It’s quite the adventure and told well, although I have to admit by the second half I was a bit over hearing all the numerical details of how to beat the cheque system. But a good read, anyway.

Rating: 3 / 5