The man in the Rockefeller suit : the astonishing rise and spectacular fall of a serial imposter

  by Mark Seal. Prepare yourself for one of the most intriguing, compelling stories of audacious criminality you're likely to read this year. In 2008, Clark Rockefeller, of the wealthy Rockefeller family, was arrested for kidnapping his daughter. But this criminal act was quickly overshadowed by some more startling revelations: Clark Rockefeller doesn't exist. He was the creation of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1978 and built for himself a series of fake identities, including Christopher Mountbatten Chichester, descendant of Lord Mountbatten, and Christopher Crowe, a television producer. But Clark Rockefeller was by far his finest creation, an identity he used for more than 15 years, including a 12-year marriage to a woman who was unaware of the deception (although, to be fair, there were plenty of hints that something was not quite right about Rockefeller). The book is a chronological account of Gerhartsreiter's life, dating back to his early childhood (when, as a teenager, he posed as other people as pranks), and it's a deeply fascinating story. Gerhartsreiter is a con artist, no doubt, and there is some suggestion he might be a murderer, too, but he is also an undeniably personable and persuasive fellow. It is impossible to read the book without getting caught up in his story on an almost hypnotic level. Full marks to author Seal, too, for making this true-life story as suspenseful as any crime novel. --Booklist  (Check Catalog)