I am not sure why I chose this one but it ended up being very informative. I learned a lot about World War One. Thanks for the review copy,

So many of today's war stories revolve around pilots or marching soldiers that finding an original nonfiction story such as this one is a real treat. The interactions of the soldiers in their con of their captors was an uplifting story that gave my reading circle many sunny smiles. If you are looking for something different, this is it!!!

This book began as something that I thought I would really like and be able to get into. After a while though it just seemed to drag on at times and got to be a little too much and not as interesting as I thought it was going to be. the escape plan and using an Oji board and getting to that point was too long for me . I am sure others will enjoy this book.

I read this for our summer reading theme of 'Read Beyond the Beaten Path'. I figured 'remote prison camp' checked the box. I liked this one a lot. The main players were all written distinctly, and the author did a great job of introducing me to a novel (to me) setting. I was very interested in seeing what would happen next, and the explanations of the science and history behind the seances was top notch.
Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

Fox's work is well-researched and full of a very detailed history of not only the POW soldiers involved in the confidence game to escape but the war and all the little pieces involved in escape--homes, ouija board, etc. The maps and illustrations taken from various sources also add to the thoroughness Fox tends to focus on in her works. The story of the determination and cunning Jones and Hill pulls at the heartstrings and will appeal not only to readers interested in WW1, military history, but also the human spirit and memoirs.

Negatives--Long, wordy, hyperbolic title.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest review.


*posted on external sites prior to this posted review due be locked out of NetGalley for an extended period of time.

This stranger-than-fiction story of two World War I captives, one an English officer, the other Australian, that trick their way out of a Turkish prison camp via a long, elaborate con centered on a Ouija board is compelling and at times, funny as hell. My thanks go to Net Galley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

The beginning is grim; grim enough that I abandon this story twice before ordering the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons to help me get over the hump. There’s torture, deprivation, and every ugly thing that the notion of an enemy prison brings to mind. I am especially horrified because I thought this book was going to be funny! Reader, it is, but you have to get past the grim and at times, dull beginning to get to the amusing bits. Somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth percentiles, the shift occurs, and that’s when you can expect to enjoy yourself. You may want to skim a bit through this part; I do, and it works out well.

Harry Jones was an attorney before the Great War commenced; Cedric Hill was an Aussie auto mechanic. Once captured, the two have no chance at all making a conventional escape; the camp is too isolated for either of them to get anywhere, even if they were able to leave. Instead, what they have is nothing but time, and ultimately, that and their excellent imaginations and problem-solving skills, aided by some genuinely stupid captors, is what saves them.

The most impressive aspect of their scheme is that it takes place over a very long period of time. Not many con artists would be able to keep their story straight for so long. Jones and Hill have a great deal of self-discipline and organizational skill. Also, they’re afraid, and fear can improve one’s consistency and attention to detail. Once the meat of the story begins, it is absolutely riveting!

I flipped back and forth between my digital galley and the audio version. Both are equally good, but I would give a slight edge to the audio version, assuming the reader is primarily seeking entertainment. For a researcher, the print version is better for keeping details and sources straight.

Recommended to those that enjoy history and intelligent humor.

Two British officers escaped from a prison camp in the middle of the desert in Turkey near the end of World War I by crafting an elaborate con involving a homemade Ouija board. It sounds like a crazy story, and it certainly is. But as the old (not entirely accurate, but that’s neither here nor there) saying goes, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

Margalit Fox brings this true tale of daring and cleverness to the attention of current-day readers and explains not just how the two men pulled off their escape, but why they were able to do so, putting the story into context of the spiritualism of the time.

Elias Henry Jones and Cedric Waters Hill were two of almost 90 officers shipped and marched for two months to a remote prisoner of war camp in Yozgad, Turkey (now Yozgat), in the mountains of Anatolia, after being captured by the Ottomans at the end of a “disastrous” five-month siege at Kut-al-Amara. The town had just recently been home to 20,000 Armenians, who had become victims of genocide. The prisoners were installed in their deserted homes, suffering in poor conditions, presided over by corrupt camp commandant Binbashi Kiazim Bey; communications to and from this “very bad” man (as even the Turkish guards called him) were translated by a young Ottoman soldier named Moïse Eskenazi.

Escaping their imprisonment would have been difficult but possible; however, leaving the camp itself would merely have deposited the weakened officers into a harsh environment hundreds of miles from any civilization. On top of that, any escape then would lead to recriminations for the remaining prisoners, so as a matter of honor, officers did not want to put their fellows in peril.

Boredom led to a number of creative ideas to make life a little interesting. The prisoners managed to secure some instruments from the local bazaar and play music; they wrote and performed a musical for themselves. And then Jones received a postcard from his aunt suggesting he experiment with a Ouija board, which he crafted using instructions she gave. After a number of nights of no response from the beyond, Jones decided to create some.

After weeks of mischievousness on Jones’ part, he began to form an idea. When he heard there were rumors among his captors that the Armenians had left behind buried riches, a scheme formed. With the help of Hill, who also desperately wanted to escape, they crafted a detailed plan to trick Kiazim and Moïse. The plan almost worked — but one issue led to them having to resort to plan B, pretending they were mentally ill so they could be put in a mental hospital in the city, where they would be assessed by experts in the field. For both parts of the plan, Jones and Hill had to use all their talents and wits so as not to be discovered.

The Confidence Men is a fascinating true story that was well-known a century ago but has been lost to the knowledge of most people in the decades since. Fox brings it back to light, not just giving a detailed and generally gripping account of what these two men pulled off, but also looking back at the reasons the scheme succeeded.

WW1, military-history, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, Turkey, prisoners-of-war, nonfiction, POW*****

Incredible and inspiring.
Existing in horrible conditions after having been starved out and captured, two ingenious British soldiers housed in a Turkish camp manage to scam their way to freedom. I found it fascinating and all the better because it is well-researched and documented nonfiction.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook from Random House Publishing Group/Random House, via NetGalley. Thank you!

I received an ARC copy of this wonderful book.

The writer (Margalit Fox) was new to me. What a great discovery!

This history I will NEVER forget, I read of WW's often as they are, of course, source for some of the most interesting stories of any time.

The author tells a completely new to me story from WW1. I have never read anything like this. It is a page-turner for certain. Margalit writes so well - I will follow her and her other works. It is such a thrill discovering new authors!

This work should be a huge hit with history fans, mystery fans...etc. Highly recommend this one. Really enjoyed the story AND the way it was told!

If this were fiction, I’d have dismissed it as too wild to be believable!

Margalit Fox has excavated a wild World War i prison escape story filled with buried treasure, ghosts and Ouija boards. She tells the story of a ‘long con’ run by two prisoners of war that ultimately resulted in their escape from a Turkish camp. Filled with fascinating details about the rise of spiritualism and confidence men in periods of social trauma, I found interesting links to society today and what I believe are the confidence games being run using social media to manipulate people’s opinions.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When we think of great POW escapes, we generally think of the daring tunnelers who escaped from German POW camps (The Escape Artists). But in The Confidence Men, Margalit Fox introduces us to perhaps the most unusual POW escape in history. In a remote POW camp in Turkey, British POWs tried a variety of methods to entertain themselves, including making a Ouija board to try and contact spirits. Harry Jones became an expert at running the board and tricked his fellow officers into believing they were talking to spirits. in séances. When the men running the camp heard Jones was a talented medium, what began as a way for Jones to pass the time and entertain his fellow prisoners became the basis of a long con that would eventually lead to freedom for himself and his partner Cedric Hill- via six months in a Turkish asylum.

Margalit Fox does an excellent job balancing the story of Jones and Hill with explanations on why the con worked- the psychological and sociological factors behind séances and spiritualism of the times, the psychology of cons both long and short, and the various factors that allow them to work. I never felt like these aspects of the story were forced in, they flowed as a part of a behind-the-scenes aspect of the con Jones and Hill were performing. Using detailed research, including the men's autobiographies, Fox describes how Jones and Hill were able to trick the camp prisoners, commandants, and medical professionals at an asylum into believing first that the séances were real and second that the madness the two men suffered as a result of those séances was real.

Confidence Men reads as a gripping thriller, a psychological drama that had real life or death consequences, You hear Jones and Hill's voices, feel the weight of the challenge they have set for themselves, the stress they are constantly under and the physical and mental effects when they reach the asylum. You cheer every victory and, even knowing from page one that they will eventually succeed in their plan, you worry along with them every step of the way for all of the things that could go wrong.

An excellent read for World War I historians, military history aficionados, and people whose interest lies solely in the confidence game, Confidence Men is a book for the casual reader as well as the dedicated historian.


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Netgalley, Random House and the author.
Detailed account of two British officers imprisoned in a prison camp.
Well written, well researched. Funny how the Ouija board came part of the story.
The maps helped visualize the area.
Recommend

"The Confidence Men" is an amazing story because the con actually worked. British officers Cedric Hill and Harry Jones were able to escape a Turkish POW camp by convincing the camp commander and the camp interpreter (who the prisoners nicknamed "The Pimple") to let them out to assist in finding a (fictional) buried treasure with guidance from the spirit world. The fact that they ultimately had to fake insanity to get out of the POW camp and keep up the sham for six months in a Turkish mental hospital makes the story even more amazing. The inner strength and mental fortitude of Hill and Jones was quite impressive. I do not think I could have endured what they went through, especially Hill.

I agree with the author that this particular con probably only could have worked during the time period when it took place, when spiritualism was popular and psychiatry was still in its infancy. What makes "The Confidence Men" particularly good is that as the author is telling the story of Hill and Jones -- their pre-WWI lives, their experiences in the war, their captures, their journey to Yozgad (the Turkish POW camp), their meeting, and how they formulated and executed the con -- she is also explaining and exploring the history of spiritualism, the creation of the Ouija board, early psychiatric theories and practices, the stories of earlier or contemporary men or women who had perpetrated successful cons, the basics of a successful con, and the reasons why people are susceptible to cons to help explain how and why Hill and Jones were successful.

"The Confidence Men" was an interesting and enjoyable book which I would definitely recommend.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for access to this arc.

Once I had seen this blurb, I simply had to read the book and find out how two men had pulled off the feat mentioned. But there’s a lot more to the book than that. It’s not only how the men managed to work their “long con” game but also why it worked in that particular time and place in history.

The time is early in World War I and the place is actually the lesser known Middle Eastern front. Two men who had never met ended up in one particular POW camp in a mountainous and desolate area of Turkey. Though conditions eventually, after long and arduous journeys there and initial inhospitable accommodations, became liveable, Jones and Hill wanted that which they could never have in the camp – freedom. They wanted it so badly that when opportunity presented an idea and a sliver of a chance, the two worked together to pull off what is known among real “confidence men” as “the long con.”

The long con is a carefully planned, meticulously constructed, ruthlessly examined and reworked trick to get the “mark” to fall in with the con man’s plans. In this case, the mark was the POW camp commandant along with his interpreter and a cook. The plan was for Hill and Jones to not actually escape over a wall or through a tunnel but to be escorted to freedom by the very men who had been keeping them prisoners. At stake was more than their freedom as POWs had been warned that any attempt at escape would result in harsh punishment for the escapees as well as those POWs still in the camp. In addition, Hill had also given his parole to his own superior offices not to attempt leaving due to the risk of group punishment.

The plan was amazingly elaborate and was played out over not only months but more than a year during which Hill and Jones had to manage to fool their fellow POWs as well as their captors. During this time, the two juggled many balls to lure the Turks into doing what they wanted them to while also getting proof of the Turks’ complicity that could be used to shield the remaining POWs.

How did it all work? Much of what allowed the con to get Hill and Jones where they wanted to be – out of the camp and home – would not have been feasible at any other time. A renewed belief in spiritualism plus the scientific achievements of the late 19th and early 20th century actually melded together to get the con to come together according to plan. But it was their hard work, ruthless determination, endurance, and friendship that saw them through. I was also interested to see the reason why Jones wrote his post experience memoir as it called to mind Simon St. James’ book “The Other Side of Midnight.” B

Two British soldiers are held in a remote Turkish prisoner of war camp during World War I. One day, they hatch a remarkable escape plan. First, they convince their captors that a Ouija board works to reach the spirit world. Then, the “spirits” tell the guards to take the prisoners on trips outside the prison to look for buried treasure. Finally, oops, you will have to read the book to find out what happens.

I was expecting a rousing story of daring con men. While I got that, eventually, I also received a well-researched history of how the two men were captured, the state of Turkish prison camps for officers, and even spiritualism at the time. The descriptions were incredibly detailed, which slowed the plot considerably. The book’s pacing feels more like a historical biography than a con game thriller. Depending on what you are looking for in a book, this may be fine for you.

There is also an attempt to discover why such an outlandish plan worked so effectively. The investigations into why the captors were taken in by the scheme is an intriguing look into how con men everywhere work. While a recent former President is left unnamed, all but his most virulent supporters will clearly see his shadow throughout this section. QAnon is also unmentioned in the text. However, the explanation does link a hundred-year-old story to the present.

Overall, if you like history, especially the history of POWs, you will enjoy The Confidence Men. 4 stars, and I’m sure it will make a great movie or Netflix limited series.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Spiritualism, a Con-game, and an Escape from a WWI Prison Camp

The WWI war in Turkey is not as well known as the war in Europe, but British troops were fighting there because Britain wanted to maintain access to the oil fields in Persia. The prison camps in Turkey were even worse than those in Europe.

Two prisoners, the aristocratic Elias Henry Jones, and Cedric Waters Hill an Australian airman from the RAF, were overcome with boredom and hated the bad conditions. To entertain themselves, they fashioned a ouiga board. During that time there was a resurgence in interest in spiritualism. The guards at the camp became fascinated by what the young prisoners were doing.

The prisoners running a long con were able to keep the guards interested and were able to plan an escape although the camp was located far from anywhere with roving bands of brigands in the area.

This is an incredible story of the psychological effects that can be achieved by successful con-men. The men were skilled in the art of persuasion and were able to use the gullibility of the guards to build trust until there were able to attempt an escape.

If you’re interested in WWI this is a must read. The story, although non-fiction, is so well told that you feel as if you were reading an adventure story. I thought the author did an excellent job of explaining the prevalence of the belief in spiritualism and the psychological basis of what the men were able to accomplish. I highly recommend this book.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

Two British Prisoners of War try to escape a prison camp by using a Ouija board, leading the camp commandant of a wild goose chase for treasure and faking madness.

Unfortunately, I was completely bogged down with way too much detail in this one. I’m sure the story will appeal to many others but as much as I love good historical war stories, this one didn’t work for me. The author goes into deep detail on explaining certain history that I felt could have been covered much quicker.
From the description I was expecting another Great Escape, this was not it.
I want to thank Random House Publishing Group along with NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC. Comes in with 2 stars.

The Confidence Men is a fascinating look behind the lines of Ottoman POW camps during WWI and the lengths to which British prisoners would go to improve conditions and plot escape. This book focuses on two officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, who devise what might be the most complex long con in the history of mankind to make their captors unwitting participants in their attempt to break out of the prison camp and regain their freedom. What makes this scheme even more outrageous is that in involves Ouija boards, conjuring spirits, telepathy, treasure hunts, faking mental illness and more. It's a master class on commitment to a bit and conning others to do your bidding, staying true to the end goal no matter the cost.

Beyond the story of Jones and Hill, the book provides extensive background on WWI in the region at that time, including battle strategy and outcomes. However, the key aspect of this book is being thrust into the experience of a prisoner during the war in such a way that the reader can feel the poor conditions facing the British officers. You also feel the boredom and hopelessness of their situation, making it easy to understand how these individuals could find entertainment and comfort in the spirit world, no matter how inconceivable that might seem. It's a study of the human mind and how a captive audience will latch onto anything with potential to help them move forward.

A compelling, educational and entertaining book, The Confidence Men is a must read for anyone interested in a larger than life story. Highly recommend for anyone from WWI buffs to psychologists to anyone who likes big daring prison escapes.

In the introduction to The Confidence Men, author Margalit Fox explains that even years after having read Elias Henry “Bones” Jones’ 1919 memoir, The Road to En-dor (in which Jones details his incredible escape from a Turkish POW camp during WWI with co-conspirator Cedric Waters Hill, whose own memoir The Spook and the Commandant was published shortly after his death in 1975), she was transfixed by the “how” of the pair’s escape, but couldn’t understand the “why”: just why did their captors fall for a long con that involved malevolent spirits, buried treasure, and faked insanity? By quoting Jones and Hill’s own accounts at length, backing up their assertions with quotes from other memoirs and historical reports, and layering on research from incredibly diverse fields, Fox tells a riveting fact-is-stranger-than-fiction tale that gets to the heart of her “why”. This is a fascinating, thorough, and accessible read about war, cunning, and friendship; it contains lessons that are relevant to our modern world and would make a compelling movie.