This is a prison break story like no other. Two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, are determined to escape a remote prison camp in Turkey during World War I. But instead of the usual account which often includes tunnels, hiding in outgoing trucks, and brave runs through the dangerous night, this story gives us two men who manage to convince their captors to let them go.
It’s not as easy as all that of course. Jones and Hill managed to instill the belief in the Commandant, translator, and cook, that they are actually spiritual mediums that can communicate with the dead, and incidentally, read minds.
By concocting a remarkable story they managed to finally leave the prison confines and escape home. According to author Margalit Fox, they were rather proud of their accomplishment, and each wrote a book describing in detail how they pulled the wool over their captor’s eyes. The books were apparently popular in their time, but somehow fell through the cracks in history, until Fox became aware of them and decided to tell their stories. She says, the two were very good at detailing how they were able to pull off the escape but didn’t know so much why.
I have to admit that their schemes were quite elaborate and convoluted, and I found myself getting lost every now and then in what new story they were trying to promote. Fortunately, Fox winnows down the details for us and most importantly provides context and explanation that makes the story so much more interesting.
Before we think that the Turks were overly superstitious or too easily fooled, we have to remember the times they lived in. Fox points out that the pace of invention had really picked up by this time in the early 20th century, and for people who had never imagined that they could hear a disembodied voice out of something like a radio, the thought that we could use technology to communicate with the dead did not seem so far-fetched. Thomas Edison himself spent an inordinate amount of time trying to see if he could crack the code and communicate with those who had passed on.
Fox points out the tricks and techniques which the two British officers were able to use, first as a source of amusement for their comrades, but when they found out how easily they could convince their fellow prisoners that they could truly talk with the dead and read thoughts, they started to think about how their talents could be used to get them out of prison.
It’s a fascinating, quick read, and illuminates not only the history surrounding World War I, but also the techniques of the “confidence man,” those people who still exist to try to convince us of what is not true for their own benefit.

3.5 stars, rounded up
This nonfiction history tells the story of two British Officers who escape from a WWI Turkish POW camp. It highlights a chapter of the war that I had no clue about. What makes the tale so engaging is that they escape by means of an elaborate con, using a Ouija board. I appreciated Fox giving us the background on things like spiritualism, telepathy, the treatment of the mental ill and the history of the long con. In fact, her research and the details she’s able to provide are the highlights of the book.
It’s an interesting story and reads more like fiction than non. A friend recently introduced me to the concept of creative nonfiction, and this definitely fits the bill.
While the story is at times humorous it’s also graphic. It’s amazing to realize the hard work of constantly acting that was involved.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random house for an advance copy of this book.

The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox is a superb read with a well defined plot and characters. Well worth the read!

This is a fabulously detailed timeline of two British Officers who were captured and imprisoned by the Ottoman Empire. Their POW compound was in Eastern Anatolia and was nowhere near any of the Allied lines. One of them was a magician who would entertain the troops with his talent and the use of a Ouija Board which was very popular at this time.

The use of the Board became very important to one of the guards at the Camp. A man they called Acmed was a member of the Officers group at the camp. He had told the prisoners about a story he had heard about the camp they were in. Before the war, a wealthy man had buried his treasure in the area to be found after the war. The man gave three different men three different clues that would lead them to where the treasure was. The clues had to be followed consecutively.

While the men who had the first two clues had told Acmed the first two clues, which the Brits had figured out that the third man had been killed in action and no one knew his clue. The Brits set up a confidence game that would convince the Turks that they could contact the third man using the Ouija Board. But they eventually convinced the Turks that they were insane and needed to be taken to Istanbul to be cured so they would be able to discern the clue from the Third Man's clue.

How they go about convincing the Turk Officers to take them to Istanbul to be treated (and where they would be able to escape) is followed in the detail narrative that Fox has created. Very well written and a great tale to follow.

The Confidence Men is a very detailed account of the life of British prisoners of war in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The accounting is very explicit and not for the faint of heart. This non-fiction story does not spare one of the horrors of war – especially with those who do not value life.

The ingeniousness of the British in exploiting their opportunities to escape was the only bright spot in this otherwise sordid, but true, tale.

I especially appreciated the maps and illustrations throughout the book. Those were very helpful in understanding the setting and the terrain.

I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and also the publisher, Random House, in exchange for an unbiased review.

"Narrative is inherently seductive, and a propulsive tale can buoy the mark straight into the storyteller's hands..."

This was a fantastic, fascinating read about a bizarre escape plot - complete with ghosts, treasure, and a madhouse stint. I often find that accounts from World War I get overlooked, so I am glad to have picked up this book. Fox recounts the experiences of Jones and Hill in a delightfully entertaining way; the two men quickly endeared themselves to me, and I rooted for them throughout the narrative. Their courage, ingenuity, perseverance, and optimism in the face of despair were very inspiring. Plus, who doesn't love a good prison escape story - especially if it involves a ouija board at the heart of it?

I would love - and definitely expect to see - a movie adaptation of this book. The story is just that good!

This is the third non-fiction book by Margalit Fox I've read and enjoyed. I enjoyed this one the most. I've gotten all three books free of charge, but I would have enjoyed all of them, especially this one, even if I had paid for them.

I re-read the book description above before I wrote this, and I don't think I am engaging in spoiler-ish behavior to say that the two heroes of this book eventually escape from the WWI Ottoman prison camp (not a fun place, but a lot less horrible than I thought it would be) through an elaborate scheme that, as the title suggests, has more in common with The Sting than The Great Escape. However, the exact details involve some surprising twists and turns, which I'd like to write about, so I will veil part of this review behind a “spoiler” tag.

I'd be very surprised if someone isn't working on a screenplay of the story of this book right now – it has all the elements of a great caper movie. I hope M. Fox gets a splash of Hollywood lucre, but I fear that penny-pinching movie moguls will claim these previously-reported and public-domain events can be used free of charge.

On the other hand, both of the POW heroes are white men (there is evidence they were probably racist in real life), there are no parts for women, non-Westerners are villainous (some completely, some slightly ambiguously), and one of the slightly ambiguous villains is a Ottoman Jew called (by the heroes) “the Pimple”. A big screen treatment may have to wait until we are all a little less spun up about stuff like this.

But yes, it all begins as a ripping good yarn, in which one of the POW heroes, Jones, constructs a Ouija board with no other aim than to entertain himself and his fellow prisoners during a long tedious captivity in a remote camp as WWI rages on inconclusively in the outside world. Jones unexpectedly finds himself excelling at bamboozling his fellow captives with mystic mumbo-jumbo, and then sees a chance to escape as the Pimple, acting on behalf of higher-ups, inquires if the Ouija board could help find treasure allegedly buried in the area by a rich Armenian fleeing genocide. Jones enlists Hill, an aviator with a talent for magic tricks, as a confederate, and initial steps go surprisingly well, but then…

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… when they are getting ready to leave the camp with (and escape from) the Pimple and the camp commander (whom they've roped into the scheme) in search of the non-existent treasure, a well-meaning fellow-prisoner, believing the trip is an pretext by the Ottoman captors to kill Hill and Jones “while escaping”, blows the whistle. The trip is cancelled, everybody stays put; Hill and Jones have to turn to Plan B.

Plan B is for Hill and Jones to pretend they are insane. Here the book takes a darker and grimmer turn. Being insane involves months and months of living in filth and squalor, babbling, endangering yourself, and staying in character at every moment someone else – including a fellow prisoner – is around. Pretending you are insane is enough to, well, drive you crazy.

Plan B starts to work, but it works slowly. Not only do Hill and Jones stay in character the whole time, they build on their previous flim-flammery to convince the Pimple and his confederates that other-worldly specters are requiring that the whole group, captors and captive, travel to Constantinople (as it is referred to in this book) to uncover the last (non-existent) clue which will yield the location of the buried treasure.

In this part of the book, there's some writing about the general psychology of the “long con” and some talk about how to make people believe for some time in a big, preposterous lie. While President Trump is not mentioned (until the References section at the end), the narrative points strongly, I believe, to the events of our time connected with the former President. I thought this was a pretty brave move on behalf of the author, because – in my opinion – a large part of the demographic that is likely to read a non-fiction book about an escape from a WWI Ottoman prison camp is also the demographic that will be antagonistic to the idea that the former President was a con man, or, at least, employing well-worn and well-known tactics of conmen. These readers might even appear on Goodreads to write negative reviews.

The heroes' long drawn-out attempt to escape via feigned madness actually succeeds in the end, but at the same time the war is drawing to a close. The ironic conclusion is that Hill and Jones survived and arrived in England only two weeks before many of the fellow prisoners they left behind. On the other hand, senseless violence and the Spanish flu at the prison camp took the lives of many of those who stayed behind, so perhaps the impulse of Hill and Jones to escape at any cost was justified. It certainly was understandable.

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Thank you to <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600713/the-confidence-men-by-margalit-fox/">Random House</a> for giving me a free advance review copy of this book.

This is definitely one of those truth is stranger than fiction tales. I cannot believe I'd never heard this story before. Incredibly well-researched, I really liked how Fox gave it context for the time and present day. I'll be shocked if this isn't adapted into a film!