Art of Darkness: Ingenious Performances by Undercover Operators, Con Men, and Others by Sara K. Schneider

From the Publisher

Just like Scheherazade, undercover agents talk to save their lives.
If they put in a poor performance, they don't see the curtain rise again.
ART OF DARKNESS pries open the virtuoso identity techniques practiced by undercover operatives, fugitives, disguise artists, pranksters, con artists, and federally protected witnesses.

It draws on original interviews with undercover operators in order to show how identity artists on both sides of the law obtain fake ID, develop a disguise, build a cover story, maintain believability in street performances, and deal with threats to their identities-all without formal acting training.

ART OF DARKNESS inhabits the grey areas of morality as it exposes identity roleplays at the borders of lawfulness. In it you'll find stories of:
law-enforcement workers who adopt the techniques of criminals in order to catch them but somehow get caught up in their own trick identities; self-defined artists whose work also has a criminal dimension; criminal informants who masterfully play sides and roles against each other; and hoaxsters and impersonators who may perform trick identities primarily for gain but do so with tremendous inventiveness and a directorial consciousness.

This book may explode any remaining notion you harbor that you are not at some level a member of the intelligence community, discerning who is "for real" and who is presenting a self for personal gain.

Midwest Book Review

Deception is not strictly the avenue of the criminal. Art of Darkness: Ingenious Performances by Undercover Operators, Con Men, and Others is a look at the many uses of deception and how it has been applied on any and all sides of the law. Gathering complex tales of how these disguises have been used to track down con men and how con men have swindled thousands of dollars and made their form of crime something to be viewed as an art form, Art of Darkness is an intriguing piece of nonfiction all the way through. Art of Darkness: Ingenious Performances by Undercover Operators, Con Men, and Others is highly recommended for community library true crime collections.

Tom Elliott - Mensa Bulletin

Ever want to disappear? If so, here's a guidebook for doing so. Through personal interviews, Sara has managed to unveil the virtuoso identity techniques employed by undercover operatives, fugitives, pranksters, forgers, con artists and federally protected witnesses. Here are the secrets of obtaining fake IDs, building a cover story, maintaining believability, and dealing with threats to their identities, all without formal theatrical training. Here are case histories of individuals who may be criminals, law enforcement officers who adopt criminal techniques, criminal informants and hoaxers and impersonators who do it for the challenge as well as for the gain. As Sara points out, Allen Funt's Candid Camera series on television employed many of the con techniques she discusses here. But perhaps most of us are actors of sorts-after all, Shakespeare did say that all the world's a stage and we are merely players.

Michael Klausner -

The level of discourse is similar to pieces in the New York Times magazine. The book would certainly be suitable for anyone aspiring to a career in law enforcement in general and as an undercover operative in particular. Thus professors teaching courses in criminal justice would want to consider adopting this book. In addition, since the book is so rich in dimensions of undercover work that are exemplars of behavioral science concepts and topics, adventurous professors could have their students taking micro theory or social psychology courses identify and discuss them. It would be a great exercise and result in deeper processing of the material. It would also show the relevance of the sociological concepts. Since being an undercover agent is a kind of extreme form of covert participant observation, the book would be useful for graduate courses in methodology that emphasize participant observation. The problems, dilemmas and strains inherent in this form of research are illustrated and discussed. . . .

The book has endnotes and a quite extensive bibliography for readers who would like to do further research about the topic.

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