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The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History

par Margalit Fox

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1737156,521 (3.7)5
"Imprisoned in a remote Turkish prison camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate séances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around camp, and one day, a Turkish officer approaches Jones with a query: Could Jones contact the spirit world to find a vast treasure rumored to be buried nearby? Jones, a trained lawyer, and Hill, a brilliant magician, use the Ouija board--and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception--to build a trap for the Turkish officers that will ultimately lead them to freedom. The Confidence Men is the story of the only known con game played for a good cause--and of a profound but unlikely friendship. Had it not been for "the Great War," Jones, the Oxford-educated son of a British lord, and Hill, a mechanic from an Australian sheep farm, would never have met. But in pain, loneliness, hunger, and isolation, they formed a powerful emotional and intellectual alliance that saved both of their lives. Margalit Fox brings her "nose for interesting facts, the ability to construct a taut narrative arc, and a Dickens-level gift for concisely conveying personality" (Kathryn Schulz, New York) to this gripping tale of psychological strategy that is rife with cunning, danger, and moments of high farce that rival anything in Catch-22"--… (plus d'informations)
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Affichage de 1-5 de 7 (suivant | tout afficher)
I was very excited by the underlying story of the book. While there were lots of details about the scheme, which makes The stuff on Hogan’s heroes look very practical and down to earth…. I just felt like I didn’t get much flavor of the protagonists…. And what I did get wasn’t always palatable.
Then, there is the fact that they did not actually escape.
The last chapter , where the author talked a bit more about the con mens private lives was probably most enjoyable for me, plus some of the behind the scenes hints on “mentalist,” tricks ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
Wild and crazy scheme to escape a Turkish WW I prison camp. The story has a bit of everything, but most especially chutzpah. Success was achieved eventually, but the irony of having only gained a few weeks before the rest of the prisoners were released upon the conclusion of the war had to be painful. ( )
  Cantsaywhy | Mar 3, 2024 |
Don’t know who this book is intended for. It was far too comprehensive. The author quotes liberally from other books and letters but it’s unnecessarily detailed. As if the body wasn’t enough, there are 70 pages of notes and references (not including footnotes).

Because it was my book club selection, I persevered with it but certainly wouldn’t recommend it.

The beginning seemed moderately interesting but was already too detailed. I should have known better but I thought I would enjoy learning more about culture, history, and a good yarn. Certainly, the front cover (“... THE MOST REMARKABLE ESCAPE IN HISTORY”) promised an incredible story. But it never got better. In fact, the last couple of chapters were only slightly less painful to read than the descriptions of how the men put themselves through their own pains. I didn’t need 60 pages of how they deprived themselves of rational behavior, food, friendship.

On the positive side, there were some interesting insights about the state of science and psychology and I found interesting how contemporary inventions made some of their ruses plausible. But even that became tiresome. For instance, there were lengthy discourses on psychological techniques to take advantage of people. TMI.

And despite the comprehensive style, there were more obvious topics left unexplained. For example, why were prisoners given money to buy their own food? Why was there no exploration as to why the men didn’t try to escape in the traditional way rather than come up with such a ridiculously complex and equally risky (if not more so) way. Yes, they were in the middle of nowhere but then, at the end, it is stated that other men did successfully escape that way.

Everyone in my book club agreed: The book was far too long and the detail was excessive.

Who are the editors that let books like this be published? ( )
  donwon | Jan 22, 2024 |
This is one of those books I couldn't stop telling people about:
So there's these two prisoners of war, and they use slight of hand and cold-reading to convince their Turkish captors that they're psychics and then lean in to the Turk's xenophobia to further convince them that there is secret Armenian treasure ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
Ouija Escapees
Review of the Random House hardcover (June 2021)

The Confidence Men is the incredible story of how two British officers in a World War One prisoner of war camp in the then Ottoman Empire managed to escape using their combined skills of telling tall tales, memory, sleight of hand and acting. Elias Henry Jones (1883-1942) and Cedric Waters Hill (1891-1975) were captured in the Mesopotamian theatre of the war, Jones after the Seige of Kut, and Hill when his bomber airplane was shot down.

During their incarceration they managed to convince not only their fellow prisoners, but also their Turkish captors, that they possessed not only the powers to contact the dead but also the power of telepathy. This all started off with nightly seances with a custom built Ouija board leading up to a hoax to convince their greedy camp commandant that they could get the spirits of the dead to lead them to a buried Armenian treasure. Eventually they had to feign insanity as well in order to qualify for a prisoner exchange of the sick and wounded.

See image at https://www.flyingbooks.co.uk/acatalog/The-Spook-and-The-Commandant.4672.gif
Cover image of "The Spook and the Commandant" (1975), the posthumously published account of Jones & Hill's escape by Cedric Waters Hill. Image sourced from Flying Books Co. UK.

Margalit Fox has done an excellent job in not only telling the escape plan story, which was first documented in Jones' own account The Road to En-dor (1919), but providing the additional background and context of the war situation and how spiritualism had a strong enough hold on people in that era for the hoax to be believed by many parties.

I read The Confidence Men due to its nomination for Best Fact Crime in the 2022 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. The winners of the 76th Annual Edgar® Awards will be announced on April 28, 2022.

Other Reviews
The Brilliance of Two Captured WWI Officers, by Margaret Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch, July 18, 2021.

Trivia and Link
The Road to En-Dor (1919) by Elias Henry Jones is in the public domain and can be read on Project Gutenberg here.

There was apparently an attempt to adapt this story for film and a script was written by writer Neil Gaiman in collaboration with magician Penn Jillette, but the production has never proceeded. ( )
  alanteder | Feb 18, 2022 |
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"Imprisoned in a remote Turkish prison camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate séances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around camp, and one day, a Turkish officer approaches Jones with a query: Could Jones contact the spirit world to find a vast treasure rumored to be buried nearby? Jones, a trained lawyer, and Hill, a brilliant magician, use the Ouija board--and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception--to build a trap for the Turkish officers that will ultimately lead them to freedom. The Confidence Men is the story of the only known con game played for a good cause--and of a profound but unlikely friendship. Had it not been for "the Great War," Jones, the Oxford-educated son of a British lord, and Hill, a mechanic from an Australian sheep farm, would never have met. But in pain, loneliness, hunger, and isolation, they formed a powerful emotional and intellectual alliance that saved both of their lives. Margalit Fox brings her "nose for interesting facts, the ability to construct a taut narrative arc, and a Dickens-level gift for concisely conveying personality" (Kathryn Schulz, New York) to this gripping tale of psychological strategy that is rife with cunning, danger, and moments of high farce that rival anything in Catch-22"--

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