Robyn's Reviews > The Impostor Heiress: Cassie Chadwick, The Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age

“Face to face, she could remake a man's reality around him.”

If you remember anything about this con artist in furs and jewels, remember that: Cassie Chadwick can remake a man’s reality around him. This riveting account of the Gilded Age’s Anna Delvey is somehow both deliciously addictive and unsettling. Annie Reed brilliantly chronicles the creation of Cassie Chadwick in all of her Ponzi-esque glory. Chadwick (or shall we call her Bigley?) is no villain but a layered and complex subject who defies qualification, a woman in a man’s world and clearly enjoying it. What Reed does so well is craft a narrative that reads like fiction. Her characters are not flat historical figures but real and relatable. Cassie Chadwick is an impostor, a robber, and a queen of manipulation - but Reed’s adept storytelling makes Chadwick so much more. As Reed unravels the mishaps of this con artist, she connects us to history and sparks curiosity about the legacy that Chadwick left behind. There are questions about femininity, social mobility, and reputation that the book poses but does not necessarily answer. This may not be satisfying but it’s fascinating and exactly how good nonfiction should impact us. I finished the book and felt as if I knew so much about Cassie - and somehow I also felt that I knew nothing at all. A must read for readers with a voracious appetite for all things con, and for anyone who just can’t get enough of Anna Delvey. Four stars only because of some gaps that I felt like could use some filling in, particularly about her family of origin and her relationship with her son. Otherwise, I would eat this entire book up again with a spoon. Thank you to NetGalley and Diversion Books for the advance readers copy. All opinions are entirely my own.