Saturday, 9 July 2022

 





RSKY BZNS Kindle Edition



In the footsteps of Catch Me If You Can and The Wolf of Wall Street . . .

RSKY BZNS is the incredible true story of the charming rogue swindler John James Illidge, whose proclivity for investment fraud culminates in a $100 million con of several dozen unsuspecting clients (among them his own mother and wife) who never saw a dime of their money again.

On the run, Illidge flees to his older brother Paul’s house, living with him and his three children for the next six months, during which time Paul, a writer and investigative journalist—who has been keeping track of his brother’s exploits for years—begins documenting the ongoing frauds, aiding and abetting them, or so it seems, by typing up John’s stock agreements on his computer, then proposing a plan to his brother whereby he would impersonate John, fly to the Cayman Islands and retrieve $7 million, $5 million going to John, $2 million to Paul for his services.

Fearing the authorities may be closing in, the impersonation plan is put on hold when John moves out suddenly to live with his girlfriend in another city. His way of saying thanks to his brother for the free hospitality? Setting him up in a car fraud that will send him to jail for five years if caught. He gets caught.

RSKY BZNS is the book Paul Illidge writes describing his brother’s crimes, both business and personal, in order to come up with an answer to the questions people are continually asking: What made your brother go bad? Why is he leading a life of crime? What will it take to stop him?

Editorial Reviews

Review

ADVANCE PRAISE for RSKY BZNS:


RSKY BZNS is a most interesting and fascinating read. It demonstrates vividly and accurately how fraud and conning can become addictive, dangerous, and destructive unless the con man changes his life. If he doesn't, the consequences for all concerned are tragic.

Frank Abagnale, Jr., author of Catch Me If You Can


A gripping and intricate read; an interesting contemporary story of financial skullduggery, with several diverting flourishes-very pleasantly written.

-Conrad Black, author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, A President Like No Other: Donald J. Trump and the Restoring of America, and Flight of the Eagle, a Strategic History of the United States


In his one-of-a-kind memoir/detective story, Paul Illidge doggedly unravels the darkly seductive, labyrinthine schemes of a consummate con man, made all the more compelling by the fact his quarry is his own younger brother. Leading us to a disturbing, stranger than fiction, Rosebud-like revelation, his exposé not only performs a tour de force of personal tenacity but an act of public service.

-James FitzGerald, author of What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past, winner of the 2010 Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize


Paul Illidge's new book, RSKY BZNS, is an insider's view of a Bernie Madoff-like series of financial frauds and their mounting fallout. Illidge might have another hit on his hands with this well-crafted, fast-paced exploration of Ponzi schemes, the securities industry, and the perplexities of intergenerational mental illness.

-Ian MulgrewVancouver Sun author and journalist

https://www.amazon.com/RSKY-BZNS-Paul-Illidge-ebook/dp/B0B2KJCNYB

Sunday, 28 June 2020



BOXO

Paul Illidge plays Boxo, a homeless man living by the local waterworks plant who's obsessed with boxing. Made on April 1, 1983 on Super 8 film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC1BXapkqa0


Thursday, 11 June 2020


JOHN ILLIDGE - RSKY BZNS - Tales of a Fraud 


J.J. Illidge was the newest stock-broking whiz kid, an ambitious young man driven to make a fortune in the investment industry. Within five years he was trading millions of dollars for clients who envied, admired and trusted him implicitly as a generous friend and investment genius.

In reality, J.J. became one of the industry's most outrageous embezzlers, a psychopath regularly pilfering millions of dollars and spending his fortune on sociopathic sprees that left clients, friends and family members emotionally shattered and financially battered.

RSKY BZNS 
grips us with the Catch-Me-If-You-Can life of a criminal mastermind from his troubled childhood at the hands of a bipolar, abusive mother, through his riveting fraud binges and their devastating impact on his many innocent victims who discovered, to their horror, that the man they had welcomed into their lives as husband, father, close friend and trusted advisor, was no more than a common thief in an Armani suit.

Written in page-turning literary style by J.J.’s investigative journalist older brother, RSKY BZNS (J.J.’s vanity license plate) puzzles us with the riddles of generational mental illness: why a talented, intelligent man with looks, charm and personality would break bad and sacrifice everything that was best about him to hurt even those closest to him in order to fulfill the obsessions and compulsions that drove him.

 

 

 


Wednesday, 12 July 2017

NEVER SO DEAD









Displaying NeverSoDead.4h.jpg



Advance Praise for NEVER SO DEAD

I had a few quiet minutes at work early this morning, so I thought I'd read the first chapter or two. Before I knew it I was already on page 80! What a thrill-ride!

                                    Ian Talbot, television producer

Well, done! Well done! Really, really enjoyed NEVER SO DEAD. Some amazing drama, even some laugh-out-loud moments. A great summer read.

Lee-Anne Margeson, realtor

NEVER SO DEAD flows so well from chapter to chapter, each more suspenseful and action-packed than the last. I felt as though I wasn't even reading a book, but rather watching the scenes play out in front of me.

                                  Christy Keating, investment banker

A fascinating read—Gillian Flynn’s GONE GIRL meets Ken Kesey’s ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST.

—Jake Anderson, Mystery Ink


                              
 An enigmatic young woman who was committed, by mistake, to a hospital for the criminally insane on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron several years ago, takes matters into her own hands and escapes. 

The police detective charged with bringing the ensuing mayhem, madness and murder under control, finds himself plunged into the darkest case of his career.

A James Castle Editions Book

270 pages, softcover, $24.95

Release date: September 15, 2017

For information contact: Leah Harper, James Castle Editions  
           [ruthleahharper@gmail.com]