Confessions of a Dying Thief
Understanding Criminal Careers and Illegal Enterprise (New Lines in Criminology)
Sam Goodman was a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman. He had a criminal career that spanned fifty years, beginning in his mid-teens and ending with his death when he was in his mid-sixties. Confessions of a Dying Thief is an in-depth ethnographic study of Sam and his world based on continuous contact with him for many years, on multiple interviews with his network of associates in crime and business, and on a series of interviews with him shortly before he died. The book updates and greatly expands the case study of Sam Goodman's fencing activity found in Steffensmeier's award-winning 1986 book The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds. Sam's illness and death are a sobering backdrop throughout the whole book. However, Confessions is not just a dying thief's intimate confessions. Rather, it is a rare and penetrating journey into the dynamics of criminal careers and the social organization of criminal enterprise, as experienced by a veteren thief and fence and his network of key assistants. -- from back cover.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict, violence, death, or criminal harm. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Dark tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-2023-0761-9
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL7409464M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Nonfiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
In Defense of Globalization
by Jagdish Bhagwati
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Pin Down
by Teresa Cooper
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Political Thinking, Political Theory (3rd Edition)
by Steven M. DeLue, Timothy Dale
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Science, Technology And The German Cultural Imagination
by ENGLAND) FRAGILE TRADITION (2002 CAMBRIDGE, ENGL FRAGILE TRADITION (2002 CAMBRIDGE, David R. Midgley
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Steel Trapp
by Ridley Pearson
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
The Boar Stone
by Jules Watson
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.