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Dean Jobb
Sub-genre: True Crime
I am an award-winning true crime author who’s drawn to overlooked or forgotten stories – hidden gems from the attics of history. My new book, A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, coming in June 2024 from Algonquin Books, is the incredible true story of one of the world’s most daring and successful thieves. Arthur Barry charmed the elite of 1920s New York, swiped $60 million in jewels from their posh country estates, and outfoxed the police and private detectives on his trail.
The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer (Algonquin Books 2021) recreates Scotland Yard’s pursuit of Canadian serial killer Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, a ruthless poisoner who murdered as many as ten people in Chicago, Canada, and London’s Lambeth neighbourhood between 1877 and 1892. A Times of London Book of the Week and a Washington Post pick as one of the top 50 nonfiction books of 2021, it has been translated into French and Japanese.
Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation, also from Algonquin Books and published in 2015, is the saga of Chicago con man Leo Koretz. He was the Bernie Madoff of the 1920s, a slick ponzi-scheme promoter the New York Times christened “the most resourceful confidence man in the United States.” The smooth-talking lawyer enticed hundreds of people to invest as much as $400 million, in today’s terms, in his imaginary Panamanian oil fields. Esquire magazine selected it as one of the top 50 biographies of all time.
My monthly column “Stranger Than Fiction,” a combination of true crime features and reviews of the genre’s latest books, appears in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. My articles and book reviews have been published in CrimeReads, The Irish Times, The Scotsman, the Washington Independent Review of Books, and the Chicago Review of Books. I’m a professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I teach writing and research methods in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program.
“A master of narrative nonfiction.” – David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Other Awards
CrimeCon Clue Award for True Crime Book of the Year – Winner 2022
American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction – Longlisted – 2022
Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year – Winner 2015 and Honourable Mention 2022
Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award – Winner 2015
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Best Canadian Nonfiction Book – Shortlisted 2015
Books by Dean Jobb
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A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue 
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The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer
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Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
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