Confidence

By John M. Artz

Summary of Plot and Major Themes

Note: Since this book is being written one chapter at a time, it will not be possible to do a complete plot summary until the book is finished. However, having excused myself in advance, I offer the following attempt to foretell the future of the story.

Part I

The action begins in an apartment in Rosslyn Virginia just across Key Bridge from Georgetown. Garner Bullis, a professional con artist, celebrates his 30th birthday by applying his charm and powers of persuasion to a young women who he picked up in a bar. Unfortunately, his heart isn't really in it, and he lets slip that he has to get home because his girlfriend is waiting and he doesn't want her to worry.

In a series of flashbacks we see Garner pulling his first slip and fall scam at grocery store in Jacksonville Florida at age 13. At age 21 he pulls off a major slip and fall scam at a grocery store in San Antonio Texas which yields him an enormous award. But all that money, instead of being a blessing, becomes the source of all his trouble. Tracing those events eventually leads us back to the present where he is living with his girlfriend Rose Miller in an apartment near Foggy Bottom University. Rose is studying information systems and inadvertantly steers Garner to the World Wide Web where he sets up a new scam.

Part II

Garner sets up a web site to help people track down lost loved ones. On the surface, it is a legitimate operation. But underneath it is a diabolical confidence game. Wentworth and Ramana are drawn in when the mother of one of Wentworth's teaching assistants gets caught up in the scam. Along the way, a bizarre and unexplained murder deepens the mystery that Wentworth and Ramana are called upon to solve.

Major Theme: Free Will

To what extent are people free to choose the directions of their lives and to what extent are those choices limited by genetics, upbringing and experiences? Further if people are limited in their choices can we judge their behaviors or are they simply reacting in the only way that they know how? Finally, if choices are limited by the factors mentioned about, is it fair to hold everybody to the same standard of responsibility?

Minor Theme: Self Interest

To what extent should a person act in their own self interest? We certainly feel that a person should take some responsibility for his or her self. But at some point self interest becomes selfish. What is it about self interest that makes it noble or makes it selfish? What is it about selfless acts that make them nobel or make them foolhardy?

Major Symbols