"The heart of this wonderful book, which reads like the script for a caper movie...as Williams improvises his way to becoming an expert counterfeiter." — Washington Post (Best Book of the Year selection)
When Art Williams Jr.'s father abandoned the family and his bipolar mother lost her mind, a life of crime in Chicago quickly claimed him. Parking meter theft led to robbing drug dealers before Art fatefully met a man nicknamed DaVinci who taught him the skill of counterfeiting money. After just a few years, Art would print millions of counterfeit bills, selling them to criminal organizations, all while trying to raise a family on the side.
Art's greatest challenge arose when the Treasury Department released the 1996 note, the most intricate and secure bill ever created. Between painstakingly perfecting a new hundred-dollar bill to bypass the naked eye and security measures alike, Art was slipping by the Secret Service hunting him, and searching for his long-lost father, a path that ultimately led to his undoing.
Prison may have been the end, but with the same creativity and ambition that locked him up, Art reinvented himself as a professional artist. Art's unbelievable journey extends beyond a life of crime to one of second chances, healing family wounds, and ultimately, triumph.
"A rollicking and captivating look into a compelling criminal mind." —
Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A gripping testament to the ills of greed and egotism."
—
Forbes
"A book you can't put down—intriguing characters, razor-thin escapes, and a writing style that keeps you racing through."
—Bruce Porter,
New York Times bestselling author of
Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All