Kenneth Walton (1) (1967–)

Kenneth Walton's memoir brings more than the story of a simple crime - it's the story of the early days of the internet, the story of the small decisions that separate right from wrong and the story of the infamous slippery slope that anyone can fall onto with the right shove.

In Walton's case, this shove comes from an old army buddy, Ken Fetterman. Fetterman is reminiscent of Susan Orlean's John Laroche from The Orchid Thief. Both men are frenetic, impatient, distrustful and have an intelligence for making money from unique markets. Fetterman introduces Walton to a new website - eBay - and teaches him how to sell artwork to bidders all over the country.

In working with Fetterman and a few others, Walton touches on the merely unethical (vague auction listings that deliberately imply famous authorship where none is warranted), to the unethical (shill bidding with multiple accounts), to the absolutely illegal (knowingly selling forged artwork). What could have been a dull dissertation on auction postings, e-mails and phone calls is instead a memoir that is crisply written that reads as well as any beach-read thriller.

There are points where the book philosophizes a bit much, and at times it is hard to swallow the, "of course, I only forged one signature ever" claim, but this is typical of most true crime memoirs written by the perpetrators.… (mer)