The Charming Predator cover art

The Charming Predator

The True Story of How I Fell in Love with and Married a Sociopathic Fraud

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The Charming Predator

By: Lee Mackenzie
Narrated by: Penelope Wilton, Lee Mackenzie
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About this listen

She fell in love with him, they married and then she found out who he was: a conman who was determined to destroy her.

The instant bestselling story of Lee Mackenzie, who was a capable and confident young woman, studying broadcast journalism and honing her skills of observation and objectivity. She was also a little unworldly, the product of a small, rural Western Canadian community where doors were never locked and life was simple and direct. On a backpacking trip in the UK, she met the man who would become her husband. A man who everyone agreed was one of the most intelligent, charming people they had ever met. Easy to like, easy to believe. Easy to love. A man without mercy who shattered her emotionally, psychologically and financially.

Decades later, Kenner Jones is at large today, having committed crimes around the world under a series of fake names and personas. He has been described—by a seasoned US immigration officer—as "the best conman I have ever encountered."

No one got closer to Kenner Jones than Lee Mackenzie. In The Charming Predator, he is unmasked for the first time.

©2022 Rachel Joyce (P)2022 Penguin Random House Canada
Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

National Bestseller

"Lee Mackenzie had brains, looks and talent. . . . So how could she fall for a con man who very nearly destroyed her and who managed to spread lies and misery across three continents? For every time you've read a tale of the criminal's wife (Ruth Madoff, are you listening?) and wondered 'How did she not know?', this is your answer. . . . How he does it, how she got out of the trap and how he managed to slip out of Canada and spread his cons elsewhere make this true-crime book solid reading."—The Globe and Mail

"This is the surprisingly well-documented story of [Mackenzie's] courtship and marriage, a brief union that cleaned out her bank account and brought the cops to her door. Jones comes across as a troubled man with a pathological need to deceive and betray, perhaps no one more than himself."—Toronto Star

"This is no ordinary true-crime book. . . . It's a riveting memoir."—The Chronicle Herald

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Deeply disappointing

Really struggled with this book. I've listened to more than a hundred books and this is the only one I've felt compelled to write a review rather than just scoring with stars. More than half of the book was setting up for the "interesting part" and it was simply boring, then the "interesting part" was really really underwhelming. It's a far too common story of a partner being taken advantage of by their spouse but this really is on the lower scale of it. I hate to to say that about someone's personal story however it's been published for our consumption.
Do not waste your time with it.
Also performed quite poorly.

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Very slow

Gosh, this book was slow! I kept going throughout in the hope that it would become more interesting - but nope, it didn’t.
What on earth is wrong with everyone here? Ridiculously naive to firstly believe in this con-man, but to carry on giving him chance after chance, is just unbelievable!
The narration was sooooo slow, I wanted to scream.
Ugh!

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