The Setup

Praise

“The Setup tells one of the most popular stories we’ve ever had on This American Life, with fascinating details you can’t fit into a one-hour radio show. Pete Crooks was set up as a mark in this true-life caper, until he out-detectived the detectives. His chatty, lively account of what happened is a jaw-dropping tale of ambition, crime, and reality TV.”
—Ira Glass, Host of public radio’s This American Life

“Journalist Pete Crooks has very carefully reported a tale of people who believed that reality television was the fastest pathway to the fame they so desperately wanted . . . A unique insight into a house of cards constructed to lead to media fame—and to discover more sinister behavior that was occurring just behind the curtain, when the cameras weren’t shooting.”
—Joe Kenda, retired police detective and subject of Discovery Television’s Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda

“The Setup is most certainly a riveting real-life thriller. But the book is also much more than that . . . This deeply-layered crime and corruption story is the ultimate ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ scenario for a celebrity-obsessed culture. Once I started reading, I could not put The Setup down.”
—Louise Fletcher, Academy Award-winning actress in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“A true crime story about a delusional suburban detective trying to sell a reality show about soccer moms? Yes, you are going to laugh a lot but because Crooks treats his subjects respectfully and like the fallible humans we all are; the absurdity isn’t mean-spirited. Only a true noir fan could have done such a bang-up job.”
—Beth Lisick, New York Times bestselling author of Everybody Into the Pool