The Unusual Suspect

"Completely fascinating . . . reads like a deep psychological thriller, but it's real. Is truth stranger than fiction? You bet -- LEE CHILD One of the strengths of Ben Machell's compelling book is its patient unearthing of the various motivations for his subject's behaviour . . . This splendid book . . . does full justice to his complexity * * Guardian * * Stephen Jackley, the ""Robin Hood"" bank robber, is an Asperger's student with an incredible, increasingly dark story, which Machell tells with Hollywood box-office wit, compassion and brio. With every page, you find yourself screaming ""OH MY GOD - WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STEPHEN?"", all the way up to him ending in US jail. How one young man's misguided plan to save the world went increasingly, dangerously wrong -- CAITLIN MORAN Truly affecting true crime. I've heard it said that a villain is just a victim whose story hasn't been told - this big-hearted, fascinating, meticulous book made me feel that way about Stephen Jackley -- MARINA HYDE Fascinating . . . In Machell, [Jackley] has found the most sympathetic and intelligent of biographers . . . The Unusual Suspect raises important questions about our ideas of guilt, idealism and the nature of responsibility . . . a tremendously invigorating book, scrupulously researched, sympathetically told, a picaresque tale of modern life, by turns funny and sad * * Mail on Sunday * * Ben Machell's deeply reported book is not only a gripping true-crime story, but also a sensitive and melancholy portrait of someone who has long struggled to fit in to society * * New Statesman * * An astonishing story which resonates at a time of staggering inequality, and one which asks salient questions about wealth redistribution * * Esquire * * [A] cross between heist tale and biography . . . Machell treats his subject . . . with tender fascination, disapproving of Jackley's strategy but not his world view * * New Yorker * * Meet Stephen: university student, bank robber, modern Robin Hood, human being. He was only good at one of them; thankfully it was the only one that mattered. A truly remarkable story -- TERRY HAYES, author of I AM PILGRIM Was Stephen Jackley a cynical attention-seeker, or an idealist fighting a broken system, or something else entirely? Whatever the truth, his story - superbly written, and expertly reported - reveals the troubling place of finance in the centre of all of our lives -- OLIVER BULLOUGH * * author of Moneyland * *"