In Irish journalism circles, it is known as the profile: a study of an individual who declines to be interviewed built with information gleaned from people who know the person best. In the United States, editors call the form of journalism that Radden Keefe specialises in “the write-around”. This collection of tales in his latest book, Rogues, are so expertly told because he has clearly spent an obsessive amount of time running down leads, sweating spurious angles and returning to the protagonists, or those closest to them, in the end with the toughest questions as he attempts to pull all the strings together. Put simply Radden Keefe is a brilliant storyteller. Thankfully, the world of long-form journalism is far better off this American writer found a home at The New Yorker magazine where his writing and investigative talents shine brightly. Had life taken a different course, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe might have ended up as a murder-squad detective, a code-breaking spy or a cross-examining pit bull lawyer given the evident skills he has.
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