Robert Kerbeck is the founder of the Malibu Writers Circle and his essays and short stories have been featured in numerous magazines and literary journals, including Narratively, Cimarron Review and Los Angeles Magazine. His short story, "Reconnected", was adapted into an award-winning film and has appeared at film festivals worldwide. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and an award-winning actor. He is also the author of Malibu Burning- The Real Story Behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire.
**Recipient of the silver 2023 autobiography/memoir Independent
Publisher Book Award**
“Robert Kerbeck flopped as an actor. But, as a corporate spy, he
gave Oscar-worthy performances.”
--Michael Kaplan, New York Post
“A story almost too good to be true with no shortage of wild
stories, Kerbeck winds every detail into an engaging, entertaining
memoir."
--Shondaland
"The book is gripping as it chronicles Kerbeck’s disdain for
working at his family’s car business, his quiet acting career, and
his descent into his moves against big businesses. The details of
his sleuthing work are meticulous, but the book still maintains the
thrill of a spy novel. Celebrity name-drops add flair to this tale
of calculated crimes"
--Foreword Reviews
"With enjoyable, au currant language, and a sharp ear for dialogue,
Kerbeck’s astounding story is fraught with tension, written in a
voice both confident and accessible throughout an insider’s memoir
so finely wrought, it reads somewhere between a heart-pounding
thriller and an intriguing, finely tuned spy novel."
--New York Journal of Books
"Social engineering, or scamming, is something I did at an early
age. Robert Kerbeck has mastered the art of social engineering, or
what he calls 'rusing', and taken it to a whole new level. In a
world of too much information, Kerbeck has used that to his great
success."
--Frank Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can and Scam Me If You
Can
“An irresistible portrait of actors and grifters in the work-a-day
world of corporate espionage.”
--Jess Walter, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Beautiful
Ruins
"Ruse is a Tale of Two Lives: Kerbeck's acting career and his
fascinating life as a corporate con man/spy. If you like celeb
gossip, you’ll go for the first, but I prefer the second since it
exposes the very dark, greedy, narcissistic side of Wall Street and
Big Business in general. Kerbeck out-cons the top con-artists --
sophisticated CEOs. And he does it over the phone. Wow! In my day I
had to fly around the world!"
--John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of
an Economic Hit Man
"Kerbeck has a very compelling writing style and can pull off
humor, too, which isn’t easy. I really enjoyed Ruse.”
--Bradley Hope, New York Times bestselling author of Billion Dollar
Whale
"Ruse lives at a truly unique intersection of Hollywood meets
Wall Street, and I found myself laughing with and rooting for
Robert throughout this book. His personality leaps off the page —
he’s a great storyteller and Ruse is a can’t miss best
seller."
--Rob Golenberg, Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed
Showtime series Your Honor
"In Ruse, Robert Kerbeck reveals himself to be a scoundrel, a
raconteur, and a masterful storyteller. In the course of becoming
an unlikely corporate intelligence spy, his various masks are so
seamless that readers are swept along in his mythic transformation.
Sometimes, memoirs become self-involved and forget to give readers
a good story. Not here. What other book features a narrator
attending a soiree at Paul Newman’s Manhattan apartment, and
appearing in an O.J. Simpson exercise video? And that’s just for
starters. This compelling page-turner is both insightful and an
absolute hoot.”
--Sue William Silverman, author of How to Survive Death and Other
Inconveniences
"Robert Kerbeck’s memoir, Ruse, is a riveting tale of desire
and deception in a world where lies are necessary currency and
where con artists can end up convincing everyone, even
themselves. Ruse offers a fascinating portrait of a life
negotiated through a web of fabrications."
--Lee Martin, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Gone the
Hard Road
“I loved Ruse! What a crazy story, and believe me, I know
crazy. Successful spies are great storytellers, and Robert Kerbeck
ranks up there with the best of them."
--Valerie Plame, author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal
by the White House
"A deliciously outrageous, you-can’t-make-this-shit-up caper.
Kerbeck takes us on his unlikely transformation from almost-a-star
actor to multi-millionaire corporate sleuth. As it turns out, you
don’t need to climb the greasy rungs of the ladder to make a
killing; all you need is a telephone and your wits.”
--Erik Edstrom, author of Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our
Longest War
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