Con artist Delilah Wolfe draws you close -- and unsettles you once you're the re. Born Pearl Stewart into a life she refused to accept, she walked away at seventeen -- from her infant daughter, her loveless mother, and everything she'd ever known -- and never looked back. Reinventing herself as Delilah, she becomes deliberate, calculated, and utterly convinced of her own invincibility. Armed with a vintage tarot deck and a methodical eye for human weakness, Delilah builds her career on a simple truth: people want to believe. She doesn't have a gift. She has a system. And it works -- because she is almost always two steps ahead. But when her carefully constructed world begins to fracture and she's forced to run, what rises is a woman far more dangerous than even she imagined.
As her moral compass erodes -- one crossed line at a time -- Delilah remains certain she is the victim of every disaster she sets in motion. The law is no longer a distant threat but a steady presence at her back as she turns toward the Canadian border, still convinced she can outrun consequence. The reader will know otherwise. The Confidence Thief is a taut, atmospheric psychological suspense novel about reinvention, deception, and the dangerous power of belief. Authors note For a story to be convincing, a writer must surrender much of themselves to the figures they set in motion. When a hand is too heavy, characters turn into marionettes; when we step back, their voices emerge. I often had to silence my own moral compass to let Delilah exist truthfully on the page. That meant resisting the instinct to soften or condemn, and allowing her to stand as she is: a woman shaped by her past, by fear, by ambition, and by the constant pull of escape.
The less I controlled her, the more freely she revealed herself. She unsettled me. Shocked me. Yet that unease was the price of authenticity. Figures like Delilah don't thrive under restraint; they insist on being seen in their contradictions, or they'll fall silent. This story began as part of an anthology released in 2022 ( Speaking Of ). Delilah made her first appearance there, but she would not stay contained. The original work has since been greatly changed and expanded into the novel you now hold.
The Confidence Thief is the story of a woman unravelling, narcissistically indifferent to the wreckage she leaves behind. She survives by illusion, is haunted by loss, and pursued by shadows she can never escape. That paradox drew me back to her, even as her life stood in stark contrast to my own. About the Author - Mary Murphy This eighth book release follows Mary's double win at the 2024 Page Turner International Book Awards, where she was recognised as both Best in Genre and Prolific Author . A novelist, short story writer, children's author, and musician, Mary's work spans page and stage. A small but mighty creative force, she fervently embraces the many artistic fires that compel her forward. Her writing has been hailed as "superlative and engrossing" by reviewers, readers, and listeners alike. Born in Wexford, Ireland, Mary Murphy is the mother of two grown children and now makes her home on Vancouver Island, Canada, with her husband Paul, their dog, Norah, and their cats, Quilly and Lyla.