Catch the Devil - by Pamela Colloff (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER - The riveting, true story of an audacious con man who helped send another man to death row for a murder he did not commit

"Incendiary, emotionally devastating. [This] is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience."
--Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and London Falling

"Unfolding in cinematic detail, Catch the Devil offers a riveting and disturbing account of the potentially fatal consequences of a criminal legal system that is more concerned with securing convictions than determining the truth and delivering justice." --NPR

For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises he married nine women--some at the same time.

When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors. In Pinellas County, Florida, he became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of exaggerating men's wrongdoing or implicating the innocent to help prosecutors win convictions. In return, the state rewarded him with his freedom, fueling his growing sense of invincibility. Soon he was not just committing fraud; he was preying on girls in their teens or barely into adolescence.

In 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik's account of his "confession" helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused.

By then, Skalnik had caused untold damage: to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.

Review Quotes

- The New York Times "The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer" - NPR "Books Our Critics Can't Wait for This Summer" - The Boston Globe "Best Books of Summer 2026" - Town & Country "The Must Read Books of Summer 2026" - TIME "The Best New Books to Read This Summer" -

"Truman Capote's In Cold Blood . . . is remembered for the effort he invested in getting to know the two murderers. Colloff similarly works to understand Skalnik. . . . Its unusual villain makes Catch the Devil an engrossing read; the public policy implications make it important." --The New York Times

"Unfolding in cinematic detail, Catch the Devil offers a riveting and disturbing account of the potentially fatal consequences of a criminal legal system that is more concerned with securing convictions than determining the truth and delivering justice." --NPR

"In her gripping first book, [Pamela] Colloff considers the case of Paul Skalnik, a fabulist, con man and predator. The book reads like a thriller but never sacrifices the humanity of the people Skalnik hurt. It's a hell of an achievement." --Los Angeles Times

"I'm always in awe of Pamela Colloff, and never more so than in Catch the Devil, a masterfully reported horror story of the criminal justice system effectively creating a serial killer in the form of a jailhouse snitch. This is the rarest, most inestimable sort of work: Only a writer like Colloff, a genuine hero who matches her virtuosic personal talent with extraordinary public commitment, could break open decades of outrageous systemic malfeasance with such precision and humanity. We're so lucky to have the spotlight of her attention turned to these matters of life and death." --Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror

"We can't think of better summer reading than Colloff's riveting account of how one criminal sold out others to keep himself on the streets." --Town & Country

"Colloff's painstaking, comprehensive reporting is a scathing indictment of a country where prosecutors are so often politically incentivized to get a conviction regardless of a defendant's actual guilt." --The Nation

"[A] spellbinding tale of a justice system derailed by biases." --TIME

"Bracing. . . . A propulsive narrative full of memorable details." --The Wall Street Journal

"Whether propelled by curiosity, anger, or incredulity, readers will charge through Colloff's new book. . . . The facts are sometimes stranger than fiction, but Colloff's literary ability turns an inherently interesting story into a deeply impactful one. . . . Underpinning the book's nuance and complicated narrative, though, is something in too short supply among Skalnik and his state-employed enablers: a commitment to the truth." --Texas Observer

"An expertly rendered narrative and also an infuriating one that will leave you thinking there's deep rot at the heart of our criminal-justice system." --Texas Monthly

"Powerful. . . . Colloff marries rigorous investigative reporting with deeply immersive, character-driven storytelling. She weaves the stories of Skalnik's crimes with devastating accounts from his victims, many of whom are still grappling with the destruction he left in his wake." --Columbia Journalism Review

"Pamela Colloff is one of our great chroniclers of crime and criminal justice, and in this incendiary, emotionally devastating book, she depicts a justice system turned completely inside out, in which the innocent are incarcerated and the guilty skip free. The conman at the heart of her story, Paul Skalnik, is as chilling and unrepentant as any movie villain. Catch the Devil is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience." --Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and London Falling

"Pamela Colloff lights up the criminal justice system with a precision that leaves nowhere to hide. Catch the Devil is an extraordinary achievement, its narrative moving with the taut urgency of a thriller--anchored by the heart and humanity she brings to the pursuit of truth. An unforgettable masterwork from the leading voice in American crime reporting." --Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove

"One of America's finest journalists, Pamela Colloff, has delivered a wallop of a debut book--loaded with moral clarity and astounding detail--about one of the world's most infernal liars, the scores of lives he destroyed, and the criminal-justice system that still, shockingly, benefits from those lies." --Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road

"Pamela Colloff has ripped the roof off the criminal justice system with this exposé of a jailhouse snitch. You can't read this book without a feeling of horror that one man could do so much damage; but the real shock is that he was only telling prosecutors what they wanted him to say." --Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower

"A masterful and riveting anatomy of how a series of institutions colluded with one man's pathology. I can't imagine a more damning and poignant account of a criminal justice system that was, fundamentally, willing to be fooled--and the lives destroyed and transformed in that process." --Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves

"You read each page of Pamela Colloff's subtly written and stunningly reported book with a deepening sense of outrage. How could this happen? How could the justice system be so remorseless, so intractably focused on protocol and career wins at the expense of justice itself? Catch the Devil is an infuriating, illuminating, gripping narrative by one of the heroes of American journalism." --Stephen Harrigan, author of Sorrowful Mysteries

"A mesmerizing, often enraging portrait of a man whose skill at manipulating the judicial system led to untold injustices. Told with all the care, nuance, and dazzling reportage we expect from Pamela Colloff--one of the very best in the field right now--Catch the Devil reads like a literary thriller, rich in atmosphere and lively characters, but its larger resonances give it an extraordinary depth and its timeliness during America's current grifter era could hardly be greater." --Megan Abbott, author of El Dorado Drive

"Pamela Colloff's writing sits at the perfect intersection of journalism and literature. Catch the Devil is a masterwork, deeply researched and thrillingly composed." --Michael Finkel, author of The Art Thief

"At the heart of Pamela Colloff's impeccable, infuriating narrative sits a serial jailhouse snitch, Paul Skalnik. A monster of casual depravity, predatory instinct, and resolute amorality, Skalnik plays our criminal justice system like a fiddle, exposing an apparatus far more concerned with clearance rates than actual justice. The tragedy here lies not only in the countless miscarriages of justice in the name of it, but the countless lives obliterated in the process." --Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River

"Vividly reported and artfully written, Colloff's book is an enraging narrative of how one man can manipulate the criminal justice system. It's also a joy to read thanks to her knack for storytelling and engrossing detail." --Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

"Riveting. . . . Important journalism but also a hell of a story." --Anand Giridharadas, author of Man in the Mirror

"Narrative propulsion, moral weight, stunning detail, psychological depth, the kind of fluid stone-built structure one arrives at after years of tinkering--it's all there. . . . An unputdownable, page-turning legal thriller, a nonfiction classic that, though entirely distinctive, is right up there with A Civil Action and The Executioner's Song." --Dan Slater, author of The Incorruptibles

"It should be required reading for every law student who hopes to handle criminal cases." --Washington Independent Review of Books

"Difficult not to devour in a single setting . . . and difficult not to wrestle with for days afterwards." --The Economist

"[Colloff's] true-detective work focuses on dozens of interviews, archival research, and her own determination to see justice done. It is a narrative tour de force and belongs on your shelf next to this season's other must-read, Patrick Radden Keefe's London Falling." --Airmail

"A sociological writer, Colloff excels at contextualizing people and events. . . . The book also highlights an impressive number of systemic issues, including prosecutorial misconduct, domestic violence, mass incarceration, capital punishment and the social psychology of jury trials." --The Winnipeg Free Press

"Superb, sobering. . . . Marvelous. . . . It should be required reading for every law student who hopes to handle criminal cases." --Washington Independent Review of Books

About the Author

PAMELA COLLOFF is a reporter at ProPublica and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. She was the recipient of a National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2020 and for Feature Writing in 2013. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. Colloff holds a bachelor's degree in English from Brown University. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and their two children.