“Kurzweil does the delightfully unexpected: He morphs his story from a poignant memoir into a true-crime thriller.” — NPR.org
“Whipping Boy is like nothing I’ve ever read, an investigative memoir that’s honest, funny, sad, and edge-of-the-chair suspenseful. I loved it.” — Dan Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
“Whipping Boy reads like a European version of American Hustle…Full of intrigue and suspense, the story follows the bizarre twists and turns of one man’s journey to find and confront his childhood tormentor-ready-made for a film treatment.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Whipping Boy is much more than the search for a bully. Kurzweil takes readers on a suspenseful and thrilling ride.” — Bookish
“Pleasure-packed…makes the wily con artists in American Hustle look stuffy by comparison.” — Details
“A fascinating, multi-pronged morality tale about victimhood, skewed perception and the liberation of facing your demons.” — Washington Post
“A captivating hybrid of investigative journalism and memoir…Kurzweil is not simply settling a private score; he’s standing up for anyone who has ever been bullied.” — Chicago Tribune
“A memoir that reads like a thriller as the author circles the globe to find the man who made his boarding school days a living hell.” — Tampa Bay Times
“Kurzweil crafts an entertaining, sharply reported picaresque centering on the colorful leaders of the scam, who bamboozled their marks by posing as monocled European aristocrats and produced a fake deed from the fictional King of Mombessa… A crime saga that’s ripe with hilarious humbuggery.” — Publishers Weekly
“This meditation on pain and memory...only sounds like fiction.” — Library Journal
“I enjoyed Whipping Boy on so many levels. It’s wonderfully conceived and wonderfully executed.” — Ricky Jay, author of Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers