Author Michael Friedlander offers an intriguing and distinctive perspective on recent high-profile scams by studying them through the lens of Nelson Mandela’s life, skills, ethics, and moral authority. In his readable, conversational storyteller’s style, he explains complicated subjects such as the financing behind the Enron and Madoff scams in easy-to-understand terms. He describes the scam as a negotiating duel between the scammer and his mark. As he looks at Mandela’s life and historic negotiations to end apartheid, he extracts 10 Powers of Negotiation and illustrates how they can be used not just to detect scams, but in any type of negotiation. He emphasizes, however, the need for a moral compass and the courage to follow it. Using his own Duck School of Common Sense, he raises some provocative questions about the Enron, Ahmed Chalabi, and Bernard Madoff scandals. It’s an unexpected approach to learning from the high-profile scams that will no doubt intrigue many readers.