I've just finished reading the book "Doctored Evidence" by Donna Leon, one of the charming Commisario Brunetti mysteries about a police detective in Venice. The plot twist (blackmail, murder) depends on the premise that a key city official has a fake doctorate, and would suffer ruin if that fact got out. So that got me wondering what other books there might be out there. I believe the topic has been mentioned here. The only one I can recall is "Rackety Rax" in which the Mafia starts a fake university, and hires sfootball players, in order to profit from ticket sales. Joel Sayre, 1932, and later a movie. Any others?
There's this: https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Road-Home-treachery-inspired-ebook/dp/B017GGNWIM It's a novel, based on the life of an actual "fake doctor" - a real person who practised medicine, including surgery, for many years, relying on a real GED and fake medical diplomas. J.
This one, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_Besieged In the 1930s, a Chinese university grad goes abroad. He studies at several European Universities but does not complete a degree at any. Time comes when he must return to China - and he buys a fake degree from an Irish-American. J.
The only one I can find listed in Degreeinfo is this: http://www.degreeinfo.com/off-topic-discussions/6913-scare-crow-awarded-honorary-th-d.html It's about the "diploma" created by the Wizard of Oz and awarded to the Scarecrow who wanted a brain. "Doctor of Thinkology." J.
In a nice crossover with the recent OJ Simpson thread, you can check out Guilt By Degrees by Marcia Clark (yeah, that Marcia Clark)
It's not a novel, but there's a 2006 movie called Accepted: "A high school slacker who's rejected by every school he applies to opts to create his own institution of higher learning, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, on a rundown piece of property near his hometown." Accepted (2006) - IMDb
Since movies have been mentioned, there's a 1993 movie called Killing Zoe about 2 childhood friends who rob a bank in France on Bastille Day. In one scene, they're catching up on what they've been doing, and one of the characters (Eric) says that he worked at the French newspaper Le Figaro "with an assumed Master's degree".
