Koncocoo

Best Biographies of Espionage

The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the CIA’s Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold War While driving out of the American embassy in Moscow on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station heard a knock on his car window. What [Hoffman]’s accomplished here isn’t just a remarkable example of journalistic talent but also an ability to weave an absolutely gripping nonfiction narrative.” — The Dallas Morning News “This riveting drama. packs valuable insights into the final decade of the cloak-and-dagger rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Human tension hangs over every page of The Billion Dollar Spy like the smell of leaded gasoline. [Hoffman] knows the intelligence world well and has expertly used recently declassified documents to tell this unsettling and suspenseful story. Hoffman is a scrupulous, meticulous writer whose pages of footnotes and references attest to how carefully he sticks to his sources. “Hoffman viscerally evokes the secret, ruthless Cold War battle between the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet KGB in his true-life espionage thriller. An exciting, revealing tale with a courageous, sympathetic protagonist.” — Tampa Bay Times “The fine first sentence of The Billion Dollar Spy could almost have been written with an icicle. A work of painstaking historical research that’s paced like a thriller.” — Departures “Hoffman [proves] that nonfiction can read like a John le Carré thriller. “A fabulous read that also provides chilling insights into the Cold War spy game between Washington and Moscow that has erupted anew under Vladimir Putin. It is also an evocative portrait of everyday life in the crumbling Soviet Union and a meticulously researched guide to CIA sources and methods. I devoured every word, including the footnotes.” —Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. This is a breakthrough book in intelligence writing, drawing on CIA operational cables—the holy grail of the spy world—to narrate each astonishing move. Hoffman reveals CIA tradecraft tricks that are more delicious than anything in a spy novel, and his command of the Soviet landscape is masterful. Full of twists so amazing you couldn’t make them up, this is spy fact that really is better than fiction.” —David Ignatius, author of The Director. It is a gripping story of courage, professionalism, and betrayal in the secret world.” —Rodric Braithwaite, British Ambassador in Moscow, 1988-1992. “A scrupulously researched work of history that is also a gripping thriller, The Billion Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman is an unforgettable journey into Cold War espionage. This spellbinding story pulses with the dramatic tension of running an agent in Soviet-era Moscow—where the KGB is ubiquitous and CIA officers and Russian assets are prey. David E. Hoffman is a contributing editor at The Washington Post and a correspondent for PBS’s flagship investigative series, Frontline . He is the author of The Oligarchs and of The Dead Hand , about the end of the Cold War arms race, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize.
Reviews
"The book is a tribute as well to the calm and patient courage of the men and women involved in these operations, many of whom are never known due to the sensitivity of their line of work."
"Histories, and the crowded shelves of spy novels set during the era, offer a cursory and misleading view of the day-to-day reality as it was lived by the men and women who worked for the CIA and the KGB. The Billion Dollar Spy was a Soviet engineer named Adolf Tokachev who provided the US with a prodigious volume of technical data about the USSR’s military capabilities from 1977 to 1985. Under the noses of his bosses and the KGB alike, he brazenly supplied photographs of many thousands of pages of top-secret data to the CIA, enabling the US to counteract every technical advantage achieved by the USSR in its most advanced combat aircraft. More often than not, the agency big-wigs second-guessed their field staff, denying multiple requests for money to compensate Tokachev, for the cyanide pill he demanded in case he was discovered by the KGB, and for the spyware he needed to photograph top-secret material he had spirited away from his office at the risk of his life. Yet, as Hoffman writes, “Tolkachev’s material was so valuable back at Langley that he was literally ‘paying the rent’ — justifying the CIA’s operational budget — and helping the agency satisfy the military customers.”. That bureaucratic meddling was the first surprise. When his close personal friend, Kim Philby, defected to the Soviet Union after decades of extraordinarily high-level spying, Angleton apparently went off the deep end into paranoia. As Marc Goodman revealed in his recent book, Future Crimes, Chinese government hackers succeeded in stealing top-secret US military data worth hundreds of billions of dollars."
"The narrative showed the complex planning of spying."
"Never usually read books about military and spying, but this was worth the read."
"This true account of the hard work, dedication and sheer guts of our CIA operatives as they "fought" on the front line of espionage in Moscow to recruit and train Soviet scientists to work for the West at the height of the Cold War provides us an excellent example of the importance of maintaining the capability to apply humans to the task of gathering intelligence."
"Great spy story with high degree of detail on the life and espionage of this character. The author did a great job and pointing out how the espionage conducted by this individual helped our country defeat the enemy."
"A must read for anyone interested in human intelligence."
"Moles section they mention two but only really delved into the one that was believed to give up our agent."
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Red Notice: How I Became Putin's No. 1 Enemy
Reads like a classic thriller , with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city … but it’s all true , and it’s a story that needs to be told. In November 2009, the young lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death by eight police officers in a freezing cell in a Moscow prison. This is his explosive journey from the heady world of finance in New York and London in the 1990s, through battles with ruthless oligarchs in turbulent post-Soviet Union Moscow, to the shadowy heart of the Kremlin. "The first half of Red Notice traces Browder’s improbable journey from prep-school washout through college, business school, and a series of consulting and Wall Street jobs before becoming Russia’s largest foreign investor....This book-within-a-book does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what Liar’s Poker did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder’s business saga meshes well with the story of corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, making Red Notice an early candidate for any list of the year’s best books." “In Red Notice , Bill Browder tells the harrowing and inspiring story of how his fight for justice in Russia made him an unlikely international human rights leader and Vladimir Putin's number-one enemy. It is the book for anyone interested in understanding the culture of corruption and impunity in Putin's Russia today, and Browder’s heroic example of how to fight back.” (Senator John McCain). Bill Browder is an amazing moral crusader, and his book is a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand Russia, Putin, or the challenges of doing business in the world today." Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses.
Reviews
"I've read a lot of Russian and Soviet history and I am interested in hedge funds, so I picked this book off the Amazon Vine list. Red Notice is the story of Bill Browder's hedge fund, Hermitage Capital, which at one time was the largest foreign investor in Russia. Hermitage produced extremely high returns and, before its demise, Browder had four and a half billion dollars under management. Boris Yeltsin and his advisers who inherited the Russian state wanted to make sure that communism would never return. Gorbachev had almost been overthrown in a coup by the communist old guard, so Yeltsin and his advisers felt that they had to put the state on an irreversible course away from communism as soon as possible. This was the environment that gave rise to the Oligarchs, brilliant and ruthless men who built multi-billion dollar fortunes from the rubble of the Soviet State. He was fascinated by Eastern Europe and when few people saw the possibilities in Russia he established a hedge fund that became wildly successful buying up under priced Russian assets. He managed to get the famous billionaire investor Edmond Safra to put up the initial money for the fund and went on to make huge profits. The standard share for hedge funds is 20% of the profits, so Browder must also have become a very wealthy man (e.g., hundreds of millions of dollars). After buying the under-priced assets they exposed the corruption, which at least for a time drove the thieves away and caused stock prices to rise. What ever the case, there is some irony in Browder's renouncing his US citizenship, since it was the US that allowed him to gain some measure of retribution by passing the Sergei Magnitsky Act."
"Without giving away too much, the book starts with a brief history of the authors early life before proceeding to his university days at Chicago and Stanford before moving to London to be a research analyst for a few firms. To that end he setup his own firm, Hermitage Capital, moved to Russia and came across amazing opportunities as the fall of the Berlin wall and communism was taking place. Starting out with just $25 Million in seed money from Edmund Safra (one of the richest people in the world), Hermitage Capital went on to become one of the largest investment banks in Russia growing to over $4 Billion. This apparently came from President Obama as it would hurt his total appeasement plan of "resetting" relations with Russia and at the time Kerry himself was trying to get the Secretary of State position after Hillary Clinton. Only after another piece of legislation came to bear and the two were tied did it come to the floor but even then John Kerry gave totally shameful remarks during the passage of the bill."
"I had no idea that they were beating to death innocent people in Russian prisons or manufacturing charges for financial gain."
"I highly recommend this book not only for the story that Bill tells, but also because it sheds light on Vladimir Putin and other criminals that are now in power in Russia."
"On May 15 BBC reported that toxicology studies showed that the Russian businessman turned informer who was found dead in Surrey in 2012 had probably died from a rare poison as Browder had thought."
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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
With a cast of real-life characters including Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy draws you into the war as these daring women lived it. I hadn’t given much thought to the Civil War until one summer day in 2002, when I found myself stuck in traffic on Route 400 outside of Atlanta, idling for hours behind a pickup truck emblazoned with a bumper sticker: DON’T BLAME ME—I VOTED FOR JEFF DAVIS. As a native Philadelphian newly transplanted to the Deep South, I was struck by the idea that Civil War personalities and politics lived on, in ways both frivolous and sincere, nearly a century and a half after the last body was buried and the final sacrifice made. In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy I tell the stories of four such women: a rebellious teenager with a dangerous temper; a Canadian expat on the run from her past; a widowed mother with nothing left to lose; and a wealthy society matron who endured death threats for years, and lost as much as she won. It is no small task for a writer to wade into the well-swum waters of the American Civil War and emerge with a book that manages to enhance the existing canon while holding the attention of casual readers and history buffs alike. “Not for nothing has Abbott been called a ‘pioneer of sizzle history.’ Here she creates a gripping page-turner that moves at a breathtaking clip through the dramatic events of the Civil War.” ( Los Angeles Times ). “Engrossing… Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is conscientiously researched and smoothly written and structured.” ( Wall Street Journal ). “Eloquent… A riveting psychological inquiry and probing examination of the courage, incomparable patriotism, stamina, and agility of four women who repeatedly risked their lives to serve their citizenry... Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy [feels] like an operatic espionage novel, where deception, betrayal, love, and redemption are interspersed with gripping combat scenes and perilous rescues.” ( Los Angeles Review of Books ). “Compelling... Karen Abbott stitches together a patchwork narrative as complex as a pieced quilt, combining the colorful, unrelated tales of four women who fought in the Civil War as surely as Lee and Grant… [her] high achievement lies in her Augean compilation of published and archival material.” ( Washington Times ).
Reviews
"Because the narrative fluctuates among the four women, sometimes I lost tract of who was who since several of the women were similar even thought they were on different sides of the conflict.I considered whether the author could have handled the stories differently and I decided her method was best and she tracked them as the war progressed rather than covering their stores separately."
"An excellent book about four women who devoted themselves to helping out their countries (North & South) during the Civil War."
"We felt Ms. Abbott brought each of the women to life, and we felt we better understood the role of women in the Civil War."
"Even looking back on this horror one can’t say how it happened."
"First 3 chapters kept my interest and took a break from the after the 5th, I was almost through the book."
"Although especially good for women to acquaint themselves with strong women playing important roles, addition facts and the viewpoints of both Northern and Southern people are provoking."
"Very interesting and absorbing."
"Some of Johnston’s troops, in blue uniforms, caused some Union regiments to hold their fire making a contribution to them breaking. She has men playing ball with severed heads, cutting off noses, ears and testicles for souvenirs. She fails to admit that no respected Civil War author accepts these stories as fact. In stating them as fact, she is either a poor historian or dishonest, in either case I do not want to waste my time reading this book."
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Best The World Stage

War Hero: The Unlikely Story of A Stray Dog, An American Soldier and the Battle of Their Lives (Kindle Single)
On a July evening in 1918, four brutal years into World War I, a young American soldier, private James Donovan, stumbled on a pile of rags while lost on the pitch-black the streets of Paris. Rags’ exploits made him famous back in America, where he became one of the inspirations for the modern “war dog.” He led parades down Broadway, accepted a handful of medals and became more popular than some 5-star generals.
Reviews
"This was an great story about a soldier and a dog."
"I love dogs and books about dogs but this was special since it is a true story."
"From a priviate to the commanding general of the 1st Division, Rags won the hearts of all for his caring attitude to his great bravery."
"Very touching story based on truth about a soldier and the dog he finds in France during WWI."
"This is a well written story, about the first military dog and the effects he had on not only the men of his company but the whole of world war 1 USA force."
"Touching story of a WW I soldier and his faithful dog."
"A charming little story of a very brave little dog., !"
"Great story, well written."
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Best Forensic Psychology

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. ( Kirkus Reviews 1999-01-10) A brilliant, in-depth handling of a most complex subject (Hugh Aynesworth, author of Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer).
Reviews
"Although many of us will not encounter a criminal psychopath, there are plenty of us who have lived with them and experienced their crazymaking and destructive behavior behind closed doors."
"Great resource for Therapists, Counselors and anyone who needs to know whom they are dealing with in sensitive areas."
"Fabulous book about antisocial personality DO."
"I couldn't put this book down, it was a fantastic read."
"Book came within 2 days through Prime, looks just like the picture, and packed properly with no bends or folds."
"I love this book, because it describes a personal situation I had been dealing with...a real Sociopath."
"I've been doing research on psychopath's for a book I'm writing."
"Since I'm researching Pyschopaths for a story, this book really helped me understand what is going on in their heads...and also to understand that you may not have any idea whats going on in their heads!"
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Best Canadian Military History eBooks

Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring
For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the heart of it all. Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but who always came through in the end. Rose ( Kings in the North ) focuses on a small band of Americans, longtime friends who created an intelligence network known as the Culper Ring to funnel information to George Washington about the British troops in and around New York City. Although his story is compelling in its descriptions of occupied New York, where patriots and loyalists lived together in an uneasy balance, it is diffused somewhat by lengthy digressions into the more well-known spy tales of Nathan Hale and Benedict Arnold. from the naive twenty-one-year-old Nathan Hale, who was captured and executed, to the quietly cunning Benjamin Tallmadge, who organized the ring in 1778, to the traitorous Benedict Arnold.” — The Wall Street Journal “Rose gives us intrigue, crossed signals, derring-do, and a priceless slice of eighteenth-century life. Think of Alan Furst with muskets.” —Richard Brookhiser, author of Founding Father “A compelling portrait of [a] rogues’ gallery of barkeeps, misfits, hypochondriacs, part-time smugglers, and full-time neurotics that will remind every reader of the cast of a John le Carré novel.” —Arthur Herman, National Review.
Reviews
"It's not just about the Culper Spy Ring; it's also an interesting look at life in New York City and on Long Island during the Revolutionary War. You will gain added insight as to why the British lost that war and their American colonies by indulging in neglect, greed, corruption, and brutality that ultimately hardened the resolve of Patriots and lost the allegiance of many disheartened Loyalists."
"Bought the book as a gift (though I myself confess when I received the book, I almost kept it for myself)."
"Enjoyed the tv series Turn wanted to read the text it was based on,Thank you."
"good book saw the series too."
"I find more time for DVDs than reading books but this is a good story."
"Brings history to exciting life!"
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Best One-Hour Politics & Social Sciences Short Reads

The Art of War (Xist Classics)
In the last 2,500 years, Sun Tzu's military treatise has transcended its role as a battlefield guide and has been used as a foundational text for business, leadership and more. --Brian Bruya This new translation of the ancient Chinese military treatise includes chapters of historical analysis touching on its relevance to today's corporate environment.
Reviews
"I want to tell future readers of this book in this way. I read it first when I was 14 or 15."
"The annotations are a little dry and make the reading disjointed at times, but overall I was satisfied."
"I know that a lot of very powerful people have read this book and taken away strategies for their business or military careers."
"Book is set of precepts."
"I strongly recommend this book, especially for teens and young adults."
"Anyone who takes seriously their Self Defense or Martial Arts training absolutely needs to read this material."
"I know there is much discussion over the issue of the reality of SunTzu as an individual but that does not negate the insight this book provides."
"Interesting book translated from the original Chinese text written by a great general (or so it appears)."
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Best Biographies of Serial Killers

The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. The passages about Holmes are compelling and aptly claustrophobic; readers will be glad for the frequent escapes to the relative sanity of Holmes's co-star, architect and fair overseer Daniel Hudson Burnham, who managed the thousands of workers and engineers who pulled the sprawling fair together 0n an astonishingly tight two-year schedule.
Reviews
"I will be absolutely honest and admit that I purchased the book because I was interested in the weird story of H.H.Holmes, American con-man, psychopath and serial killer. I've never read anything by Erik Larsen before, but I know that he has a good number of books on the history section shelves and I’ve seen this book in passing for years. I listened to this as an audiobook, and my initial reaction was that there was an awful lot about the 1893 World’s Fair, especially the architecture of the World’s Fair, than I was expecting or interested in. However, about half-way through the book, I found my interest shifting as I was sucked into the world of the Fair and the strangeness of the world right on the cusp of becoming the world we know, with lights and Cracker Jacks and Ferris wheels, but still possessing the instincts and customs of a more genteel and trusting age. One narrative follows the twisted path of Holmes; the other follows the life of the fair. There is no doubt that the Holmes’ narrative starts out in the lead because of the natural human interest in evil, and Holmes was evil. Larsen describes Holmes as America’s first serial killer in an age when the language did not have the term “serial killer” to describe Holmes. In Chicago, he bought a pharmacy from a widow, who he probably conned, married a second wife, deposited the wife and his child in a suburb of Chicago, and then came up with the idea of transforming land he had purchased into a hotel in time for the upcoming Fair. On the other hand, Larsen presents the “White City” of the Fair as the world that was dawning. The idea that the architects are the heroes of the book seems strange since architects rarely play the role of hero, but Larsen manages to invest tension throughout the story arc about the Fair. Thus, there is tension in whether the architects will get the Fair built in time, and then there is tension about whether the Fair will turn a profit in the face of the economic depression gripping the country. My first term paper in history was one I wrote as a Junior in High School about Eugene V. Debbs and the Pullman Strike of 1894, so it was something of a home-coming for me to read about the events that were occurring just before that strike, and to think that Debs and Darrow probably visited the Fair, maybe they ran across Holmes and Burnham. Larsen writes: // Ten thousand construction workers also left the fair’s employ and returned to a world without jobs, already crowded with unemployed men. The White City had drawn men and protected them; the Black City now welcomed them back, on the eve of winter, with filth, starvation, and violence.//. Holmes’ story closes out with Holmes’ finally getting tripped up in an insurance swindle and an intrepid Pinkerton detective following the clues to prove that Holmes was a child-killer among his other sins. In that way, Holmes’ story arc concludes as a true crime story about a true crime story."
"I will admit, the author thoroughly researched both topics, but it was clear to me his focus was on the architecture of the World's Fair. Holmes, you may want to read a different book."
"I love Erik Larson's exquisite prose and the way he weaves the story of the building and design of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in with the ghoulish story of H. H. Holmes and his murder castle."
"Mr. Lynch shows what is really happening by taking his cameras and audience beneath the grass, giving a true close-up at the level of the earth and its bugs. You'll learn about the beautiful, classic architecture designed for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, ultimately called "The White City." One of my favorite chapters discusses how a Philadelphia detective took a multi-city tour, retracing Mr. Holmes' steps, in order to find the missing children of one of the killer's minions. A while back I watched "The Gray Man," an underrated yet macabre film that I highly recommend, and the work by the detective who caught Albert Fish in similar fashion. Sure, still a recommendation, but even though I'm going five, mostly due to tremendous research and even better writing -- one could argue the author's storytelling skills are unmatched -- I still would have preferred to read a little more about one H. H. Holmes myself."
"It is a must read and is very interesting for people who like architecture and also people who like crime stories."
"Chicago history is full of mystery, intrigue, conflict, brilliance, and color."
"Fascinating narrative that is really two parallel stories."
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Best Biographies of Organized Crime

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction. Named on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar ( Politico ) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics ( Bloomberg / WSJ ) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky ( WSJ ) Books of the Year--Slate.com's 10 Best Books of 2015-- Entertainment Weekly 's 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeed's 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beast's Best Big Idea Books of 2015-- Seattle Times ' Best Books of 2015-- Boston Globe 's Best Books of 2015-- St. Louis Post-Dispatch 's Best Books of 2015-- The Guardian 's The Best Book We Read All Year--Audible's Best Books of 2015-- Texas Observer 's Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Library's Best Nonfiction Books of 2015. From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. An Amazon Best Book of April 2015: The rise of OxyContin addiction and subsequent heroin use has been much in the news lately as we try to make sense of what is happening in suburban and small town America.
Reviews
"I'm an Obstetrician who is dealing with the repercussions of the opioid epidemic and countless babies struggling in the throes of neonatal abstinence syndrome (withdrawal)."
"I also was vaguely aware of the 'pill mills' going on in Florida and other states primarily in the eastern part of the US, after reading this book I can say I not only know but am alarmed at how easy it was to get a Medicaid card and rake in big bucks selling Oxycontin on taxpayer money. On the other side of the coin, I have suffered from Fibromyalgia for sixteen years and the premise that pain can be controlled solely by physical therapy, nutrition, counseling, acupuncture without medication is bunk."
"The economics of the heroin trade are analyzed in detail showing evidence of a completely new way of dealing drugs that emanates from a desire of small-town Mexican farm boys to make it big in the US."
"Anyone who wants to understand the state of addiction in America should read this book."
"We are an upper middle class family and I was blown away when I found out our 22 yr old son was on heroin!"
"This book, or at least selected chapters need to be read over and over to kids."
"The reader finishes the book fully informed on the link between prescription pill addiction and black tar heroin."
"This is an excellent book and a real eye-opener about the opiate epidemic in this country."
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Best Biographies of Hoaxes & Deceptions

Assuming Names: a con artist's masquerade (Criminal Mischief Book 1)
It’s the tale of a runaway that assumed the title of Countess and then went on to fool the FBI, DEA, and Interpol—as well as a number of other celebrities and institutions—with an elaborate tale of world intrigue. At my website are copies of the newspaper and magazine articles mentioned in the book. The articles are from the Austin American Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, and Woman’s World Magazine.
Reviews
"The author, going by the name Tanya Thompson, learned early in life how to exploit her good looks, charm, fearlessness and extreme intelligence to avoid boredom, real work and to have astonishing adventures. When that failed, she figured out how to steal identities of real people, instead. Okay, you do feel sorry for the real people who really got burned, but the author claims she is capable of feeling guilty, so she contained her cons to stealing things that are usually covered by insurance. Having brought down the ire of a Mexican smuggling ring on one of the women whose identity she borrowed, she even had the decency (if you can call it that) to make an anonymous call to the poor girl and warn her that she might soon have some ticked-off hombres showing up at her house."
"You ask, “Really?” and the media answers, “Yes, really.”. Yes really, a fifteen year old girl went and pulled a jaw dropping long con that should earn her some sort of recognition in Wikipedia’s list of famous impostors. Because if you’re not tearing the book apart for its unsubstantiated claims, which we’ve determined are substantiated, then I suspect the hate is personal, because this young woman has gone to some effort to make enemies. She starts the book with a Bloody Mary styled incantation against Jesus (something I was too terrified as a child to repeat three times) and then she casually makes a couple of rape jokes. The bits about the FBI, Interpol, the DEA, INS, the mental asylum, the sheriff’s departments, Ron Howard, the ACLU, and the Dallas Refugee Agency."
"This young woman certainly has a unique set of morals; grey ethics which could easily rival any antihero found in fiction."
"Yes, by most standards Tanya is weird but she’s hoping you’re weirder."
"It now makes me wonder how much of Red Russia was fiction."
"It blows away other non-fiction works for just being interesting (imagine that word "interesting" is in italics)."
"By whatever means, Thompson was born with an armor-clad sense of humor and what must have been God’s busiest guardian angel."
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Best Biographies of Murder & Mayhem

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
SHELF AWARENESS'S BEST BOOK OF 2017. Named a best book of the year by Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, GQ, Time, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine, NPR's Maureen Corrigan , NPR's "On Point," Vogue , Smithsonian, Cosmopolitan, Seattle Times, Bloomberg, Lit Hub's "Ultimate Best Books ," Library Journal, Paste, Kirkus, Slate.com. and Book Browse From New Yorker staff writer David Grann, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Lost City of Z, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. It has everything, but at scale: Execution-style shootings, poisonings, and exploding houses drove the body count to over two dozen, while private eyes and undercover operatives scoured the territory for clues. Even as legendary and infamous oil barons vied for the most lucrative leases, J. Edgar Hoover’s investigation – which he would leverage to enhance both the prestige and power of his fledgling FBI - began to overtake even the town’s most respected leaders. With the same obsessive attention to fact - in service to storytelling - as The Lost City of Z , Killers of the Flower Moon reads like narrative-nonfiction as written by James M. Cain (there are, after all, insurance policies involved): smart, taut, and pacey.
Reviews
"This story needed to be told, and it fascinating the amount of detail that went into describing the horrors of that period of time. One aspect that had it been included, would have really helped solidify some of the information is a time line with events and people."
"This is one of the best true crime historical accounts I've ever read."
"You should read it."
"Having been a huge horse racing fan when I was a teenager, I knew about the wealth of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. I had no idea how rich the Osage really were, and I certainly didn't have a clue that the government didn't trust them with all that money. It had to madden many whites that, although they'd shoved the Osage onto a piece of land they deemed unfit for themselves, oil would be discovered and the Osage would turn out to be the wealthiest people in the world. The one way they had of trying to horn in on this wealth was by declaring that the Osage were not fit to use their own money wisely."
"The author captures an era of lawlessness and greed in frontier life and shares a piece of history that almost remained untold."
"This book requires the reader to pay attention to details as they read a fascinating history of a series of traumatic events in American History."
"This book, by far, has had the most impact on my life, when it comes to literature."
"I really enjoyed this book and find myself wanting to know more about the Osage."
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Best Biographies of White Collar Crime

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron
Today, Enron is the biggest business story of our time, and Fortune senior writers Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind are the new Woodward and Bernstein. It reveals as never before major characters such as Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, as well as lesser known players like Cliff Baxter and Rebecca Mark. Their prose is effortless, like a sprinter floating down the track.” —USA Today “Well-reported and well-written.” —Warren Buffett Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind collaborated on this book when they both were Fortune senior writers.
Reviews
"Of course, it's not fiction, and even if one assumes that the authors may have exaggerated or left out some facts that might have made the villains look less evil, it's still a "credibly incredible" book."
"The companys legacy is riddled in numerous bad decisions and short sided approaches to running a business that it should always be remembered as am example of the damage bad management can have on not just their own company but their clients and business partners."
"If you ever wondered how excessive greed and unethical behavior on this scale could happen without someone opening their mouth, I invite you to read this book to see just how easy it was for those operating in grey areas to manipulate data and facts to reap huge profits while convincing themselves and others that they “technically “ weren’t doing anything wrong."
"Many of the main characters at Enron have personalities as big someone written for fiction, so the book is actually fairly entertaining despite the dry and factual subject matter."
"Enron was a high wire act, a company on steroids, an innovator, obsessed on making deals and its stock price."
"This is an excellent account of an enterprise that became increasingly dependent on stock valuation for the appearance of innovation and profitability, even to the point of creating `independent' enterprises (actually controlled by corporate insiders) that assumed responsibility for losing ventures and kept debt off the books. Also recommended: Bruck's `Predator's Ball,' Burrough's Barbarians at the Gate,' Stewart's `Den of Thieves' and `Disney War."
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Best Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
Ghost in the Wires is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples that brought permanent changes in the way people and companies protect their most sensitive information. The considerable charm of this nonstop caper saga lies in seeing the giant, faceless bureaucracies that rule and regulate us unmasked as assemblages of hapless people dancing to a plucky con man's tune.''. Now a security consultant, he has spoken to audiences at conventions around the world, been on dozens of major national television and radio shows, and even testified in front of Congress. He has also written for USA Today and the Washington Post and been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, NPR and by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Time, Newsweek , and many other publications.
Reviews
"I've read several of the negative comments written about this book, and I don't understand why these people read the book in the first place. They talk about not being able to sympathize, they judge Mitnick for taking advantage of people, they hate Mitnick for the way he exploited his mother and grandmother, they talk bad because they can't understand what drove Mitnick to continue to break into systems, they are irritated because of his cocky attitude. In common with the people who wrote negative reviews, I too felt bad for his mother, grandmother, friends, him, and everyone he ever used for his criminal activities."
"I didn't want to like this book."
"I really enjoyed his rendition of his past and how he got by so many "gates"."
"A very interesting story detailing the exploits of one of the world's first hackers, Kevin Mitnick, as told by himself."
"Interestingly, a great deal of his success relies on social engineering -- i.e. relying on human nature and deception."
"It's written for the layman - you don't have to know about the technical aspects of the web - but it's only for those curious enough to get into the subject."
"While Kevin Mitnick has been promoted as the "...most elusive computer break-in artist in history, " his book, "Ghost in the Wires" is actually more about phone phreaking (hacking into the telephone networks to make free calls and other mischief) rather than computer hacking. The result of all that social engineering, phone-phreaking and computer hacking knowledge? Give him a telephone and a networked computer, and he'd do things that were unimaginable to most people."
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