Books like Killers of the Flower Moon

01

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Say Nothing opens with a scene that sets its register precisely: Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, is dragged from her Belfast flat by a gang of masked strangers in December 1972 and never seen alive again.

A kindred history read.

02

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Empire of Pain is Patrick Radden Keefe's account of the Sackler family — the dynasty behind Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis — told across three generations.

A kindred history read.

03

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

John Carreyrou · Business

Bad Blood is Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou's account of Theranos, the blood-testing startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes that claimed its proprietary technology could run hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single finger-prick of blood.

A kindred history read.

04

The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson · History

The Devil in the White City tells two stories that unfolded simultaneously in Chicago in 1893.

A kindred history read.

05

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · Biography

Unbroken follows Louis Zamperini from his juvenile delinquency in Depression-era California to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he ran the 5,000 meters at nineteen and briefly caught Hitler's attention.

A kindred history read.

06

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Thomas E. Ricks · History

Thomas Ricks was the Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post when he wrote Fiasco, and the book reflects years of direct access to the military officials, planners, and soldiers involved in the Iraq War.

Both dig into institutional failure.

07

The Gray Lady Winked

Ashley Rindsberg · History

The Gray Lady Winked is a critical history of the New York Times, focused on cases where the paper's reporting was demonstrably wrong, selectively presented, or actively misleading.

Both dig into institutional failure.

08

Barbarians at the Gate

Bryan Burrough · Business

Barbarians at the Gate is Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's account of the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, at the time the largest corporate transaction in history.

Both dig into greed.

09

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote · Memoir

Truman Capote's account of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas — and of the investigation, capture, trial, and execution of the killers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — is the founding document of the true crime genre and one of the most admired works of American nonfiction of the twentieth century.

Both dig into true crime.

10

Liar's Poker

Michael Lewis · Business

Liar's Poker is Michael Lewis's account of his years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s, the decade when Wall Street stopped being a gentleman's club and became something closer to a casino.

Both dig into greed.

11

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis · Economics

The Big Short is Michael Lewis's account of the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of a handful of contrarians who saw the collapse coming, bet against the American housing market, and were right.

Both dig into greed.

12

The Cartel

Don Winslow · Thriller

The Cartel is the second installment in Don Winslow's trilogy about the Mexican drug war, picking up years after The Power of the Dog left off.

Both dig into institutional failure.