Books like The Dogs of Riga

01

Faceless Killers

Henning Mankell · Mystery

Faceless Killers is the first Kurt Wallander novel, published in Swedish in 1991 and translated to English in 1997.

A kindred thriller read.

02

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

Ben Macintyre · History

Ben Macintyre tells the story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who became the most important British spy of the Cold War.

A kindred thriller read.

03

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

Ben Macintyre · History

Eddie Chapman was a safecracker, con man, and professional criminal who became Britain's most remarkable double agent during World War II.

A kindred thriller read.

04

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.

A kindred thriller read.

05

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.

Both dig into political violence.

06

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 moral compromise.

07

The Firm

John Grisham · Thriller

Mitch McDeere is a Harvard Law graduate who accepts a job at a small, lavishly compensating Memphis firm called Bendini, Lambert & Locke.

Both dig into moral compromise.

08

The Power of the Dog

Don Winslow · Thriller

The Power of the Dog is Don Winslow's epic of the American drug war, covering roughly three decades from the 1970s to the early 2000s and tracing the rise of the Sinaloa cartel through the lives of a DEA agent, a priest, a hitman, a cartel boss, and several other figures whose fates are bound together by money, faith, violence, and the specific kind of corruption that a war without exit produces.

Both dig into moral compromise.

09

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

John le Carré · Thriller

George Smiley, a rumpled, semi-retired British intelligence officer, is pulled back from the cold to investigate a claim that a Soviet mole has burrowed into the very top of MI6 — the Circus, as insiders call it.

Both dig into moral compromise.

10

A Darker Shade of Magic

V.E. Schwab · Fantasy

A Darker Shade of Magic is set across four parallel versions of London — Red, Grey, White, and the long-destroyed Black — each existing in the same location but separated by the barriers between worlds.

Both dig into loyalty and betrayal.

11

A Game of Thrones

George R.R. Martin · Fantasy

A Game of Thrones is the first volume of George R.R.

Both dig into loyalty and betrayal.

12

An Ember in the Ashes

Sabaa Tahir · Fantasy

An Ember in the Ashes is set in a Roman Empire-inspired world where the Martial empire has conquered and brutalized the Scholar people for centuries.

Both dig into loyalty and betrayal.