Books

Helter Skelter. It’s on the Manson family and it’s super entertaining

The Winter Fortress by Neil Bascomb. It details a British/Norwegian raid to destroy Nazi Germany's heavy water plant.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Longitude by dava sobel

Great recommendation! I've always been fascinated by the Mumbai gang wars, and it's amazing to find a history book that reads like a thriller. I'll definitely add Dongri to Dubai to my reading list. Thanks for sharing!

Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński aka. Jack Strong biography. Man is better than most spy/thriller literature.

Empire of the Summer Moon. Absolutely brutal, but it’s a hard one to put down.

‘Josephine Baker, American beauty, French Hero, British spy’ is AMAZING. True story of an incredible woman who risked everything in WW2, certainly reads like a thriller.

It's fascinating how the book blends detailed historical accounts with the gripping narrative of a thriller. Growing up in Mumbai during that era must have given you a unique perspective on the events described in the book. It's always intriguing when a non-fiction book manages to be as engrossing as any fiction out there

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre

River of Doubt. About Teddy Roosevelt’s experience in Brazil navigating the river.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe about the Northern Ireland Troubles is right up this alley.

Red notice by Bill Browder, chiling

King Leopold’s Ghost - the story and characters are so cinematic and gripping that I’m shocked there’s not a movie.

Oh man, so many good suggestions here.

My recommendations:

Adam Higginbotham - Midnight in Chernobyl

• Fantastic history of the Chernobyl disaster.

Michael Lewis - The Premonition

• A story about the virology community reacting to a strange new illness emerging from China and trying to convince those in positions of authority to take the threat seriously.

Wade Davis - Into the Silence

• The story of George Mallory's attempt to summit Mt. Everest in 1923. Did he make it? How did WWI shape the views of the legendary climbers who first tried to scale the world's tallest mountain?

Martin Middlebrook - The First Day on the Somme

• July 1st, 1916 was the bloodiest day in British military history. Middlebrook's history examines that first day of the Battle of the Somme from the perspective of the ordinary soldiers who faced the daunting "race to the parapet" against their German counterparts.

Lastly I'd add Cornelius Ryan's classic WWII trilogy: The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far and The Last Battle. All absolutely brilliant narrative histories.

And the band played on, people politics and the aids epidemic. It's a pretty big book but I breezed through it. It's very sad but also almost reads like a detective. A mysterious virus appears, people start dying but no one knows why, how does it spread? Covid hit about a year after I read this book and it really felt kind of the same. The book is also very very das though, but really worth a read.

Anything by Umberto Eco

The Devil in the White City

Chronicles by Jean Froissart. A very readable account of the Hundred Years’ War

I’d also recommend Dan Jones’ books The Templars and Crusaders.

Marc Morris and Ian Mortimer also have great medieval history books

Read some of Jeff Shaara's work. Rise to Rebellion is one

Endurance by Alfred Lansing. I think that qualities as history

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer.

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live by Paul Kix

The Day of St Anthony's Fire, John G. Fuller.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

In Harms Way by Doug Stanton. Only book I’ve read in one sitting. Could not put it down. What those sailors went through…just insane.

Erich Maria Remarque - Arch of Triumph

So good. A German doctor that fled to Paris during the Nazi occupation and works undercover as a surgion. One day he sees the Gestapo officer that killed his wife. A Cat and Mouse scenario begins.

Also beautifully written, cause Remarque 🙂

A Higher Call by Adam Makos was awesome. It reads like a war movie.

On a first date, when I walked into the lady's house I noticed a Tom Wolfe novel on her coffee table. When I asked her what she thought of it she said it was "mind candy". I've never forgotten that phrase.

I could not put down The Wager. Maybe not a thriller exactly, but the "will they make it?" suspense was brilliant.

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore.

I really enjoyed this one. I got turned on to it by a character in a John le Carré novel who was reading it. It’s a page turner. Herod was certainly a mob boss villain of epic proportions.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. It is about Mormonism. Trigger warning though, there's some messed up stuff in that book. It's definitely a heavy read.

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. I was riveted throughout.

Descent Into Madness by Vernon Frolick, story of a manhunt for a mad trapper in the remote British Columbia wilderness in the ‘80s. Absolutely insane

Band of Brothers, while not exactly a thriller style setup is well paced and magnificent.

Shake Hands With The Devil by Romeo Dallaire, eyewitness account of the Rwandan Genocide

The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick, Custer and The Little Bighorn

The Tiger by John Vaillant, account of the hunt of a man eating tiger

Golden Spruce by John Valliant, the account of a killing of a tree

Devil In The Grove by Gilbert King

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Read it this year and it’s the best book I’ve read in years.

Undaunted Courage