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History book that reads like a thriller (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by ta9876543205@alien.top to c/books@metacritics.zone

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I am reading Dongri to Dubai by S. Hussain Zaidi.

Growing up in Mumbai in the 1980s/90s, I remember reading news stories about the Mumbai gang wars.

This book covers that in great detail and as such qualifies as a genuine history book.

And yet, it reads like a potboiler. It is essentially unputdownable.

10/10

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[–] SprawlValkyrie@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

The Tiger by John Vaillant. True story of a Siberian tiger that developed a grudge against area hunters in the 1990s and the team that had to take it down. Informative and gripping.

[–] HoneyHonjour@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

A lot of investigative history books are like this. Two that come to mind are Blue Thunder by Thomas Burdick (a Playboy writer looking into the death of Miami speedboat pioneer Don Aranow) and Chaos by Tom O’Neill (about Charles Manson being an unwitting intelligence asset)

[–] SnooRadishes5305@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Erik Larson

Devil in the White City

Basically can’t go wrong

Edit - I’m saving this post for go to gifts for my dad haha

[–] DeterminedStupor@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

John Keane's biography of Thomas Paine feels like a political thriller.

[–] ChiliDogMe@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

It's about Ebola and a potential outbreak in Virginia. It reads like a thriller, and I have been terrified by Ebola after I read it.

There's a TV show of the same name that came out in 2019.

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