Books like American Kingpin

The journalist Nathaniel Popper starts at the beginning, telling the story of how Bitcoin emerged from message boards and was slowly but surely propelled forward by government-wary libertarians, computer science nerds, and opportunistic venture capitalists.

Popper persuasively articulates the many problems that Bitcoin solves across the world—and then reveals its extremely bumpy road toward adoption. 

The Infinite Machine is the beach-read Ethereum book.

Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain out there. It’s the one that’s sometimes referred to as The World Computer, because it can function like an actual computer, but no one owns it. Thousands of people are running it.

If that sounds very abstract and weird, well: it is. Cami Russo walks readers through how that functionality got used in the early days, plus a couple of the really big screw-ups made with this complex global machine. 

It’s a fun book, for as abstract as it all is. She manages to go out and find a bunch of the relevant characters from those early events and bring them to life. 

Most of the talk about cryptocurrency in the mainstream is about Bitcoin, but, the truth is, most of the activity that drives that conversation happens on Ethereum. If you want to understand the weird… show more.

The Cryptopians covers basically the same ground as The Infinite Machine, but in much, much more detail. 

Shin very much sets out to dig the skeletons out of the closet from the earliest days of the Ethereum adventure. 

The thing you have to understand about how Ethereum started is this: A 19-year-old gawky immigrant kid who was completely conflict averse came up with the vision. A bunch of moderately rich guys and hacker types heard his ideas and saw money start to burst out of their eyeballs. They all moved into a house together and tried to build it and a lot of personal rivalries and drama ensued. 

Then there were a couple of gigantic early screw-ups that nearly sank the whole thing. 

Shin goes through it all blow by blow. There are a lot of “he said/she said” sort of moments in the book.

One of the wildest things… show more.

So this book only has one chapter on cryptocurrency (and it dismisses it), but it’s still a worthwhile addition to this list, and here’s why:

Money does a great job showing readers what a protean thing money really is and has always been. Every time money is about to make a giant change in human history, people think that change is completely crazy and will never work. And then it happens, and before long people seem to believe that money could have never worked any other way.

Does it sound relevant now?

While Goldstein eloquently explains and then dismisses Bitcoin in these pages (in fact, it’s one of the best dismissals I’ve ever read), it’s still a worthy entry for anyone who wants to wrap their heads around why so many people have invested so much in fundamentally changing how money works here in the 21st Century.

Once you know… show more.

This book is forensics for the layman. No mechanical component replaces education and knowledge. Electronics break down and computers are just machines. It is a good "old-fashioned" investigation work that solves crimes. This book explains how. It is easy-to-read, exciting for students, "couch cops," and even investigators. This book appeals to all types of learners with a thorough history of investigative processes filled with photos, charts, sketches, and maps. It also includes case studies of criminals and criminal behavior, manner of death, and profiling.

No, this book doesn't discuss the latest in lasers and it only briefly touches on DNA. It's about the natural investigative process: reasonable doubt, time and cause of death, criminal behavior, and courtroom proceedings. Want to read up on the future of orbiting satellites in investigative technology? Try another book. Want to see human eyelashes magnified by 50x in order to understand skin and hair samples?… show more.

I worked at Arthur Andersen, and I was selected to be among the few teams that started to understand, learn, and apply risk assessments or business risk management methodology. In this book, I came across these concepts again, which are vital to identifying where the risk of money laundering and any other crime may occur. In addition, this book also includes useful information to be considered in the compliance program and how fraud and corruption are related to money laundering. It's a book that provides solid knowledge.

Journalist and award-winning crime writer Val McDermid is known for her gritty novels. In Forensics, she draws on her connections to introduce us to forensic crime fighting around the world. The best part for me: she introduced behind-the-scenes elements to cases I thought I already knew. And she is a novelist. She knows how to tell a good story.

The quest to endure and overcome against seemingly impossible odds is a strong theme with The Highway. I liked that and also that the characters came alive from the first page.

The main character Cassie Dewell’s interaction with those around her keeps you guessing as to whether she is smart or flaky. As a rookie investigator in a rural sheriff’s department beset with corruption she has her work cut out to survive. The stressed interplay of her family and work life ramps up tension when she gets on the trail of a serial killer, snatching his victims from highways and truck stops. The plot is compelling and you hold your breath as you leaf through each page. If page-turning crime thrillers are your thing, I recommend The Highway.

Frieda Klein is a psychotherapist dedicated to helping her patients overcome their private horrors. She tells them that they are in a safe place with her—nothing will go beyond these walls. Until one day, a patient’s dreams and desires accord so closely to the case of a missing child that she decides to break that promise.

She finds herself involved in a complex police investigation that can only be solved with her specialist insight. The tension mounts to breaking point as she tracks down the killer, ending in a shocking climax that comes straight out of the left field.

I have to confess that I discovered these books after watching the TV series Department Q. As soon as I saw "Based on the books by Jussi Adler-Olsen," I knew I had to read them.

The books differ significantly from the TV show. For one thing, they are set in Copenhagen, not Scotland. But the dark humour and clever plots are still the same. In this, the first of the series, Carl Morck—who is recovering from an incident where two of his colleagues were shot—is made the head of Department Q, looking into cold cases.

His first case is the disappearance of a politician who we know is still alive, but no one—apart from Morck—is looking for him anymore, assuming he fell off a ferry.