Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Most Read FBI Books

By Mattie MacDonald


The FBI has been the subject of numerous narratives relating to its history, defining moments, operations, challenges and successes. This has inspired writers of fiction and non-fiction books to develop exciting plots through imagination and real accounts. The range of FBI books available in circulation covers all angles of the operations of this bureau that works in secrecy.

Enemies is a title by Tim Weiner that gives an account of the growth of this institution into what it is now. The author has worked for the organization and CIA at a certain point. He is a recipient of Pulitzer award as a confirmation of his writing prowess. It details how presidents have used the institutions to achieve their political goals.

Ronald Kessler is a journalist of no mean repute who used his interview and compilations skills to come up with the title The Bureau. The book features an interview with one of the former heads of the bureau. His main point is the September 11 attack. He seeks to examine how prepared the institution was for the attack.

Christopher de Bellaigue has followed the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan and ended up with the book What Only Soldiers Understand. It features real combat including explosions and bullets slamming into wood, metal and earth. The book follows the life of Private Juan Sebastian who perished in Afghanistan and remains a hero to the American people.

The rejection by the Supreme Court in 1959 of a petition by her husband is the subject of this novel entitled How FBI Turned Me On that is written by Zemon Natalie Davis. The petition was filed to question the legality of a house committee on non-American affairs. The court refused to here the petition but the message had been passed across. Natalie got the idea after being asked to reflect on her past after she was awarded National Humanities Medal.

Other titles are inspired by this bureau but adopt a fictional perspective. An example is Point Blank that stars Savich and Sherlock, a married couple working on a kidnapping and murder case. They are unaware that the next target is Sherlock. The reason she is targeted is because the kidnapping duo have a personal vendetta against her husband. It takes more than professional conduct for Savich to save his love.

The Man Who Kept Secrets is written by Thomas Powers about Richard Helms. He was the head of CIA at one point and therefore tells the inside story of investigations. The exciting weaving of its plot almost turns it into fiction. Thomas has mastered the art of story telling.

Eyeball to Eyeball is an account given by Dino Brugioni about the Cuban missile crisis. It is made curiously interesting when one considers that Dino was a top CIA officer during the crisis. This makes it a careful recording of the crisis from within.

The combination of what is known and the unknown makes books about the bureau more interesting. There always is a juicy part that is not known to the public that is revealed in non-fiction writing. Fictional titles seek to offer explanations or speculate about the goings on in an institution charged with maintaining secrecy.




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