Satisfy your thirst for intrigue with our collection of business and finance books that read like political thrillers. Truth is stranger than fiction…

A Wunch of Bankers by Daniel Ziffer

The dark heart of banking is brought to the cold light of day in Daniel Ziffer’s A Wunch of Bankers, a meticulously researched and completely thrilling look into the banking royal commission that enraged and enthralled Australia from December 2017 to February 2019. As our reviewer Chris puts it, ‘the public can’t get enough of watching the guilty powerful try to squirm out of trouble and embarrass themselves while doing it.’ Read the full review here.

Banking Bad by Adele Ferguson (Available August 2019)

This is a book for every person with a bank account. Few people were more instrumental in bringing about the banking royal commission than journalist and author Adele Ferguson. Now, in Banking Bad, Ferguson tells the full story of the events that led to the royal commission with insight. But she also looks to the future and asks, ‘now what?’ With the government that resisted the commission re-elected, will it be business as usual now, or will those financial executives in their ivory towers have learnt that their wealth cannot come at the expense of ordinary Australians? Either way, if you have a bank account, you have a stake in this.

The People vs The Banks by Michael Roddan

People will protest: you can bank on it. Where the banking royal commission exposed the corruption and self-interest of the financial sector, The People vs The Banks is an examination of what happens when businesses put reward before their clients and reward bad behaviour by assuming that they are beyond the law. The day of reckoning has arrived. The People vs The Banks is a real page-turner that almost reads like a classic true crime, but it is also a cautionary tale of what happens when a service industry forgets to provide its true purpose: to serve.

Paper Emperors by Sally Young

Who owns Australia’s newspapers, and how are they used to wield political power? Sally Young’s Paper Emperors is a fascinating and intriguing corporate and political history that spans 140 years and examines how the Australian newspaper industry came to be dominated by a select few household names – we’ve all heard of the Murdochs, after all. Packed with political drama, you’ll learn a whole slew of things about the Australian newspaper industry. For example, did you know Australia’s first newspaper owner was a convict? And that for years, Australians were unaware that they were reading newspapers owned by secret bankrupts and failed land boomers, powerful mining magnates, Underbelly-style gangsters, bankers, and corporate titans? Fascinating.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Four denizens in the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight. The Big Short tells a story of spectacular, epic folly, examined in excruciating detail by the internationally bestselling author Michael Lewis. No one is better qualified to get to the heart of this labyrinthine story than Lewis, and he certainly knows how to make it a riveting, enthralling ride.

Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

Billion Dollar Whale is the extraordinary inside account of the 1MDB scandal – a must-read tale that exposes the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics from Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, two award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters. The dust was yet to settle from the GFC in 2009 when an unprecedented fraud was being set into motion. It began in Malaysia and would spread around the world, touching some of the world’s leading financial firms, A-list Hollywood celebrities, supermodels, Las Vegas casinos and nightclubs, and even the art world. Now known as the 1MDB affair, the scandal would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system.

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Is there a single member of society who isn’t just a little intrigued by what goes on behind closed doors in Silicon Valley? Whether it’s whispers of a ball pit at Google or Elon Musk’s bizarre sleep routines, rumours have been circulating about that strange and entrepreneurial place for years. In Bad Blood, John Carreyrou weaves the fascinating tale of Elizabeth Holmes, a woman who for a time was widely seen as a female Steve Jobs; the CEO and founder of a company that promised to revolutionise the medical industry by making blood tests faster and easier. But Holmes had deceived her investors, her colleagues and her employees: the technology didn’t work at all. Bad Blood unpacks this remarkable story, cautioning us against blind faith in a small group of brilliant individuals.