The Modern Detective: How Corporate Intelligence Is Reshaping the World

This is a weird and wonderful book. The author is a private investigator, and it seems he just decided to write a book one day about cases he’s worked on.

And the book is really good. Each chapter details a separate case, and goes deep into details. You find that being a corporate PI is not about chasing down unfaithful spouses, but about finding out where a fugitive was hiding money, or whether or not a journalist faked a hit piece about a company, or locating an embezzler who fled the Middle East.

It’s extraordinarily well-written, to the point where I was convinced there had to be a co-author (though none is listed). Each chapter is compelling reading, and absolutely none of it seems overblown or dramatized. Some cases hinge on wildly mundane things, and you begin to realize that the fun is in the details. The fun is in chasing everything down and piece together a tiny thread of something that opens everything up.

It’s a short book. I spent maybe a couple hours on it. But I’d absolutely read a sequel. This guy could just keep the stories coming and I’d read them all.