Best (Business) Crime Reads
Having ghostwritten 9 books and put out my own on marketing’s rich history, I know what books do well. Self-help, leadership, romance, wellness are hot categories. So, too, is true crime…and not only in the form of books. Podcasts, streaming content, traditional television, long read articles and more share the depravity and cruelness of the human condition to a large audience.
I am not writing here to profile, explain or justify true crime. It is not my genre though I must admit, while cutting the lawn, I may listen to the podcast version of NBC’s Dateline. Spoiler alert: 99 times out of 100, the boyfriend or husband did it, or, the girlfriend or wife.
What I want to share are stories that have fascinated me going back 30 years. That is, business, financial or corporate crime. It all started on one of my first business trips. In 1988, I traveled from Winnipeg to Toronto. At the tender age of 25, somehow I had fallen into the world of professional fundraising for nonprofits. I was repping three Winnipeg institutions and was soliciting big business in the Big Smoke (a Toronto nickname).
Between meetings, I entered a Coles bookstore underground the towers of First Canadian Place (this was interesting as later I had an office in the building while working for Price Waterhouse and the Coles chain became a client). One book cover called to me from the shelf. The flashy cover and clever title beckoned and enticed.
