John Carreyrou is an investigative journalist best known for his nonfiction reporting on corporate misconduct. In Bad Blood, he exposed the Theranos scandal and the deception surrounding Elizabeth Holmes. His work stands out for its precision, clarity, and ability to turn complex business fraud into a gripping narrative.
If you enjoy books by John Carreyrou, these authors are well worth exploring next:
Michael Lewis has a gift for making complicated stories about finance, politics, and power feel accessible and surprisingly entertaining. If Carreyrou’s reporting appealed to you, Lewis offers a similarly sharp way of unpacking systems that fail in spectacular fashion.
His book The Big Short follows the handful of outsiders who saw the 2008 financial crisis coming, exposing reckless behavior and uncomfortable truths at the heart of Wall Street.
Patrick Radden Keefe writes deeply reported nonfiction focused on secrecy, power, and accountability. Like Carreyrou, he is especially skilled at showing how influential people protect themselves while the damage spreads around them.
His book Empire of Pain traces the rise of the Sackler family and examines how their fortune became tied to America’s opioid crisis.
Bethany McLean is one of the standout writers on corporate deception and financial misconduct. Readers who appreciate Carreyrou’s direct, unsentimental style will likely respond to her equally clear and incisive approach.
Her book The Smartest Guys in the Room chronicles Enron’s meteoric rise and disastrous fall, revealing how arrogance, fraud, and greed unraveled the company.
Andrew Ross Sorkin writes with clarity and urgency about corporate power, finance, and crisis management. If Carreyrou’s account of institutional failure kept you hooked, Sorkin’s work offers another detailed look at high-stakes decision-making under pressure.
In Too Big to Fail, he delivers an inside account of the 2008 financial crisis, showing how key players responded as the economy teetered on the edge.
Bryan Burrough excels at turning dense corporate history into vivid, dramatic storytelling. Like Carreyrou, he combines strong reporting with an eye for ambition, excess, and the personalities driving major scandals.
Burrough's book Barbarians at the Gate recounts the famous RJR Nabisco takeover, capturing the greed, ego, and rivalry behind one of Wall Street’s most notorious deals.
Nick Bilton writes engagingly about the tech world and the outsized personalities behind major companies. His work will appeal to readers who enjoyed Carreyrou’s interest in what happens when ambition, image, and power collide.
His reporting is thorough, and if you appreciated how John Carreyrou exposed deceptive behavior in big business, you'll likely be drawn to Bilton's Hatching Twitter.
The book lays out the conflicts and internal struggles behind Twitter’s early years, offering a revealing look at ego, competition, and the scramble for influence.
Ben Mezrich specializes in true stories told with the momentum of a thriller. While his style is more cinematic than Carreyrou’s, both writers are drawn to ambitious figures, ethical gray areas, and the consequences of high-stakes decisions.
His book The Accidental Billionaires paints a lively picture of Facebook’s early days, tracing Mark Zuckerberg’s rise alongside the rivalries and betrayals that shaped the company.
Sheelah Kolhatkar writes incisively about Wall Street excess, corporate greed, and the blurry line between aggressive business tactics and outright misconduct. If you liked Carreyrou’s cool, clear-eyed reporting, her work should be a strong match.
If you liked Carreyrou’s clear-eyed account of deception and fraud, Kolhatkar’s Black Edge will resonate, as it explores the pursuit of insider trading charges against hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen.
Her crisp prose and thoughtful analysis illuminate the culture that allows questionable practices to flourish.
Kurt Eichenwald is known for meticulous investigative reporting on corporate wrongdoing and ethical collapse. Like Carreyrou, he can take a sprawling fraud case and make it both understandable and absorbing.
His book The Informant examines the FBI’s investigation into price-fixing at Archer Daniels Midland, while also exploring the complicated role of the whistleblower at its center.
James B. Stewart writes smart, compelling narratives about corruption, bad judgment, and the costs of unchecked ambition. Readers who admired Carreyrou’s methodical exposure of fraud should find a lot to like in Stewart’s work.
If you appreciated Carreyrou's deep dive into deceptive practices, Stewart's Den of Thieves offers a gripping portrayal of insider trading scandals on Wall Street, involving high-profile investors and traders in intricate webs of greed and deceit.
Roger Lowenstein is especially good at explaining complicated financial events through the people behind them. His books often show how brilliance, overconfidence, and institutional blind spots can lead directly to collapse.
One of his best-known books is When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management. It tells the story of a hedge fund led by financial luminaries whose confidence in their models could not save them from disaster.
Jesse Eisinger combines investigative rigor with a sharp, readable style that makes complex corporate and legal issues easier to grasp. His work frequently focuses on financial misconduct, accountability, and the failures of institutions meant to enforce the rules.
In the book The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives, Eisinger investigates why prosecutors so often hesitate to pursue top corporate leaders, offering a revealing critique of how white-collar crime is handled in America.
Peter Elkind shares Carreyrou’s strength for investigative storytelling that uncovers corruption hidden inside powerful organizations. His writing is detailed yet approachable, making large business scandals feel immediate and understandable.
The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, co-authored with Bethany McLean, delivers a rich and dramatic account of Enron’s accounting fraud and spectacular collapse.
John Helyar stands out for blending careful reporting with lively storytelling. He has a strong feel for the personalities, rivalries, and backroom maneuvering that turn financial events into memorable drama.
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (co-authored with Bryan Burrough) captures the greed, infighting, and strategic chaos surrounding one of the biggest leveraged buyout battles in history.
Joe Nocera writes about financial controversy with a strong sense of its human consequences. He is particularly effective at turning abstract market failures into stories about judgment, incentives, and moral compromise.
His co-authored book with Bethany McLean, All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, explains the mistakes, greed, and poor decisions that fueled the financial meltdown, while keeping the focus on the people who made it happen.
