Best Investigative Journalism Books

John Carreyrou, a former Wall Street Journal journalist, spent 20 years uncovering corporate scandals. In Bad Blood, he investigates the rise and fall of Theranos, a startup led by Elizabeth Holmes that promised to revolutionize blood testing. The book reads like a thriller and showcases top-notch investigative journalism.

Journalist Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear offers a compelling look into Scientology, based on over 200 interviews with current and former members and extensive archival research. It uncovers the church’s secret efforts to infiltrate the U.S. government, its struggles for legitimacy, and its survival after the founder’s death. The book raises thought-provoking questions about what defines a religion.

Thompson is considered to be the founder of Gonzo journalism – a genre of its own, which helped him capture the best account we have of the truth behind Hell’s Angels closed doors.

When journalist Ronan Farrow caught wind of a story about a powerful Hollywood producer who was known to be a prolific sexual predator, he began digging—and immediately faced backlash, threats, and even blackmail. This book is a high-level investigative journalism piece of how powerful people leverage their wealth and privilege to protect themselves, and how he relentlessly pursued the truth to bring down a predator and all of the people who enabled him.