From the jungle of Sierra Leone to the underworld cafes frequented by notorious Italian thieves, I will follow a story no matter where it leads. These books showcase my love of narrative nonfiction, applying storytelling techniques that are more commonly used in novels to fact-based nonfiction rooted in old-school standards of gumshoe journalism.
Available as an e-book only.
POT INC (2012) presents a compelling, close-up investigation of America's schizophrenic attitude toward the legalization of pot, but with a twist: I did it by growing my own weed in the basement of my suburban home as a dubious — but state-sanctioned — medical marijuana “patient.” I emerged from this experiment with an entirely new appreciation for people who’ve suffered in silence, and risked it all, to find relief in a plant that the government, against all evidence, still considers to be dangerous.
FLAWLESS (2010) is a fast-paced global scavenger hunt uncovering the truth behind what is still the largest heist of all time. Tracking clues, sources, and documents throughout Europe — from seedy cafés in Italy to sleek diamond offices in Belgium — I teamed up with coauthor Scott Andrew Selby to retrace how a gang of thieves’ penetrated a high-security vault in the heart of Antwerp’s diamond district without tripping a single alarm. The book details how they brilliantly neutralized each element of the security while inviting the readers into the secretive world of diamonds and diamond dealing.
BLOOD DIAMONDS (2002) inspired the film starring Leonard DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly. This is the true story of how international diamond smuggling works, how a ruthless rebel war effectively destroyed Sierra Leone in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and how the policies of the diamond industry — institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel — allowed it to happen.
THE ROAD TO KOSOVO (1999) is a first-person, on-the-road examination of the forces at play in the former republics of Yugoslavia in the 1990s leading up to the conflict in Kosovo. Re-released in 2011.