What is it about organised crime that the rest of us find so compelling? Is it our need to look at the darker underbelly of the world in which we live? A fascination with the dark side? Whatever it is, the following list should suit the tastes of anyone who wants to delve into the underworld without putting themselves in any danger.

If you’ve never read a book on organised crime and want a widescreen view to its sordid machinations, then Misha Glenny’s McMafia is probably the best place to start. This excellent primer kicks off by examining the rise of organised crime in Europe at the end of the ’80s and early ’90s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is Glenny’s contention that the Cold War provided an excellent training ground for criminals, in terms of both contacts and methods (80% of all Europe’s heroin went through the Bulgarian secret service during this time). With Russia’s collapse, a vast network of former agents and cops found themselves without jobs, but vastly experienced in organising criminal operations on an international scale.

From there, Glenny’s treatise looks at similar situations that gave rise to organised crime syndicates in other parts of the world – the Middle East, India, Colombia and yes, South Africa among them – where political instability and resource-rich countries attracted the attentions of some of the world’s most violent and ruthless criminals.

When most of us think of Italy, we think of beautiful art, ancient buildings, glorious food and excellent cappuccino. Robert Saviano’s Gomorrah peels away that romantic vision to reveal a country in which child soldiers, sweatshops, human trafficking and drug pushing are rife. Thanks to the operations of the Camorra – the Neapolitan mafia – the Campania region of the country has the highest murder rate in Europe. Frighteningly, there doesn’t seem to be an illegal pie the Camorra doesn’t have its fingers in. The mafia’s operations run the gamut from drug smuggling and illegal toxic-waste dumping to producing expensive highfashion knock-offs (thanks to stealing their materials at the port of Naples, which the Camorra control.) Saviano’s

exposé is so detailed and thorough that he now has to live in hiding under 24- hour armed guard.

Of all the international crime cartels, the Japanese Yakuza is probably the most mysterious and the least reported on outside of the Pacific Rim. This is what makes Tokyo Vice such a compelling read. Even aficionados of true crime reportage will be in unfamiliar territory here. Jake Adelstein worked as a crime reporter for one of Tokyo’s major papers.
It’s a job he did so well that a chapter of the Yakuza threatened to kill him (albeit politely) if he didn’t stop writing about them.

The book’s narrative follows the investigation Adelstein conducted that got him into so much trouble, but it also reveals a lot about the Yakuza, how the syndicates rose from the ashes of WWII to become virtually unstoppable in their acquisition of power. It also shows, thanks to the Yakuza’s tendrils reaching into politics and lobbying, how powerless authorities are to stop them.