I recommended this one in WSIRN Episode 20: Southern classics, sweeping sagas, and spunky women with Sarah Russell Giglio. Abbott brings four little-known stories to life—four women who were spies in the Civil War. Confederate spy Belle Boyd used her southern charms to seduce men into telling their secrets. Emma Edmonds went undercover as a male enlisted soldier. Rose O’Neale Greenhow used her connections and status as a prominent widow to gather intelligence, and abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew covered an entire espionage ring, tricking rebel soldiers with her proper manners. Well-known characters enter the narrative, like Walt Whitman, Pinkerton, and the Lincolns as Abbott takes you inside the war and undercover with these incredibly bold women.

In this true crime tale, Abbott sets out the story of George Remus, a teetotaler who built a whiskey empire during Prohibition, and was so successful that at one point he controlled 30% of the liquor consumed during that time. I felt like I was reading about a real-life Jay Gatsby. A truth-is-stranger-than-fiction epic from the Jazz Age.