Shell game
a true story of banking, spies, lies, politics--and the arming of Saddam Hussein
Only hours after Iraq's surrender ended the Persian Gulf War on February 27, 1991, federal officials swarmed the suburban home of an Atlanta banker. They handcuffed and arrested him on 347 felony charges - enough to send him to prison for some nine hundred years. Christopher Drogoul, the handsome and personable manager of the Atlanta branch of Italy's government-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, was painted as an evil mastermind. The United States government charged Drogoul with secretly and illegally funneling more than $4 billion to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The official line portrayed Drogoul as a high-tech con man, carrying out a prodigious fraud to feed his own greed and duping his Italian bosses, U.S. regulatory agencies, and Washington itself. But was Christopher Drogoul a brilliant manipulator or merely a pawn in a game run by much more powerful players?
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Dark tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3121-3169-2
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL1276907M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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Science, Technology And The German Cultural Imagination
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Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.