Devoured Family of Spies by for its unflinching dissection of familial betrayal? Let Empire of Pain by take you deeper.
Buy on AmazonWhy It's Your Next Read
- Dynasty's rot exposed w/ investigative rigor
- Greed corrodes loyalty—no heroes here
- Archival receipts fuel every damning revelation
- Elite entitlement triggers mass American suffering
If the Walker family's espionage exposed how ordinary greed metastasizes into national catastrophe, the Sackler dynasty's pharmaceutical empire reveals the same rot on a deadlier scale. Patrick Radden Keefe dissects three generations of calculated ambition, entitlement, and moral erasure with the same evidence-obsessed rigor that made Family of Spies impossible to put down—no sanitizing, no excuses, just the unvarnished mechanics of familial betrayal dressed as business acumen.
Where Kuehn gave you declassified documents and psychological autopsy, Keefe delivers sealed depositions and boardroom transcripts that map how grudges and economic hunger corrupt at dynastic scale. It's the same voyeuristic thrill, weaponized against elite impunity.
Watch a family's entitlement fuel a public nightmare—and judge every calculated step.
What Readers Are Saying
"From the very first page, I was riveted... It was a fascinating read from beginning to end, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This is investigative nonfiction at its best." — Yun, Goodreads
"Empire of Pain is an exhaustive and totally engrossing examination... Keefe has a gift for taking an overwhelming amount of information and organizing it carefully into an engrossing exposé that astonishes and angers. This book is more than a damning exposé; it’s an education." — Caroline, Goodreads
"Empire of Pain is a staggering, relentlessly infuriating book that swallows you whole... It is, in all ways, a great book; though your soul might just curdle from reading it." — chai (thelibrairie on tiktok) ♡, Goodreads
Supermassive Book Hole is your personal media universe — books, movies, games, and albums on one beautiful shelf, with notes, and a feed of what your friends are into.
SHELVE THIS BOOK
