Why spend your time reading mystery novels this summer, when real-world mysteries are swirling through the global financial system?

Fenergo, the software firm that works with compliance officers from 17 of the top 50 banks in the world, has put together a riveting summer reading list for compliance folk. It includes titles that cover the international underworld of money laundering, insights into the thoughts of criminals, fraud, practical advice and business lessons. It all has the added value of being true. Enjoy!

• Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite, by Jake Bernstein
This two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter takes you inside the world that the Panama Papers revealed - a landscape of illicit money, political corruption and fraud on a global scale. Bernstein explores this shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca ― a treasure trove now known as the Panama Papers ― as well as other journalistic and government investigations. He exposes the ways in which shell companies operate, how they allow the super-wealthy and celebrities to escape taxes and how they provide cover for illicit activities with a worldwide sweep by crime bosses and corrupt politicians.

• The Cleaner: The True Story of One of the World’s Most Successful Money Launderers, by Bruce Aitken
Coming from humble beginnings in the town of Hasbrouck Heights in New Jersey, Bruce Aitken was determined to be a baseball player until fate took a hand in the form of a knee injury and forever changed the course of his life. When he answered an ad in a newspaper, he did not know that he was embarking on a globe-trotting lifestyle of moving money - huge sums of money - for some of the world’s most notorious and shady characters. From the jungles of Vietnam to the money capitals of the world, Bruce met people who were prepared to hand over millions of dollars to him on a handshake, to be deposited into Swiss Bank accounts.

• The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money, by Bastian and Frederik Obermaier
In early 2015, an anonymous informant led these two investigative journalists into the shadow economy where the super-rich hide billions of dollars in complex financial networks. Thus began a ground-breaking investigation that saw an international team of 400 journalists work in secret for a year to uncover cases involving heads of state, politicians, businessmen, big banks, the Mafia, diamond miners, art dealers and celebrities. A real-life thriller, The Panama Papers is the gripping account of how the story of the century was exposed to the world.

• Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World, by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
This is the inside account of Ben Mezrich, a 'modern Gatsby,' who managed to swindle people out of more than $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, exposing the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics. An epic true-tale of hubris and greed, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how this young social climber pulled off one of the biggest heists in history - right under the nose of the global financial industry. Federal agents who helped unravel Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme say that the 1MDB affair will become the textbook case of financial fraud in the modern age - and its fallout is already being credited with the demise of the prime minister of Malaysia.

• The Infiltrator: The True Story of One Man Against the Biggest Drug Cartel in History, by Robert Mazur
US Federal Agent Robert Mazur spent five years undercover as a money launderer operating on behalf of international underworld bosses, gaining access to the apex of a criminal hierarchy safeguarded by a circle of dirty bankers and businessmen who quietly run politics all over the globe. In 1987, Mazur began infiltrating the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International or BCCI, the money-laundering shop behind the Colombian Medellín cartel. He gathered evidence meticulously for years until, during a fake wedding, his fellow federal agents arrested more than 40 high-ranking criminals who were all subsequently found guilty and sent to prison. Never before told, this is the incredible, true story of how he did it. The book was turned into a major motion picture starring Brian Cranston.

• Principles: Life and Work, by Ray Dalio
In Principles, Dalio shares what he has learnt over the course of his remarkable career as the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the most successful hedge fund in the world. He argues that life, management, economics and investing can all be 'systemised' into rules and understood in the way that one might understand the way in which machines work. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around Dalio' cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency,” include the most effective ways in which individuals and organisations can make decisions, tackle problems and assemble strong teams. He also describes "the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life," an endeavour that entails the creation of “baseball cards” for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses and the use of computerised decision-making systems to make "believability-weighted decisions." Although the book brims over with novel ideas for organisations and institutions, it also presents the reader with a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making that anyone can apply...it says here.