Josh Dean

Josh Dean is a magazine journalist and author based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

His new book is The Taking of K-129: How the CIA Used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History.

Recently I asked Dean about what he was reading. His reply:

Because of the nature of my book — it’s a historical narrative — I’ve tended to read only books that serve to inspire or inform the writing. And even though my book is finished, I haven’t been able to shake that. I guess I should admit to myself that this is just the genre I like most, as a writer and a reader. That means, authors like Erik Larson, Laura Hillenbrand, and David Grann, who can recall historic events in incredible detail and in kaleidoscopic color. Anyone who reads to the end of my book will see that there’s a bit of a link there, between it and Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. But I finally got to read that book recently, and it’s predictably awesome. How this story was lost to time I’ll never understand. But Grann is a master of the riveting non-fiction narrative, and this book is no exception.

The book I want to read next, if I can get my hands on a galley, is Jason Fagone’s The Woman Who Smashed Codes. Jason is a friend and fellow journalist and it’s just an accident that we both ended up devoting two years to books about spies, but the eras, and subjects are very different. He’s one of the best writers in today’s magazine world, so I have no doubt that it will be great.

Visit Josh Dean's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Taking of K-129.

The Page 99 Test: The Taking of K-129.

--Marshal Zeringue