Pocket Files — Investigations You Can Finish on the Train
A New Backstage Exposé Format

Pocket Files.

Short. Sharp. True.
The case before the book.

Sometimes you don't need three hundred pages. You need the case, the evidence, and the verdict — delivered tight enough to finish on a train, dense enough to talk about for weeks. Pocket Files are short-form investigations: one case each, under 150 pages, built to the same BSE editorial standard as our full investigations.

POCKET / 003
The Bahamas File
128 pages · 2hr read
POCKET / 002
The Guernsey Trust
96 pages · 90min read
POCKET / 001
The Twelve Voicemails
112 pages · 2hr read
The Idea

Two formats. One standard.

Pocket Files aren't lighter investigations. They're tighter ones. Same source hierarchy, same Smoking Gun rule, same editorial protocol — applied to one specific angle of a larger case. Built to read fast, to share faster, and to send you straight into the full BSE investigation if you want more.

Pocket Files · The Brief
Read in one sitting.
  • Length70–150 pages
  • Read time90 min – 2 hr
  • FocusOne angle, one document, one moment
  • FormatKindle, paperback, audio
  • Price pointEntry-level
  • Built forTrain commutes, plane rides, weekend reads
vs.
Full Investigations · The Case
Read over a week.
  • Length270–330 pages
  • Read time6–9 hours
  • FocusFull 5-act reconstruction, every actor, every document
  • FormatKindle, paperback, hardcover, audio
  • Price pointStandard
  • Built forDeep dives, definitive accounts, the full case

Start small. Go deep.

Step 01

Pick a Pocket File

Browse the catalog. Each Pocket File maps to one of the seven BSE collections — pick the angle that hooks you.

Step 02

Read it in one sitting

Under 150 pages, same investigative rigor. By the end, you'll know more about the case than most journalists who covered it.

Step 03

Open the full investigation

Every Pocket File ends with the door to the full BSE volume. Same case, every angle, every actor — the definitive account.

Files available now.

All Pocket Files
Fraud Empire
The Guernsey Trust
By Rachel Sterling
Pocket · Fraud Empire

The Guernsey Trust

The offshore vehicle Ruja Ignatova allegedly never closed. The 2025 court filing that re-opened the case. Ninety-six pages on one document.

96 pages 90 min read →
Scandal Chronicles
The Twelve Voicemails
By Elena Ravenna
Pocket · Scandal Chronicles

The Twelve Voicemails

Cassie Ventura's evidence locker. The recordings that survived the NDA, transcribed and contextualized — and the twelve months they spent in a federal prosecutor's safe.

112 pages 2 hr read →
Heist Legends
Seven Minutes
By Isabella Romano
Pocket · Heist Legends

Seven Minutes at the Louvre

The CCTV timeline of the Crown Jewels heist, reconstructed second by second. What the four men did. What three different camera angles missed. What the police already knew.

104 pages 90 min read →
Black Files
The Frequency
By Victoria Cross
Pocket · Black Files

The Frequency

The acoustic signature of Havana Syndrome, declassified. What the audio reveals when run through three separate forensic labs. The intelligence briefing nobody wanted to sign.

118 pages 2 hr read →
True Crime
The White Hyundai
By Claire Blackwood
Pocket · True Crime

The White Hyundai

The single piece of evidence that built the Kohberger case. License plate readers, security cameras, DNA on a knife sheath. How one car closed a quadruple homicide.

128 pages 2 hr read →
Great Escapes
Under the Shower
By Nina Volkov
Pocket · Great Escapes

Under the Shower Floor

The blueprint of El Chapo's mile-long tunnel, reconstructed from court records. The engineering. The motorcycle. The fifteen months of digging the prison camera never saw.

88 pages 90 min read →

Open the file. In one sitting.

Every Pocket File ships with a free chapter of the full BSE investigation it connects to — so when the brief ends, the case keeps going.

Browse Pocket Files