See what other people say. That's the beauty of peer-reviewed journals (use them! EBSCO, JSTOR...), they are critiqued by other professionals. So when researching a book to use, see what other historians say about it, and how it was critically acclaimed. I'd suggest just Googling whatever book is in question and see what other normal people and historians say about it. In regards to "Dying to Win" without really looking in to it, I peeked at its wikipedia page and found some critiques of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_to_Win:_The_Strategic_Logic_of_Suicide_Terrorism#Critiques

Also, see what sources the author used. Where do they get their information? Do they merely speculate, or did they get their info from a credible source?

Also, for researching, I personally use J-STOR and Google Scholar. I personally find them to be reliable, helpful, and most of all, full of sources.