Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice

This book was very clear and matter of fact, even when dealing with very dramatic and emotionally charged events. The story is naturally compelling with many twists and turns. That it is a true story with so many parallels and tie-ins to the situations and major personalities in the top headlines makes it still urgently relevant, even these years later. If anyone still doubts the veracity and unwavering dedication of Vladimir Putin's entrenched, megalomaniacal dedication to promoting his own self interests with complete need to win at any and all cost, this is a clear case study showing that this has long been and continues to be Putin's m.o. It makes the terrible situation in Ukraine all the more chilling because it shows Putin's long-established pattern of retribution when challenged or resisted, and his overriding need to win, even at unthinkable cost. Not a big surprise to anyone, really, but I believe people need to understand the terrible dangers of supporting current and future leaders who would either underestimate and disbelieve the horrific lengths Putin would go to to achieve his ends and mete out punisment or who actually admire Putin's vicious governing style and will cozy up to him instead of calling out and standing against his evil maneuvers. Lack of resistance to Vladimir Putin and his totalitarian regime equals support. And anyone supporting Putin, directly or indirectly, is supporting a whole miasma of truly evil actions and policies, examples of the like of which have been thoroughly described in this book. IMHO, I don't believe that anyone who is seeking to lead this country should be admiring or complimenting a person as dangerous and morally bereft as Vladimir Putin. It isn't clever or cute to do so and any leader who is inclined to take these toxic political leadership lessons from Putin, as in 'monkey see, monkey do' should never be allowed the opportunity to try to put them in practice in leading the USA. We and our democracy will all suffer irreparable harm if we support and fall under the power of self-serving politicians who reject truth and justice to increase and entrench their own power and wealth. People need to recognize that the evils this book portrays are agonizingly real and if we do not act to protect our democracy from self serving, Putinesqe leaders here, the US will experience the same harms and continue on a dangerous path away from personal freedom and toward political extremism. So I highly recommend this book, if only to remind oneself that good and evil are not just rhetorical concepts and that our words and actions do have consequences and really do matter.

God bless Adam Grupper, the narrator of the Audible version of this book. It is FABULOUS! He really makes the text come alive, in a book that is extremely riveting and well-written. There are a million reasons to buy both the Kindle and the Audible version, but here's a big new one: IT'S PART OF KINDLE NOW. Just switch on or off, minimize the Android window, sync and stop for awhile, no need for added websites. I love Audible, but I don't like having to go to a separate website to read what I downloaded on Kindle (here for Android, but you can use it on PC just as well, if not better). You can read the other reviews for the meaning of this magnificent story. Magnitsky is my hero, as he is to Bill Browder. The story needs to be told just as it is, for you to get proper context. Count on it, Putin really made a huge mistake here, and what he allowed be done to Sergei Magnitsky will end up being his downfall and Russia's FREEDOM. Kindle itself is well-organized, like the others I've recently reviewed (Schindler, Bury). Easy to navigate. But the biggest deal to me, is the TIE IN with Audible. Once you use Audible, like Librivox, you'll never go back to robot reading again. GOD BLESS THEM.

Overall, Red Notice is a very good book. Browder’s compelling story and writing style make this book easy to rapidly get through. In a way, it’s almost like a well-written spy novel, though the story is real. If it’s such a good book, why didn’t I give it five stars? Well, let me tell you. I got really turned off by Browder’s need to inflate his ego while telling what otherwise is a troubling and important story. It’s already a compelling read; he did not need to embellish it by emphasizing for us lesser-than readers his elite status as a high roller. For example—and this is one of the least egregious examples of this attitude—Browder discusses the events leading up to the dissolution of his marriage. He tells the reader that his first wife, Sabrina, had scheduled a family vacation in Greece and that, after months of what had been a distant relationship between the two, literally and figuratively, they were having a surprisingly wonderful time together. At the end of the vacation, he tells us, she sprung the surprising news on him that she didn’t want to be married to him any longer. He goes on to say that, as he’s seeing Sabrina and their son off at the airport, he realized the following: "As I watched them leave, the feeling of loss that I was so familiar with overcame me. Once again, I had that visceral and empty feeling in my stomach, but this time it was was worse. Losing love was a lot harder than losing money." All right, first, what did this have to do with the corruption and theft going on in Russia? Second, with an attitude like that, I’m not surprised she left him. I can only hope that he has enough life insurance on his second wife to where he’s indifferent to whether she ever comes home or not. Later on, in a passage about Vadim, his trusted aid, having just provided him information from a source in Moscow, he explains having a dilemma. Oh my, what could it be? Is it a devastating decision he has to make, like in _Sophie’s Choice_. No. He is told that the corrupt Russian authorities were trumping up charges against him and he is now pulled between remaining with Vadim for a few more hours in order to ascertain more information about what seems like a dire and dangerous situation, or attending a prior commitment. Well, I’ll let him tell you his predicament: "I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask, but it was 7:30 p.m. and, annoyingly, Elena and I were obligated to be at dinner in half an hour that had been planned for months. An old friend from Salomon Brothers and his fiancée had made a big deal securing an impossible-to-get reservation at a new London restaurant called L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, and I couldn’t cancel on such short notice." “Annoyingly”?!? “I couldn’t cancel on such short notice"?!? As if 9 million people in London would not have gladly stepped up to the plate to save ol’ Bill Browder from having to partake in such frivolities during such a trying time in order for him to save himself from imprisonment in Russia. Didn't the couple he was to dine with at such a high-status restaurant have other friends they could called on to step in at the last minute? I will go on a limb and say that, not just the average reader, but all readers of this book can only hope to one day enjoy the "annoyance" faced by Bill Browder. All right, it’s passages like this that make me question the accuracy of the story he’s telling. I do believe him, but I wouldn’t have had any questions at all had he stuck to the story and not wasted the ink inflating his ego. How does the reader know he's not inflating his story? His need to regularly assure the reader that he does not rub elbows with anyone but the top one-percent of the one-percent serves no purpose toward explaining his otherwise interesting story. There are other examples, such as “cringing” while watching a security specialist cut a tiny slit into the lapel of his cashmere blazer in order to install a microphone needed to surreptitiously record a meeting with someone he feared was trying to undermine him. “Oh no, Lovey, not the cashmere blazer.” (In my worst Thurston Howell, III voice.) But I’ll end my criticisms here. The book is good overall, and I do recommend reading it. I just hope that Browder realizes for his subsequent books that his story is compelling enough and he doesn’t need to impress anyone with his high-income status. Yes, Bill, we know you are an elite. You’re rich beyond almost anyone’s wild imagination, but that’s not why anyone wants to read this book.

Such a deeply compelling story. Tragic beyond belief, but so redeeming as well. Beautifully written and a story that will rest long in my heart.

An amazing story of the Russian Federation crime gang. Precise and emotional. The opportunity loss of Russians after the fall of communism is impressive.

Must read for all Putin followers, detailed research and thrilling read about the Magnitsky murder which (re its prison sequence and its sad outcome) recalls the recent fate of A. Nawalny. Reveals how the Russian head of state in his actions is driven by highly questionable motivations such as greed, paranoia, authoritarianism, personal revenge, and, ultimately, a complete disregard for human life. The result is a Russian political Mafia state within which everything goes as long as ordered and/or sanctiond by the President, including state terrorism, silencing of those in apparent opposition to the Mafia boss as well as extraterritorial killings. Complete lawlessness, deeply rooted corruption and denunciation are the "rules" established by their President and impacting every-day life of Russian citizens, resulting in a constant feeling of fear as one of the witnesses at the A. Nawalny burial said in a moving statement. And for all those who say this is all fake news, here extracts of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission report on S. Magnitsky's death in prison, published in December 2009: in prison he "was subjected to physical and psychological torture", "investigators, prosecutors and judges played a role in his torturous conditions", and "after his death state officials lied and concealed the truth about his torture and circumstances of his death". Despite this damning report anyone held accountable afterwards? No, but perpetrators were promoted and honored publicly instead. No doubt a crime of this extension must have been committed with the knowledge of if not ordered by the Russian state's Supreme Leader. Russia looks spiralling into an area of complete political and social darkness. Anyone feels reminded of The Gulag Archipelago?

Once in a while comes a business book that you can read like a thrilling novel AND learn encyclopedic knowledge from! Red Notice is one such GREAT book by Bill Browder. A MUST buy and read. Why? - The book is a real-life story of Bill's obsession to enter the then 'socialist' economies (Poland, Russia) as an investor to find hidden treasures (and his finds!). - It focusses on his operations in Russia, how that turned from a Fairy Tale to the WORST living nightmare a businessman can ever imagine. This book makes Narcos look like a comic book. - What impacted me most was the gruelling, never-ending saga of Russia vs Bill; the threats, stress, horrors & the bombardment of harassment Bill faced (& continues) as punishment for doing what any businessman would do - asking questions & preserving his wealth! - If anything, I re-learned the tenets of NEVER giving in, never allowing anyone to bully or intimidate you. (Yet, I DO NOT have the courage to do what Bill did). - The huge RISK of doing business in 'thuggish' markets that look very promising but turn out to be lethal. - The reinforcement of the fact that SPITE can make a man MAD.

interesting, exciting unbelievable thrilling. Very well written

Affascinante racconto della Russia post sovietica. Volume venduto in condizioni perfette.