Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Paperback – October 20, 2015

GREAT BOOK! I was rooting for success for the main character in the beginning, then hoping upon hope nothing bad would befall him- but wait...it isn't fiction. The appeal of this book for me is that it opened my eyes to the banking world and the political world on a global level. I learned about so many behaviors of international bad actors that is shocking in the early 2000s and apparently is still going on today. Excellent read. Well written.

Intriguing, easing reading and very interesting true story. I couldnt stop reading until I finished. Not to mention how still reflects a lot what we see nowadays

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.

Only in America -- can the grandson of Earl Browder, former head of the American Communist Party, give Vladimir Putin the "comeuppance" that he justly deserves in trying to manipulate; trick and thwart Russia's efforts towards free; balanced and lawful capital markets. In his chilling; spellbinding story of revenge for the jailhouse murder of tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky , Bill Browder had gone from managing a successful Russian hedge fund, Hermitage with 4.5 billion assets, to his relentless and successful quest to get the US Congress and the European Parliament, to pass legislation providing visa bans and asset seizures for the Russian officials responsible for Magnitsky's death.I'm glossing over so much fascinating detail here because I do not want to spoil it for the reader. Bill Browder is a most unlikely hero, an unremarkable student who ultimately decided upon a business career in an act of rebellion against his academically gifted and socialistfamily. Being the grandson of the biggest communist in America, his goal was to become the biggest capitalist in Eastern Europe.From there, he went on to Russia when the government willingly sold undervalued companies and their assets in order to privatize industries and grow a free capitalist system. Eventually, too much money and power fell into the hands of a group of corrupt Russian officials.and oligarchs, and Browder was thrown out of Russia. "Prison Yard" rules ultimately prevailed over western style rules and Browder's Hermitage was declared bankrupt.Read the book! It was fantastic and I'm betting that Browder's story will be turned into a movie. (Don't expect Putin to let them shoot the film in Russia, however.) Writing about Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning by drinking a cup of radioactive tea; and Khodorkovsky's imprisonment, Browder warns us that should he meet an untimely demise, we will all know who is responsible for his death. In the meantime, thanks to Browder's fascinating tale and his ability to clearly explain complicated investment concepts to the reader, the book is transformative to anyone who is interested and follows Russian political and business events.

As someone who attempted to start a business in Russia the same time Bill Browder was starting his Russian venture, I too saw the corruption everywhere I went throughout the country. I eventually gave up my venture, but I must say I see Bill Browder as a brave humanitarian and businessman who stands up and fights as a warrior against world corruption. Much applause to Bill Browder.