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

Freezing Order, the follow-up to Red Notice, is available now! “[Red Notice] does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what Liar’s Poker did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder’s business saga meshes well with the story of corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, making Red Notice an early candidate for any list of the year’s best books” (Fortune).

“Part John Grisham-like thriller, part business and political memoir.” —The New York Times

This is a story about an accidental activist. Bill Browder started out his adult life as the Wall Street maverick whose instincts led him to Russia just after the breakup of the Soviet Union, where he made his fortune.

Along the way he exposed corruption, and when he did, he barely escaped with his life. His Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky wasn’t so lucky: he ended up in jail, where he was tortured to death. That changed Browder forever. He saw the murderous heart of the Putin regime and has spent the last half decade on a campaign to expose it. Because of that, he became Putin’s number one enemy, especially after Browder succeeded in having a law passed in the United States—The Magnitsky Act—that punishes a list of Russians implicated in the lawyer’s murder. Putin famously retaliated with a law that bans Americans from adopting Russian orphans.

A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also the story of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life.

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Published Oct 20, 2015

424 pages

Average rating: 7.99

133 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Rena M Led
Dec 09, 2023
8/10 stars
This book is a page turner. It gives insight into Russian financing and the recently talked about Magnitsky Act.
KikiStoneCreek
Jun 03, 2023
6/10 stars
If this book hadn't been a selection for our book club, I doubt very highly that I would have read it due to the complicated sections on high finance and having to keep track of an ever-growing list of Russian characters. Some portions were easier to follow and very exciting, but then the book fell back into complicated discussions about hedge funds or politics or court filings. I'm glad that I'm done reading the book!
Harrietaspy
May 04, 2025
6/10 stars
Really loved the first half but the second half dragged a bit. It seemed like there were different authors on the two halves. Both had lots of detail and a fabulous story. The second half just want written in a way that drew me in as much. An unbelievable true story though that was very good.
hideTurtle
Apr 22, 2025
5/10 stars
"Unlike many other Westerners in Moscow, I had never studied Russian literature, trained as a spy, or done anything useful to prepare for life in Russia. " An interesting, albeit sometimes dry, story about an ordinary American who pushed for international justice after the suspicious death of a colleage falsly imprisoned in Russia for tax fraud.
spoko
Oct 21, 2024
2/10 stars
DNF. I kept waiting for the part where the author would turn out to be something other than a self-important, willfully obtuse piece of shit. I’m well past halfway, and certainly haven’t reached that part yet. I’m done waiting. Haven’t received a bit of real insight into anything, haven’t come across any serendipitous bit of wisdom or even just a nice turn of phrase. In short, I’ve spent far more time than I ever wanted to in this guy’s narcissistic mind, and I have nothing of worth to show for it. Done now.

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