“RED NOTICE”
BY BILL BROWDER
Book review by Dwight
It occurs to me that perhaps it’s a sad commentary on our times that non-fiction books about the financial world can read like best-selling spy novels, but that’s exactly what composed my Christmas reading list… five books, one by Zane Grey on blue water fishing in Tahiti, and four on the world of finance and geopolitics. While every one of them is a worthwhile read (okay, so the Zane Grey will only appeal to sports fishermen), the one that most resembled a Robert Ludlum or Alistair MacLean novel was “Red Notice”, by Bill Browder (Simon & Schuster, 2015). The full title describes the book perfectly: “Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice.”
Now, astute readers of this newsletter will recall that our intern Mack Irwin reviewed this book last summer. It is such a compelling read that I have decided to review it again for those who missed it!
If you want a page-turning thriller that offers incredible insight into the world of hedge funds, corruption, greed, and geopolitics, this book is for you. I literally read it cover to cover in one day. This book will enthrall you and terrify you at the same time, as it provides a very clear look into the corruption in Russia today, right up to the involvement of Vladimir Putin himself. Bill Browder, an American hedge fund manager, describes the rise and fall of his Hermitage Fund, an activist investment fund that was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when Vladimir and his cronies stole all his investors’ money. This book has all the elements of a great action novel: spies, guns, murders, and one man’s fight for justice… and it’s all true.
— Dwight
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