Red Notice

This is a fascinating story and admittedly one I didn't know anything about until picking up this book. Russia has always seemed like a shady place to me, but Browder really pulls back the curtain on just how deep the corruption goes — oligarchs, government-backed fraud, straight-up theft on a scale that's hard to wrap your head around, and the murder of Sergei Magnitsky. The fact that this all actually happened makes it read more like a thriller than a memoir.

This was especially insightful when it comes to understanding the risks of investing in developing countries. Browder made a fortune betting on Russia when nobody else would, but the book does a good job showing how quickly that can turn on you when there's no real rule of law protecting your investments. And the back half of the book, where he's fighting to get the Magnitsky Act passed through Congress, is a whole different kind of eye-opener. You'd think getting lawmakers to agree on sanctioning human rights abusers would be straightforward, but apparently not. It's a long and drawn-out process to get a bill signed even when both parties agree.

If I had any gripes, I'd say Browder paints himself in a pretty favorable light throughout the whole thing. He's the hero of every chapter, and you don't get much self-reflection about his own role in profiting off a broken system before it turned on him. There are also stretches in the middle where the financial and legal maneuvering gets dense and slows things down a bit.

If you're into true crime, geopolitics, or just want to understand why Russia is... the way it is, this is worth the read.