> Skip to content
  • Published: 1 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780552170321
  • Imprint: Corgi
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $26.00

Red Notice

A True Story of Corruption, Murder and how I became Putin’s no. 1 enemy




The Sunday Times and NYT bestseller. A shocking true-life thriller about corruption, dirty politics and murder in Russia by one of Putin's Most Wanted.

'An unburdening, a witness statement and a thriller all at the same time ... electrifying.' The Times

I have to assume that there is a very real chance that Putin or members of his regime will have me killed some day. If I'm killed, you will know who did it. When my enemies read this book, they will know that you know.


A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. A true-life thriller by one of Putin's Most Wanted.

In November 2009, the young lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death by eight police officers in a freezing cell in a Moscow prison. His crime? Testifying against Russian officials who were involved in a conspiracy to steal $230 million of taxes.

Red Notice is a searing exposé of the whitewash of this imprisonment and murder. The killing hasn't been investigated. It hasn't been punished. Bill Browder is still campaigning for justice for his late lawyer and friend. This is his explosive journey from the heady world of finance in New York and London in the 1990s, through battles with ruthless oligarchs in turbulent post-Soviet Union Moscow, to the shadowy heart of the Kremlin.

With fraud, bribery, corruption and torture exposed at every turn, Red Notice is a shocking political roller-coaster.
__________________

Reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city ... but it's all true, and it's a story that needs to be told.' Lee Child

'A shocking true-life thriller.' Tom Stoppard

'A riveting account... it is a powerful story and Browder tells it skilfully.' The Washington Post

  • Published: 1 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780552170321
  • Imprint: Corgi
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Bill Browder

Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country after exposing widespread corruption. Since 2009, when his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered in Russian police custody, he has been leading a global campaign to expose human rights abuses endemic in Russia. Consequentially, the ‘Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act’ was signed into US law in 2012, imposing visa bans and asset freezes on certain officials involved in Magnitsky’s death. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed across the European Union.

Praise for Red Notice

Browder's true story is a heart-in-your-throat page turner, and the only close-up look I know of what it's like to take on Putin. It is also a moving account of a man who found his calling, and ended up winning in the end.

Bryan Burrough, co-author of "Barbarians at the Gate" and author of "Public Enemies" and "The Big Rich"

A fascinating, heart-stopping account of how to take on Putin - and win. It's exciting to read about Browder's roller-coaster ride to wealth in Russia, and then how compassion for Sergei Magnitsky, his murdered lawyer, inspires his memorable struggle against the venal apparatchiks of a corrupt state. This is the gripping - and absolutely true - story behind the Magnitsky Law, a signal advance in human rights.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, author of "Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle For Global Justice"

This book reads like a thriller, but it's a true, important, and inspiring real story. Bill Browder is an amazing moral crusader, and his book is a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand Russia, Putin, or the challenges of doing business in the world today.

Walter Isaacson

This indispensable look at the brutal realities of the Putin regime is of even greater relevance thanks to Bill Browder’s unique expertise and personal experience inside the belly of the beast.

Garry Kasparov

This book shows the difference that one person can make when they refuse to back down.

Pussy Riot

The story of Sergei Magnitsky's life and death is a shocking true-life thriller, and Bill Browder was the man to write it.

Tom Stoppard

Browder's narrative lays out in vivid detail the often murky mechanisms of Russia's kleptocratic economy, culminating in an engrossing account of what would surely be the heist of a century were it not so representative of business as usual. It's also a chilling, sinister portrait of a society in which the rule of law has been destroyed by those sworn to enforce it. The result is an alternatively harrowing and inspiring saga of appalling crime and undeserved punishment in the Wild East.

Publishers Weekly

A jaw-dropping account of the Russian authorities' cover-up of the imprisonment, torture and murder of a brave young lawyer.

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

Reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city … but it’s all true, and it’s a story that needs to be told.

Lee Child

A fascinating and unexpected story - including the fact that my work played Cupid.

Mitch Albom, author of 'Tuesdays With Morrie'

A sizzling account of Mr Browder's rise, fall and metamorphosis from bombastic financier to renowned human-rights activist ... Reads more like a financial thriller than a real-life story.

The Economist

A gripping read, tightly written.

Management Today Magazine

[Browder's] freewheeling, snappy book describes the meteoric rise, and disastrous fall, of a buccaneer capitalist who crossed the wrong people and paid a steep price.

New York Times

Fast-paced

The Sunday Times

An expose of years of state-sponsored torture and murder ... this story of courage combined with a dash of obsessiveness is about the real here and now.

Sonia Purnell, The Independent

A chilling story ... that makes the dirty dealings of House of Cards look like Snow White.

Toronto Star

Engaging

Wall Street Journal

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

Norman Pearlstine, Fortune

The cut and thrust, and the high stakes, make for a zesty tale.

William Grimes, New York Times

This is perhaps the year’s most astonishing business book

The Times, Australia

A dramatic recounting of Browder's battle with the Russian system. But more important, it's a tribute to Magnitsky.

Christian Science Monitor

This episode matters because, largely through Magnitsky’s courageous efforts, it is a superbly well-documented case of state-sponsored crime ... An important tale.

A D Miller, The Spectator

An impassioned personal broadside against the Kremlin ... [a] fitting tribute to a lawyer who was angered by the criminality he saw around him and was determined to do something about it.

Financial Times

An unburdening, a witness statement and a thriller all at the same time ... Electrifying ... One heck of a read.

Giles Whittell, The Times

Browder's Red Notice is a classic tale of two halves: the first is a ripping yarn of murky financiers, desperate investments, and huge sums of money; the second is a terrible tragedy of corrupt officials, grieving friends and the murder of an honest man. I can't think of another book like it ... Required reading for anyone seeking to Putin's Russia.

Oliver Bullough, The Observer

I was hooked ... Browder's book is a real thriller. I was cheering him on as he retold his dogged fight to bring the fate of his murdered, gentle but stubborn lawyer to international attention.

Marcus Tanner, The Independent

A riveting account... it is a powerful story and Browder tells it skilfully.

The Washington Post

Red Notice is a dramatic, moving and thriller-like account of how Magnitsky’s death transformed Browder from hedge-fund manager to global human rights crusader.

Luke Harding, The Guardian