I read a lot of non-fiction, much of it is written by historians and investigative journalists. I read some fiction, too. The subject of this book would normally fit into the historian/journalists bucket for me. Except. Except it reads much more like a fast-paced fictional crime novel. Check that. It reads more like a used car salesman telling stories to a half-inebriated group of people at a neighborhood cocktail party. Does it surprise you in the least that I have very mixed feelings about this book? In its defense, I came across no "facts" listed in this book about what was happening that I hadn't had supported elsewhere by sources I trust. So, arguably, what the author says I have taken as true, in essence. On the other hand, because this book is written more as a sort of memoir by a person who makes money by persuading others to give him their money, i.e., by a person used to manipulating thought of others to his own advantage, plus, it is not written by a historian (with a certain historian's rules for presenting facts, nor written by a journalist, following known journalistic ethics in presentation, then this book "feels" more like a used car salesman telling me how an old lady barely drove the car he's showing me. To be clear -- to repeat -- I have no solid reason to question what is in this book. It just felt like I should. Certainly, feeling a good portion of the book with meaningless filler did not help. Really, just how important to me is it to know what kind of a sandwich he ordered for himself and his daughter on their umpteenth skiing vacation in a foreign country? The family just hanging out, enjoying themselves...while the author has just spent page after page explaining why a despot in yet another country may be trying to have him killed? People who like fiction will probably love this non-fiction book. Me? I prefer non-fiction books that don't have me constantly questioning if it's made up or not. ( )

FREEZING ORDER is a book everyone should read. I cannot speak highly enough of it, and I am impressed as all get out with its author, Bill Browder.

This is a continuation of Browder's description of his experiences with Russians, both good and bad, that began with his book RED NOTICE. In FREEZING ORDER, he works to do the right thing in countries around the world as he convinces more and more of them to enact the Magnitsky Act while Russians collude with Vladimir Putin to thwart him. Browder's efforts are ongoing.

Here is a man I would like to meet if for no other reason than to get an update. Therefore, I unthinkingly submitted a question about his book tour through the "Contact" page on his website. First, the book is a year old, so any touring for it would be over by now. Second, Browder cannot announce his tour dates and places for safety reasons. He isn't paranoid to be afraid of Putin and friends. They've made it clear that they want to get rid of him. And yet Browder continues.

My only criticism of FREEZING ORDER is that Browder should have included an acronym list and a list of the many names (especially Russian names) in the book along with a description of who each is.

Thanks to goodreads.com for having Simon & Schuster send me this book. ( )

I just finished reading Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath by Bill Browder. It certainly lived up to its billing as a thrilling page-turner. I finished the three-hundred page book in roughly four days. I had always known that Russia was steeped in corruption and violence. I knew that deaths by poisoning or violence were somewhat routine and that the rule of law meant little. The amount of this, ably written by Bill Browder, was astounding.

I have read much literature, both about Russian history and Russia as it is now, see, e.g. The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life was about Lev Nussenbaum, a Jewish author from Baku, Azerbeijan, and books written by him, including Blood and Oil in the Orient: My childhood in Baku and my hair-raising escape through the Caucasus and Stalin: The Career Of A Fanatic by Essad Bey a/k/a Lev Nussenbaum, Putinism: Russia and Its Future with the West by Walter Laqueur and, most recently before this one,The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 by Jay Winik.

The gist of this is that the Asiatic/Oriental nature of the Russian people, from the steppes on eastward, did not really ever go away. Russia never really joined the West. Russia has tried, on a few occasions, to look westward, towards Europe and even rebelling America during and after the Revolutionary War. Peter the Great built St. Petersburg, a port city that always looked to trade. Czar Catherine the Great had a dalliance with major authors of her day, such as Diderot. But the hordes of the steppes were never far behind. As detailed by authors in the early 1900's, such as Essad Bey, the soul of the country was exceedingly backwards.

The book itself focuses on his search for justice for his lawyer in Russia, Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested and brutally murdered in a Russian cell. Many Western countries have "Magnitsky laws" designed to facilitate the seizure of assets of tyrants. This book discussed the advocacy of that legislation, and various fraught efforts to seek justice in the courts.

Coincidentally, his grandfather, Earl Browder (link to obituary), a known Communist himself, lived in the same apartment building as my (still alive) uncle in Yonkers, and my grandparents' and Earl Browder's families were friendly ( )

Glad I read this as it is a continuation of the story told in Red Notice, but it is not as gripping as the first book.
Although I read Red Notice before all the Trump/Putin incidents and I had some information on the connection this book filled in many of the holes. I ( )

Interesting content but Browder's writing is mundane and tedious. ( )