Red Notice: High Finance Thriller, Essay Example

Red Notice is a high finance thriller. The book follows the life of Bill Browder, the author, and his journey transitioning from being a young college student to a capitalist financier working in Russia. When a tax attorney at his firm is murdered and the crime is covered up, Browder seeks retribution by uncovering the murder. Chapters 3 and 4 focus primarily on Browders development as a young student, specifically how he enters the finance industry.

In chapter 3 Browder provides back history about how he entered the finance industry. He reveals that he was not a good student in High school and was rejected by nearly every college he applied to except for the University of Colorado, which he was only accepted to following an appeal sent by his guidance counselor in response to his first rejection. Browder states that he pledged Delta Upsilon fraternity in an attempt to party as much as possible. His frat mates nicknamed him Brillo due to his curly hair. After drinking heavily and spending the bulk of his freshman year chasing women, one of his fraternity brothers and someone he “idolized” were caught robbing the United Bank of Boulder to fund their cocaine addiction. When they were sent to federal prison, Browder takes this as a sing to achieve more in his life. He studies hard, improves his grades and then applies to the University of Chicago where he is accepted. He continues studying hard and manages to acquire an internship at Bain & Company in Boston. Through the internship he is able to acquire a spot in business school at Stanford.

Chapter 4 focuses more on how the author finds his footing in the professional world. He acquires a job at Boston Consulting Group BCG, in Chicago. Through this job he gets an assignment consulting a bus company in Poland, in turn leads him to Eastern Europe. Once in Russia, the setting for the murder of Browder’s tax assistant is established and the story starts to take a direction more common of a thriller.