Whitcoulls recommends Shelley Burr and Bill Browder

Wake by Shelley Burr. The latest in a crop of really terrific Australian crime thrillers – they all share similar characteristics. Small isolated town, atmospheric, the heat, and people in small communities telling lots of lies. Centres around the case of a missing girl which has never been resolved though her sister has often been suspected of the crime, and a Private Investigator turns up years later to try and solve it – or is he really just interested in the million-dollar reward…? Freezing Order by Bill Browder. I could talk about this for ages. He wrote a book called Red Notice a few years ago about how he became Putin’s Number One Public Enemy. This is essentially a continuation of that story. He spoke to Hosking this morning though I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet but he’s fascinating, and so courageous. He had a foreign portfolio investment company in Moscow, which at the time was the largest in Russia and ran afoul of the state when he discovered they’d stolen money from his company and laundered it out of Russia. He had a young (in his 30’s) Russian lawyer called Sergei Magnistky who was imprisoned and beaten to death in gaol. Browder went on to drive through legislation in the US – and since adopted by other countries – called the Magnitsky Act, freezing the visas and assets of proven human rights abusers which has limited the Russian state in some of its activities. Putin hates him and he lives his life in constant danger but won’t give up the cause.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.