Master, Minion

**NAMED A BEST INDIE BOOK OF 2023 BY KIRKUS REVIEWS**"A crackling story that is at once a frightening vision of global conflict and the weaponization of money, and a deeper exploration of loyalty, love, and deception. Podolsky knows how money works. Master, Minion is damn terrifying, and highly recommended." David McCloskey, author of Damascus Station, ex CIA“Amazing story! A gripping portrayal of the people and machinery behind financial warfare. Paul is a true storyteller who knows Russia and China firsthand. He takes the readers on a thrilling journey only an insider can provide.” Mike Hayes, former Commander of Seal Team Two and author of Never EnoughThis “novel is a lucky conjunction of American tense fabula and Russian self-reflection … a kind of secret report from the depth of Russian hell … this is a book you need ... a book that warns you that you also could become Russian. Because it’s not the nation but a set of misfortunes, latent talent and psychological problems. It’s a fate … and sometimes you can’t avoid it.” Dmitry Bykov, Russian writer, poet, journalist and survivor of attempted Kremlin poisoning"When a senior Russian bureaucrat is murdered, a ruthless, reclusive hedge fund billionaire suspects that it’s not an isolated event, but the beginning of an internecine battle within Russia’s siloviki that threatens to upend geopolitics. He puts his best minion … on the scent to peel back the layers of duplicity, corruption and violence. A former exec at one of the world’s most powerful hedge funds, Paul has an insider’s subtle grasp of how money leads to information and how information leads to power.” Jay Newman, author of Undermoney and Wall Street investor"Reads like a classic thriller, with unexpected twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat." Vitaliy Katsenelson, author of Soul in the Game"The story...delivers everything thriller fans expect: pedal-to-the-metal pacing, a complicated mystery, nonstop action and intrigue, and more than a few bombshell plot twists." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Nick is an ex-Army translator whose facility for language allowed him to escape a difficult childhood in rural Connecticut. His mother is a former addict, now dying and requires expensive care. Desperate for money though ambivalent about finance, Nick is employed as a researcher at a Boston hedge fund. The head of the fund, the Boss, is a financial genius who believes US financial collapse is imminent, in part due to past inequities, including slavery. Looking for a catalyst, the Boss focuses on the recent assassination of a Russian central bank official and sends Nick to investigate. Nick uncovers a plot tied to the Russian FSB, the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the US Treasury but not the one his boss imagines. To solve the case, Nick needs to unravel intricate evidence and evade secret police from three different countries and liberate his love who gets ensnared in his mission. Read more