The Hunted

The Hunted
Author: Brian Haig
ISBN: 978-0-446-19559-1 Pages: 464, $25.99, Publication Date: August 12, 2009, Hardcover, Novel, Published by Grand Central Publishing

The Hunted, by Brian Haig, immediately strikes a chord. I heard this story before. Recollection of the events seems too true to be a novel. Then, you get swept up in the story and the events seem surreal! Is this fact or fiction?

Alex Konanykhin and his wife Elena are the only characters in the book who are real!
Brian Haig blends fact with fiction demonstrating the events which actually happened. He fictionalizes occurrences which caused frenzied disruption in Alex and Elena's lives. The KGB, FBI, and INS are unlikely conspirators in this greed-filled take-over of hundreds of millions of dollars amassed by a rising star in the new Soviet Union.

Alex Konanykhin studied to be a rocket scientist at Moscow University, but never made it. Instead, he became a multi-millionaire by investing other people's money into various new entrepreneurial schemes that became available under the embryonic democracy in Russia. At the ripe old age of 25, he achieved prominence as a mover and shaker by backing the election of Boris Yeltsin to be the leader of the Russian government. Much to the chagrin of the former leadership, changes in how business was conducted took place. Alex formed several enterprises; he was able to demonstrate that if you performed the tasks you undertook you would succeed. The old adage of do things right and the rewards will be astounding became the foundation of his newly invented empire.

Alex paid his workers more money than jobs offered by the government or other enterprises. He insisted that good workmanship be the rule and not the exception. He was able to formulate business plans rewarding the investor with unheard of profits. People trusted him and flocked to invest. He made millions by employing a method of arbitrage where he would buy goods at a low price and sell high. With the invested capital he obtained, the system worked extremely well.

The story seems too good to be true that this young man could rise to a position of prominence, without creating enemies or jealousy. He hires a former KGB leader to head up security for all of his companies. This is the start of his downfall. On a trip to Budapest, he and his wife are kidnapped by thugs who demand he sign over his companies to them. Additionally, he is branded by a hot iron with the Russian symbol of the hammer and sickle. He is forced to sign away his holdings to these remnants of the previous regime. Even though suffering from extreme torture, Alex remains very clever, and devises a way to escape the clutches of these henchmen.

Alex and Elena arrive in the United States and seek asylum as political refugees. Granted this reprieve, they set up housekeeping in Watergate, a famous apartment complex in Washington DC. Soon, troubles start all over again. The FBI persuades the INS to begin a deportation hearing to send Alex and Elena back to Russia. Those controlling his companies and money wish to dispose of him permanently so they cannot be challenged for their actions, and plans are formulated for his assassination upon his return.

Deportation hearings are commenced, and what was to have been a short trial, stretches into 3 years with Alex being shuffled between several Federal Prisons before finally having his day in court.

How the story ends and the people involved make a great tale. However, Alex wrote a book Defiance, where he tells the whole story as it actually happened, according to him. Brian Haig says to document the real events would probably have taken years. Instead of the proof required to back everything up as in a true biography, he agreed with Alex Konanykhin, to present his story as set forth in this novel.

The Hunted is well written, keeps you in suspense, and is a page-turner of the highest magnitude. After only 60 pages, you are hooked. You cannot put the book down until you have read the next episode, and then you find out you have finished the book! As a sidelight, go to the Internet and look up Alex Konanykhin. Many TV stations still have their broadcasts online telling the real events. These events do not deter from The Hunted, but make you realize old and new Russia still have the same methods of treachery, only some of the faces have changed.

Not like other Brian Haig books with the iconoclastic military lawyer and his glib tongue. This is a little heavy at first with some torture of the main character. Once that is over, I liked it a whole lot better. The second half of the book is the best.

Flat, uninspired writing. I kept expecting the story to get into gear but it never did. It was a waste of time but fortunately, I didn't pay for it. Haig should stick to his own ideas (which are quite good) and leave the stories of others alone. He could at least have confessed the source of the story before the Author's Note on the last page. That explained everything.

I liked the main characters, and enjoyed how the reader questioned if they were the "good guys or bad guys" during different sections of the story. That said, there were too many unrealistic or unbelievable plot points in the story (how could ANYONE make friends with the worst inmates at three prisons in a row?) .

What also contributed to ridiculous writing was poor editing . . . there were numerous times when dialogue was repeated (yes, I DID pay attention the first time I read it, so it wasn't necessary to reiterate it verbatim a second time), and sloppy factual errors should have been caught (for example, Raymond Burr's TV character of Ironside was in a wheelchair, not Perry Mason).

Mr. Haig, please do better next time.

This is a wonderful and intelligent book. The book resounds with revelancy! The gifted writer so creatively presents what could be tomorrow's front page story of the New York Times. All students of Russian History could really benefit from reading this marvelous book. It is perhaps the best written novel about current Russia. Brian Haig rates as one of the most writers, along up there with Henry Porter, Daniel Silva and Robert North Patternson. I loved this book. I read it non-stop.

I've been patiently waiting for more of the exciting Drummond series. When this book came out I was disappointed that it wasn't a Drummond book but I thought, "The Drummond series is so good, this has to be good too, right?" The book was decent but it just took to long to get warmed up. After about page 200 it picked up and was quite enjoyable.

Rendered one of Russia's wealthiest men for his entrepreneurial talents, financial genius Alex Konevitch ill-advisedly hires the KGB's former deputy director to handle his corporate security and subsequently loses his company before fleeing with his wife to America, where he struggles for survival amid false accusations and a contract on his head.
I didn't actually realize this was based on a true story till I came to the end of the book. Fascinating. That being said I found this to be one of those rare thrillers that truly kept me engrossed the whole time. A captivating and emotional thriller with authentic and convincing characters. One of my favorite novels of the past few months.
Highly Recommended to all thriller fans!

I find Brian Haig's Sean Drummond novels perhaps the most entertaining suspense reads. They are suspenseful with interesting characters and witty dialogues. This non-Sean-Drummond novel, though inspired by real people, has rather flat characters and is without humor. The writing and pacing keeps me going, but ultimately I just find the main characters unconvincing.

I thought I'd miss Sean Drummond .... but after reading Brian Haig's latest, I'm convinced I'd like anything he would write.
This book is simply a wonderful story, rich with assorted, believable characters - those you love and those you love to hate - and a fascinating plot that keeps you engrossed until the end, then wishing there was more. You can not help but wonder, as the tale unfolds, which parts are truly factual and which are the product of a creative writer.
For readers of suspense/mysteries/thrillers and those that like a little legal thrown in, plus possibly some foreign intrigue, this book is the best of the year - thoroughly recommended.
Perhaps, Alex, the star of the book, or his attorney, MP Jones, could hook up with Sean Drummond in a future story?

The biggest surprise came when reading at the close of the book, that it was based on a true story. The plot just sped along. The characters were alive, especially after finding out that the story was based on fact. Absolutely great reading.

An excellent read. Unlike so many authors Haig doesn't run out of time, he gives you a beginning, a middle and an ending which doesn't run out of detail as so many do as the author rushes to complete an otherwise good work.

“A few years ago, I received an interesting proposal on my Web site from a Russian expat who generously suggested that his adventure might inspire a captivating book. After recently reading my third novel, Kingmaker, he thought I had gotten a few things right about modern Russia, and wondered if I might be the right person to attempt a tale about him.’’

“I soon met Alex and his wife, Elena, and quickly became curious, intrigued, and impressed. Not to mention deeply enchanted and enamored. So I dug in more. The real Alex and Elena Konanykhin became the inspiration for this book and they are its animating force. In real life, they experienced fifteen years I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy—and I pray my worst enemy wouldn’t wish upon me.’’

“A lovely couple; he, tall and darkly handsome; she, tiny, funny, and vividly, blondely beautiful. Both were strikingly intelligent, deeply in love, and stunned at what they had been forced to endure. Alex in fact wrote a superb nonfictional memoir of his long, amazing trial—a book called Defiance—a sad, joyful, engrossing, inspiring, terrifically written account. It’s definitely worth reading if you enjoyed this book. My book, after all, is fiction, as are all its characters, except Alex, Elena, and a few historical figures.’’

This note after conclusion explains a lot. The personal tragedy combines with the political tragedy resulting in a fascinating experience!

The Russian political/social breakdown introduces and explains the later attack on Alex and his corporation/bank. Well done. Boris Yeltsin plays a key role in the plot. . .

“Yeltsin had given little serious thought to what would replace it, or them. A few vague notions about democracy and a thriving free market rattled around his brain, nothing more. Apparently he assumed they would sprout helter-skelter from the fertile vacuum he created. Worse, it quickly became apparent that Yeltsin, so brilliant at blasting the system to pieces, was clueless about gluing the wreckage back together. He was a revolutionary, a radical, a demolitionist extraordinaire. Like most of the breed, he had no talent for what came after the big bang.

But Alex Konevitch definitely did. By this point, Alex already had built a massive construction business, a sprawling network of brokerage houses to administer an arbitrage business that began with construction materials and swelled to the whole range of national commodities, and a Russian exchange bank to manage the exploding finances of his hungry businesses. Amazingly, every bit of it was accomplished under the repressive nose of the communist apparatus. Dodging the KGB and working in the shadows, somehow he had self-mastered the alchemy of finance and banking, of international business.‘’

The KGB boss learns about Alex . . .

“Look at him, dressed like an American yuppie,” Golitsin snorted, thumping a derisive finger on a picture. It was true, Konevitch looked anything but Russian in his tan slacks and light blue, obviously imported cotton button-down dress shirt, without tie, and with his sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The picture was grainy and slightly off-center. He looked, though, like he just stepped out of one of those American catalogues: a young spoiled prototypical capitalist in the making.

Golitsin instantly hated him.”

This envy, this greed, this overwhelming hatred by the old Russian powerful for the new self-made man runs through the story. Personalities drawn vividly, carefully, without hindering the picture.

Arrogant criminals, selfish officials (Russian and American), and an American judge with integrity and courage. All are here. Wonderful!

This work is like. . .like. . .John Grisham and Dick Francis combining for a political docudrama!