Vodka, Hookers, and The Russian Mafia (PAPERBACK)

Joe Serio's head exploded. All of the information pointed in the same direction. Secret KGB documents, police intelligence reports, and FBI and CIA estimates feared that the Russian Mafia was taking over the largest country in the world. But that wasn't the troubling part. The bigger picture unfolding before him was simply unbelievable. This can't be true, he thought. He'd been years inside the kaleidoscope — the dizzying, frustrating, and ever-changing puzzle that is Russia — and he'd come to expect that the most shocking explanation was often closest to the truth...but he never expected something this shocking.

In this unique and compelling hybrid of memoir and detective story, Joe Serio recounts nearly ten years of living and working in the former Soviet Union. His journey, made hazy by endless vodka, took him to many dark corners, including the secret police, the underworld, and inside notorious prisons. Vodka, Hookers, and the Russian Mafia: My Life in Moscow reveals a little-known reality that will change what you think you know about Russia.

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I could not put the book down!

- Charles Mugno, Colonel, United States Marine Corps (Ret.), Arlington, VA