July 29, 2016

A novel drawn from the headlines

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As tensions between the U.S. and Russia continue, following Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine and its occupation of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, espionage incidents are beginning to make headlines more often. Wolodymyr Mohuchy’s latest book, “Terminal Payback” is a fictional tale from a Ukrainian perspective that uses historical examples of Russian mafia deeds.

The back cover of the book offers this synopsis:

“Former Managing Director of Emerging Markets at Bear Sterns and retired sergeant of the NYPD, Terry [Taras Grigorovich Adamchuk] Adams is the forensic investigator for a law firm catering to upper-crust clients. He also maintains a detective agency in the East Village [of New York] servicing the local community, mostly as a pro-bono problem solver.

“An intriguing telephone call thrusts him into a web of conspiracy and corruption on a global scale. The caller hires him to find those responsible for the death of Charles Gregory, an investment banker at his old firm, who was killed by an oncoming subway at the Wall Street station, even though the police pronounced the death accidental.

“He zeroes in on a bank in Cyprus, where a trail of illicit payments to the victim uncovers insider trading at JP Morgan Chase and leads him to massive corporate fraud in the emerging markets of eastern Europe. Investigations in Budapest and Stavropol, Russia, identify Alexei Godunov, an ex-KGB colonel, as a principal perpetrator in the scheme.

“Through networking he identifies the corrupt broker, who is also the agent for the Brighton Beach mob. Hacking into brokerage records, Terry discovers the mob’s significant investment losses in the swindle. He concludes that the death was the mob’s payback for the misdeed.

“When Alexei Godunov meets the same fate as Charles Gregory and Terry learns of Godunov’s business connection to his client, he attempts to intercede with the mob to save his client’s life.”

Ukrainians will recognize many familiar New York locations mentioned in the book, including the East Village Meat Market (Bachynsky’s), McSorley’s Ale House, Veselka Restaurant, as well as the Soyuzivka Heritage Center, among others.

Wolodymyr (Walter) Mohuchy, a philanthropist and community activist, is a senior technologist who specialized in electronic, microwave and phased-array design. His previous book, “From the Ashes” was a biographical novel of survival and redemption during the Soviet and Nazi regimes.

Readers can obtain copies of “Terminal Payback” at major booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For more information, readers may contact the book’s publisher, Xlibris, www.xlibris.com.

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