Retribution: A U.S. Marine’s Fight for Justice, from the Russian Gulag to Ukraine’s Front Lines

Reed debuts with an engrossing recap of his imprisonment in Russia and his subsequent Ukrainian military service. In 2019, while visiting his girlfriend in Moscow, Reed—who’d left the Marine Corps three years earlier—was detained after getting belligerently drunk at a party. Without evidence, he was charged with assaulting a police officer, and after the judge presiding over Reed’s trial dug up a photo of the author with President Obama at Camp David, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. His parents pressured the Biden administration to conduct a prisoner swap, which led to Reed’s release in 2022. Describing in visceral terms the starvation and physical abuse he endured while incarcerated, Reed sets the stage for his decision to seek revenge by fighting Russian forces in Ukraine. He enrolled as a paid volunteer in a Ukrainian commando unit, and nearly died in an explosion before retiring from combat to pursue a degree in international studies. Aided by coauthor DeFelice’s unfussy prose, Reed provides an unvarnished glimpse into the brutality of the Russian prison system and the psychology of vengeance. It’s a sobering account. Agent: Byrd Leavell, UTA. (Jan.)