THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
‘The page-turning pace of a thriller . . . A first-class historian’ ANDREW ROBERTS
‘Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history’ RORY CARROLL
‘Gripping . . . Full of treachery, intrigue and betrayal’ DAMIEN LEWIS
In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky’s study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramón Mercader – an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin.
But this was no simple hit. It was the climax of a decade-long global hunt: a story of seduction and betrayal, of fake identities and secret loyalties, of idealists and fanatics, lovers and spies. While Trotsky raged in exile – still clinging to his revolutionary dream – Stalin’s agents closed in. At the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained to lie, charm and ultimately to kill.
Tracing a path from the cafés of Paris to the battlefields of Spain, from Stalin’s Kremlin to a bloodied study in Mexico, The Death of Trotsky unfolds like a spy thriller – a story of obsession and betrayal, of dreams destroyed and loyalties twisted, culminating in one of the most shocking murders of the modern age.
‘Hugely compelling’ ROGER MOORHOUSE
‘As good as any thriller’ HELEN RAPPAPORT
‘The page-turning pace of a thriller . . . A first-class historian’ ANDREW ROBERTS
‘Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history’ RORY CARROLL
‘Gripping . . . Full of treachery, intrigue and betrayal’ DAMIEN LEWIS
In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky’s study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramón Mercader – an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin.
But this was no simple hit. It was the climax of a decade-long global hunt: a story of seduction and betrayal, of fake identities and secret loyalties, of idealists and fanatics, lovers and spies. While Trotsky raged in exile – still clinging to his revolutionary dream – Stalin’s agents closed in. At the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained to lie, charm and ultimately to kill.
Tracing a path from the cafés of Paris to the battlefields of Spain, from Stalin’s Kremlin to a bloodied study in Mexico, The Death of Trotsky unfolds like a spy thriller – a story of obsession and betrayal, of dreams destroyed and loyalties twisted, culminating in one of the most shocking murders of the modern age.
‘Hugely compelling’ ROGER MOORHOUSE
‘As good as any thriller’ HELEN RAPPAPORT
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Reviews
Mesmerising . . . A fascinating study of Trotsky . . . Equally a remarkable one about the paranoia and violent insanity that drove Stalin
With impeccable scholarship and impressive research, Ireland sheds new light on the incredible tale of The Death of Trotsky. It is epic, panoramic history crossed with the joys of a spy thriller and the tragic denouement is brilliantly brought to life in the dusty, claustrophobic streets of Coyoacán
With impeccable scholarship and impressive research, Ireland sheds new light on the incredible tale of The Death of Trotsky. It is epic, panoramic history crossed with the joys of a spy thriller and the tragic denouement is brilliantly brought to life in the dusty, claustrophobic streets of Coyoacán
In this pacy, well-researched account, Josh Ireland sheds fascinating new light on one of history's most notorious assassinations. The Death of Trotsky is as good as any thriller, proving that true stories, when well-told and with panache, are always the best
Josh Ireland tells the grim story of Trotsky's assassination with tremendous style and aplomb, weaving the many twists and turns of Trotsky's exile and later targeting into a hugely compelling narrative. An elegant retelling of a most heinous act
A breathtaking swoop into an extraordinary tale. The narrative takes us from Stalin's dark obsession to a remorseless hunt spanning decades and continents and a final, fateful moment in Mexico City. This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history
Gripping . . . full of treachery, intrigue and betrayal. Josh Ireland reveals in shocking details how the long arm of the Russian state deals with its enemies, which still feels very timely today
A riveting, propulsive read full of strange-but-true intrigue and laced with telling detail - this is narrative history at its very best
A riveting account of how Stalin and his secret police successfully plotted to kill Leon Trotsky. Ireland takes us into the mind of the assassin and the flawed attitude of Trotsky himself, who allowed the murderer to infiltrate his home. Deeply researched and compellingly written, this book will stand as the definitive story of Trotsky's shocking death in Mexico in August 1940
A supremely paranoid and vindictive man, Joseph Stalin went to any length to eliminate perceived enemies - no one more so than the urbane Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. With engrossing detail and high drama, Josh Ireland skilfully unfolds the story of both the hunters and the prey, which ends in the assassination of Trotsky in 1940. It's a tale that should resonate today, where a modern Russian dictator seems hell-bent on making sure that none of his political foes dies of old age