The Death of Trotsky - by Josh Ireland (Hardcover)

About the Book

"For fans of Ben Macintyre, the gripping story of the assassination of Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky and the deadly game of cat and mouse that preceded it"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A LitHub and Parade Most Anticipated Book of the Year

For fans of Ben Macintyre and Erik Larson, the gripping story of the assassination of Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky and the deadly game of cat and mouse that preceded it

On August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky invited a man he knew only as Jacques Mornard into his study. Mornard waited for Trotsky to sit, then smashed an ice pick he had hidden in his raincoat into Trotsky's skull.

For over a decade, Trotsky's greatest enemy, Joseph Stalin, had been trying to arrange his murder. Stalin's agents had hunted him across Europe and into a lonely, bitter exile in Mexico. He had liquidated Trotsky's family and friends, and yet Trotsky had always escaped his clutches. The man who changed this all was Ramón Mercader, a minor Spanish aristocrat and Soviet agent who had posed as Mornard, a dissolute Belgian playboy, and infiltrated Trotsky's inner circle.

In The Death of Trotsky, Josh Ireland traces the separate paths walked by each of these protagonists as they steadily draw closer and closer to that fateful encounter on August 20. Blending intimate historical detail and thrilling historical narrative, swinging from Moscow to Paris to Mexico, and taking in a cast of morally conflicted Russian spies, fanatical Mexican painters, and innocent American idealists, The Death of Trotsky delves into the lives of two fascinating, complex men locked in a life-or-death struggle that would bend the course of history.

Review Quotes

"Ireland takes a well-worn story and transforms it into a tale as gripping as the best novels of espionage.....[This is] a book that is thick with plot and swift in feel, placing at the heart of the work a large cast of characters made intriguing by their unwavering fidelity to either the house of Stalin or Trotsky. Stalin's crusade to slay his most bitter enemy is riveting fodder for any author. Yet it's in the characters Ireland has chosen--and more crucially his deft presentation of their contradictions, desires, and flaws--that the book flows with life....Some authors write their books from a thousand feet up, failing to get close to their characters and scenes. Good books get closer, bringing readers within a few yards of the narrative. Ireland puts us within an inch of his characters, offering such acute intimacy that you can hear Trotsky's terrible scream when Mercader drives the ice pick into the back of his skull, and you can see his blood splattering across the papers on his desk." -Kirkus (starred review)

"Mr. Ireland's The Death of Trotsky is an exciting and propulsive nonfiction account that reads like an Alan Furst novel...a tremendously readable book with a haunting message: Vengeance never sleeps." -Wall Street Journal

"A fresh timely look at Leon Trotsky . . . . [Ireland] writes with flair." -The Washington Post

"Mr. Ireland has a novelist's eye for detail and captures the characters' complexity." -The Economist

"Ireland offers a page-turner for readers of 20th-century history, with enough true-crime elements to bring along fans of that genre as well." -Library Journal

"Josh Ireland has somehow managed to combine the page-turning pace of a thriller, the detailed analysis of a true-crime investigation, and the evidence-based attention to historical detail of a first-class historian." -Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

"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." - Helen Rappaport, New York Times bestselling author of The Race to Save the Romanovs

"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." -Rory Carroll, bestselling author of Killing Thatcher

"In elegant, propulsive prose, with a jaw-dropping detail on almost every page and told with the panache of a thriller, The Death of Trotsky lays bare the murderous vendetta at the heart of a movement that once sought to rule the world." -Jonathan Freedland, Author of The Traitors Circle

"A riveting, propulsive read full of strange-but-true intrigue and laced with telling detail--this is narrative history at its very best." -Toby Harnden, author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11

"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." -Edward Shawcross, author of The Last Emperor of Mexico

"Josh Ireland has produced a riveting account of how Stalin and his secret police successfully plotted to kill Leon Trotsky. He 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, compellingly written, this book will stand as the definitive story of Trotsky's shocking death in Mexico in August 1940." -Joshua Rubenstein, author of The Last Days of Stalin

"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 skillfully 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." -Douglas Waller, New York Times bestselling author of The Determined Spy

"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." -Roger Moorhouse, author of First to Fight

"Mesmerizing.... A fascinating study of Trotsky [and] equally a remarkable one about the paranoia and violent insanity that drove Stalin.... Page-turningly compelling." -Robert Lyman, author of A War of Empires

"A gripping account of a brutal murder, 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." -Damien Lewis, author of Agent Josephine and The Ministry of Untimely Warfare

"Ireland's version is elegant, unshowy and gripping in the manner of a dependable le Carré." -The Times (UK)

"A brilliant account of the fall of a ruthless ideologue." -The Irish Independent

About the Author

Josh Ireland is a writer and editor. He lives in London and is the author of The Traitors (2017), an Observer book of the year, and Churchill & Son (2021) a Daily Telegraph book of the year. He has also ghosted a number of top-five Sunday Times bestsellers and written for the Daily Telegraph, Prospect, Spectator and the Times Literary Supplement.