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

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)

About the Author

Josh Ireland is the author of Churchill & Son and The Traitors: A True Story of Blood, Betrayal and Deceit, an account of five Britons who betrayed their country during World War II. He has written for The Daily Telegraph, Prospect, The Spectator, and the Times Literary Supplement.