The Death of Trotsky

<p><b>THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY</b><br><br><b>'Elegant, unshowy and gripping in the manner of a dependable le Carre' </b><i><b>THE TIMES</b></i><br><br><b>'T</b><b>he page-turning pace of a thriller . . . A first-class historian' ANDREW ROBERTS</b><br><br><b>'Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history' RORY CARROLL</b><br><br><b>'Gripping . . . F</b><b>ull of treachery, intrigue and betrayal' DAMIEN LEWIS</b><br><br> In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky's study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramon Mercader - an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin.<br><br> 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.<br><br> Tracing a path from the cafes of Paris to the battlefields of Spain, from Stalin's Kremlin to a bloodied study in Mexico, <i>The Death of Trotsky</i> 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.<br><br><b>'H</b><b>ugely compelling' ROGER MOORHOUSE</b><br><br><b>'As good as any thriller'</b> <b>HELEN RAPPAPORT</b></p>