The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy
Josh Ireland
Feb 2026 · John Murray · Narrated by Orlando Wells
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12 hr 11 min
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THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
'Elegant, unshowy and gripping in the manner of a dependable le Carré' THE TIMES
'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
'Elegant, unshowy and gripping in the manner of a dependable le Carré' THE TIMES
'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 PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
'Elegant, unshowy and gripping in the manner of a dependable le Carré' THE TIMES
'The page-turning pace of a thriller . . . A first-class historian' ANDREW ROBERTS
'Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kalei...
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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.
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, Pr...
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