The Death of Trotsky

The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy

By: Josh Ireland

Narrated by: Orlando Wells

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.

History of the Bolshevik Revolt revisited

My father having lived during this period and having escaped to Japan told many stories while we grew up in the US. I have a great interest in this period of Russian history. I liked this story however it was very difficult to keep track of all the personalities.

Outstanding story telling.

This is the only book that I have listened to in the last ten years that recounts an historical event in a straight forward, compelling, efficient, complete, and memorable way.
The narration was crisp and beautiful.
The character development was full figured.
The motives were clear.
The importance of the events was not overstated.
The book was outstanding