Death of Trotsky by Josh Ireland

THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY

‘Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history’ RORY CARROLL

‘As good as any thriller’ HELEN RAPPAPORT

‘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? Ramon 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 cafes 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

A pulse-pounding true story of espionage, betrayal and murder – tracing the long hunt that led from the Kremlin to Mexico City, and ending in one of the most infamous assassinations of the 20th century.

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.

26 Feb 2026
 

The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy by Josh Ireland ISBN 9781399827300