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.
THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
‘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
‘Hugely compelling’ ROGER MOORHOUSE
‘As good as any thriller’ HELEN RAPPAPORT
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Imprint: John Murray UK
Publication date: 24/02/2026
