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. And at the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained to lie, charm and ultimately to kill.
With newly uncovered sources and the narrative pace of a thriller, acclaimed historian Josh Ireland reveals the full, electrifying story of one of history's most infamous assassinations. From the salons of Paris to the backstreets of Barcelona, from the NKVD's shadowy archives to a bloody study in Mexico, The Death of Trotsky is a gripping tale of power, paranoia, and the price of dissent.
