THE DEATH OF TROTSKY

An arresting narrative about the assassination of Leon Trotsky.

In his latest book, Ireland takes a well-worn story and transforms it into a tale as gripping as the best novels of espionage. Much of the book unfolds over the 10-year period that precedes Trotsky’s murder, when Stalin’s agents hunted the revolutionary across Europe and ultimately to Mexico City. Using the great abundance of accounts that already exist, Ireland has written a book that is thick with plot and swift in feel, placing at the heart of the work a large cast of characters made intriguing by their unwavering fidelity to either the house of Stalin or Trotsky. Stalin’s crusade to slay his most bitter enemy is riveting fodder for any author. Yet it’s in the characters Ireland has chosen—and more crucially his deft presentation of their contradictions, desires, and flaws—that the book flows with life. Above all, he gives us a penetrative profile of Ramón Mercader, the man who, after several others failed, succeeded in assassinating Trotsky. Mercader, a Spaniard of a petty aristocratic stock, became an ardent and then hardened communist who, Ireland tells us, spent years infiltrating Trotsky’s world. As the book reaches its final third and Stalin’s agents draw close to the kill, Ireland’s writing reaches a crest, and the spycraft, gun battles, and Soviet schemes land like torrents. Some authors write their books from a thousand feet up, failing to get close to their characters and scenes. Good books get closer, bringing readers within a few yards of the narrative. Ireland puts us within an inch of his characters, offering such acute intimacy that you can hear Trotsky’s terrible scream when Mercader drives the ice pick into the back of his skull, and you can see his blood splattering across the papers on his desk.

Narrative history in fine form: thrillingly paced, deeply researched, told through the people at the center of it.