In August 1940, Leon Trotsky, living in a fortified villa in Mexico City, welcomed a man he believed to be a friend into his study. Hidden beneath the visitor’s raincoat was the weapon that would change the course of revolutionary history—a small ice axe, wielded on the direct orders of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin. As Trotsky sat at his desk reviewing an article, the assassin drove the ice axe into his head. Hours later, news of the attack spread across the globe, as Trotsky succumbed to his wounds the following day.

This landmark book delivers the most authoritative account yet of the covert operation that led to one of the twentieth century’s most shocking political assassinations. Immersing listeners in a world of deception, betrayal, and manipulation, it reveals how Soviet espionage, seduction, and ruthless determination eliminated Stalin’s most feared rival.

Co-authors H. Keith Melton and Nigel West—internationally recognized authorities on intelligence and espionage—draw on more than forty years of combined research. With exclusive access to newly unearthed Moscow intelligence files and the recently discovered letters of one of Trotsky’s personal guards, they uncover the intricate web of conspirators in the United States and Europe who orchestrated the clandestine machinery of Stalin’s secret war.

No one is better equipped to illuminate this story than Melton and West. Their masterful narrative pulls back the curtain on a crime of global consequence—an unforgettable tale of loyalty, treachery, and murder at the highest levels of power.