Audio only
The Assassination of Leon Trotsky
Espionage, Scandal, and the Crime of the CenturyBy H. Keith Melton, Nigel WestNarrated by Tim H. DixonLength14h 8m
About this audiobook
From two of the world’s leading intelligence and espionage historians comes the definitive—and most unsettling—account of the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
Exiled from the Soviet Union and living under constant threat, Leon Trotsky believed that by 1937 he had found sanctuary in Mexico City. What he did not see was the vast clandestine machinery Stalin had already set in motion—one that beyond Europe and, crucially, into the United States itself. Drawing on newly uncovered evidence, this book reveals the previously untold role played by Stalin’s agents operating in America who helped make the assassination possible.
At the center of the plot stood Ramón Mercader, a disciplined Soviet assassin using multiple false identities. Guided by his formidable mother, Caridad Mercader, he avoided overt violence in favor of patience, manipulation, and emotional infiltration. His most powerful weapon was not the ice axe he ultimately wielded, but trust—carefully cultivated through friendships, sympathies, and a romantic relationship with Sylvia Ageloff, a Brooklyn-born social worker whose true role in the assassination is reassessed here with startling clarity.
Based on unprecedented access to classified documents in Mexico, the United States, and Russia, as well as unpublished correspondence from Trotsky’s personal guards, Nigel West and H. Keith Melton expose the fatal blind spots in Trotsky’s own security and thinking. His lifelong faith in personal loyalty, his dismissal of internal betrayal, and a measure of revolutionary hubris proved decisive in the final hours of his life.
More than merely the story of how Leon Trotsky was murdered, this is a sweeping history of espionage, ideology, love, betrayal, and fatal miscalculation; it is the complete, never-before-told account of an assassination that changed the course of modern history.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, True Crime, Biography and Memoir
Length14 hrs 8 mins
Narrated byTim H. Dixon
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJul 28, 2026
LanguageEnglish
More from H. Keith Melton, Nigel West
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m4.7 (14.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
Pearl of Great PriceJoseph Smith3h 8m4.7 (7.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
Riding with EvilKen Croke, Dave Wedge9h 42m4.3 (3.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Two FBIsNicole Parker10h 8m4.4 (499)$29 · $0.00
I Catch KillersGary Jubelin15h 32m4.3 (6.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Redemption Of Bobby LoveBobby Love, Cheryl Love9h 13m4.4 (956)$29 · $0.00
The Life We ChoseMatt Birkbeck8h 57m4.4 (1K)$29 · $0.00
The Truth About AaronJonathan Hernandez5h 15m4.3 (2.5K)$24 · $0.00
No Ordinary BirdArtis Henderson6h 23m4.4 (597)$24 · $0.00
I'll Be Gone in the DarkMichelle McNamara10h 7m4.3 (302.5K)$29 · $0.00
Beyond the Body FarmBill Bass, Jon Jefferson6h 17m4.3 (10.2K)$24 · $0.00
The Killer Across the TableJohn E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker11h 7m4.3 (37.5K)$8 · $0.00
Inside the CartelMartin Suarez, Ian Frisch10h 50m4.4 (583)$29 · $0.00
White Hot HateDick Lehr12h 27m4.3 (1.4K)$29 · $0.00
Scarface and the UntouchableMax Allan Collins, A. Brad Schwartz18h 35m4.3 (2.4K)$40 · $0.00
Hack AttackNick Davies18h 7m4.3 (2.4K)$23 · $0.00
Russians Among UsGordon Corera12h 48m4.3 (4.1K)$33 · $0.00
Broken FaithMitch Weiss, Holbrook Mohr12h 19m4.2 (5K)$27 · $0.00
Member of the FamilyDianne Lake, Deborah Herman12h 30m4.2 (11.8K)$33 · $0.00
FallJohn Preston11h 24m4.2 (6.3K)$29 · $0.00
Hell Put to ShameEarl Swift12h 23m4.3 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
True IdentityPaul Joseph Fronczak, Alex Tresniowski8h 29m4.3 (817)$20 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Biography of Robert Murray M'CheyneAndrew A. Bonar7h 41m4.6 (2.2K)$1 · $0.00
You may also like
His Last BowSir Arthur Conan Doyle6h 33m4.4 (48K)$17
Fade to BlackRobert Goldsborough5h 52m4.0 (1.2K)$17
His Last BowArthur Conan Doyle7h 7m4.3 (59.1K)$1 · $0.00
His Last BowArthur Conan7h 28m4.3 (54K)$3.50 · $0.00
Standing in the ShadowsPeter Robinson9h 59m4.1 (11.1K)$29 · $0.00
AscensionOliver Harris10h 11m4.2 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Disposable ManArcher Mayor9h 38m4.0 (2.1K)$20
SanctuaryFaye Kellerman13h 1m4.1 (9.8K)$33 · $0.00
Capitol MurderPhillip Margolin9h 35m3.9 (4.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Great ImpersonationE. Phillips Oppenheim8h 49m3.9 (2.6K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Last JudgementIain Pears7h 14m3.8 (2.3K)$17
Depraved HeartPatricia Cornwell14h 53m3.7 (46.3K)$33 · $0.00
Den of SpiesCraig Unger12h 8m4.1 (359)$29 · $0.00
Open SeasonArcher Mayor11h 1m3.9 (12.1K)$20 · $0.00
VortexCatherine Coulter9h 51m4.3 (24.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Return of Sherlock HolmesSir Arthur Conan Doyle10h4.3 (87.8K)$20
A Spy in Plain SightLis Wiehl9h 37m4.0 (876)$20
Detective Ashton's Murder MysteriesJohn T. McIntyre30h 31m4.1 (11)$1.99 · $0.00
Multiple ExposureEllen Crosby11h 11m3.8 (881)$20
Cleek of Scotland Yard: Detective StoriesThomas W. Hanshew12h 2m3.8 (309)$2.40