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A Very Expensive Poison

The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West
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( 2,235 ratings, 220 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding delves into the mysterious and chilling murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. It provides a gripping investigation into his poisoning, uncovering the web of political intrigue and espionage between Russia and the West. The book is a thrilling expose on the power struggles and dark dealings that shape international relations.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this gripping true crime narrative if you are intrigued by international espionage, political intrigue, and the dark world of state-sponsored assassination. This book uncovers the chilling story behind the poisoning of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, offering an in-depth look into an audacious murder plot that's both shocking and captivating.

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The shocking true story of the Litvinenko poisoning, told by the author of The Snowden Files and Wikileaks.

The shocking true story of the Litvinenko poisoning, told by the author of The Snowden Files and Wikileaks.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

1 November 2006. Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. Twenty-two days later he dies, killed from the inside. The poison? Polonium; a rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia.

Based on the best part of a decade's reporting, as well as extensive interviews with those closest to the events (including the murder suspects), and access to trial evidence, Luke Harding's A Very Expensive Poison is the definitive inside story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko.

Harding traces the journey of the nuclear poison across London, from hotel room to nightclub, assassin to victim; it is a deadly trail that seemingly leads back to the Russian state itself. This is a shocking real-life revenge tragedy with corruption and subterfuge at every turn, and walk-on parts from Russian mafia, the KGB, MI6 agents, dedicated British coppers, and Russian dissidents. At the heart of this all is an individual and his family torn apart by a ruthless crime.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

A Very Expensive Poison has been praised for its gripping narrative and meticulous investigation into the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Readers appreciate Harding's detailed and compelling storytelling, providing an insightful look into international espionage and politics. Many find it both chilling and enlightening, with a strong emphasis on its procedural and factual nature.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781783350940

Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 December 2016

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Guardian Faber Publishing

Edition: Main

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 380g

Pages: 464

About the Author

Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian's Moscow bureau chief; the Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the cold war. He is the author of Mafia State and co-author of WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken (nominated for the Orwell Prize) and The Snowden Files. Two of Harding's books have been made into films; The Fifth Estate and Snowden.

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