The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder
Written by Alan S. Cowell
Narrated by Simon Vance
3/5
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About this audiobook
In a page-turning narrative that reads like a thriller, an award-winning journalist exposes the troubling truth behind the world's first act of nuclear terrorism.
On November 1, 2006, Alexander Litvinenko sipped tea in London's Millennium Hotel. Hours later the Russian émigré and former intelligence officer, who was sharply critical of Russian president Vladimir Putin, fell ill and within days was rushed to the hospital. Fatally poisoned by a rare radioactive isotope slipped into his drink, Litvinenko issued a dramatic deathbed statement accusing Putin himself of engineering his murder. Alan S. Cowell, then London Bureau Chief of the New York Times, who covered the story from its inception, has written the definitive story of this assassination and of the profound international implications of this first act of nuclear terrorism.
Who was Alexander Litvinenko? What had happened in Russia since the end of the cold war to make his life there untenable and in severe jeopardy even in England, the country that had granted him asylum? And how did he really die? The life of Alexander Litvinenko provides a riveting narrative in its own right, culminating in an event that rang alarm bells among western governments at the ease with which radioactive materials were deployed in a major Western capital to commit a unique crime. But it also evokes a wide range of other issues: Russia's lurch to authoritarianism, the return of the KGB to the Kremlin, the perils of a new cold war driven by Russia's oil riches and Vladimir Putin's thirst for power.
Cowell provides a remarkable and detailed reconstruction both of how Litvinenko died and of the issues surrounding his murder. Drawing on exclusive reporting from Britain, Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States, he traces in unprecedented detail the polonium trail leading from Russia's closed nuclear cities through Moscow and Hamburg to the Millenium Hotel in central London. He provides the most detailed step-by-step explanation of how and where polonium was found; how the assassins tried on several occasions to kill Litvinenko; and how they bungled a conspiracy that may have had more targets than Litvinenko himself.
With a colorful cast that includes the tycoons, spies, and killers who surrounded Litvinenko in the roller-coaster Russia of the 1990s, as well as the émigrés who flocked to London in such numbers that the British capital earned the sobriquet "Londongrad," this book lays out the events that allowed an accused killer to escape prosecution in a delicate diplomatic minuet that helped save face for the authorities in London and Moscow.
A masterful work of investigative reporting, The Terminal Spy offers unprecedented insight into one of the most chilling true stories of our time.
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Reviews for The Terminal Spy
30 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Could have been more interesting if the author had not danced all round the place.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Based upon a 2006 actual account of Russia's President Pudin and how a spy, traitor was killed by an old adjective of poisioning. Death by lethal doses of Pollium that was given to the spy's and, traitors in the cold war as a harsh death. A good read if your interested in actual news accounts. Highly recommended, as a who done it mystery of intense investigations in London, Russia, and other Countries.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal Spy By Alan S. Cowell A Review by Colin J. Edwards Published by Doubleday 2008 $26.95 432 pps. A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder. The Terminal Spy is an intrigue with a Russian theme where the unspeakable do horrid things to the unpronounceable. I tend to confuse my …skayas, with my …oviches, and by the time I have sorted those out I have lost the plot. Mr Cowell anticipated my, and perhaps others dilemma, and opens his book with Dramatis Personae. This introduces us to 40 principle characters. I respectfully suggest that the reader studies these three and a bit pages as it will greatly enhance comprehension of the remaining 430. Cowell’s work is at once an important and rewarding example of detailed investigative reporting. Important because it reveals how a foreign (I was tempted to say hostile), country carried out a successful nuclear attack on London, Britain’s capital city. Rewarding because it reads like a fiction spy thriller. It will come as no surprise to the reader to learn that Alan Cowell is an experienced and accomplished journalist and citizen of the world. He is ‘at-home’ in London Paris or New York, and has vast experience of the Middle East and Africa. The Terminal Spy is a dissection, in the minutest detail of the evidence pertaining to the calculated murder in broad daylight of Alexander Litvinenko at London on November 1st 2006. It is the manner of this murder and why, that makes this volume a page turner par excellence. No one has been brought before the courts for this crime, but by the end of the book there can be no doubt of the identity of the culprit and his accomplices. The book is very well written. It is never dull – which is quite an achievement when one considers the exposure espionage and intelligence gets these days. There are no loose-ends or innuendoes which in a book like this can be infuriating. The Terminal Spy is an extremely rewarding and enjoyable read, and I thoroughly recommend it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The murder of Alexander of Litvinieko was at one time worldwide news and many of us spent hours watching its aftermath. The author covered this story extensively and tries to document the incident in this book. The basic story is that Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned on November 23, 2006 and suffered a very painful death. He openly accused, Vladimir Putin with orchestrating his demise in a note supposedly dictated to his friend Alex Goldfarb and released after his death. Litvinenko was himself once a member of the KGB/FSB and his defection to the West and subsequent discussion of its intimate details left many in his former country displeased with him. He held press conferences, outed confidential information about his former employer and was always in the market to tell his story to anyone (especially the press)who would listen. It is hard to estimate the validity of his claims and how much he really knew. In reading information from other writers, I found that some members of the press did not consider him a credible source as some of his allegations was seen as fantastical and he was known to exaggerate. But regardless of the credibility of his claims, someone found him threatening enough that he was poisoned with Polonium 210. Some have likened the effects of this element in the human body to having a nuclear bomb detonated inside you. My complaint about this book was that the author spent so much time giving the reader tons of details that in my opinion did not add to an understanding of the incident. Sometimes while reading, I felt like he was unable to find out much more information than we all saw on CNN or any other news outlet. This led to him creating the feeling of a thriller on the level of Robert Ludlum's Bourne series. He spent way too much time telling us about the supporting cast to Litvineko's life and murder that sometimes I lost sight of why I was reading the book. In the end all this extra knowledge did not add to the story or get us any closer to unravelling how Polonium 210 ended up in Litvineko's cup and who put it there. The book would have been better served by just covering the murder with some side information thrown in but it is possible that just doing so would not have been enough to write a whole book. As tedious as all the extra histories of the people that Litvinenko knew turned out to be, I have to give the author credit because I am sure that he must have worked very hard to gather all that information. All in all, it was an okay read that had much potential but was weakened by too many unnecessary details.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alan Cowell's book is a fascinating, timely and frightening telling of the true story of Alexander Litvinenko and his poisoning by Polonium-210 in 2006. It is well researched, and well written, but almost too tedious with details (I found myself referencing Wikipedia more than once to keep the characters straight). The myriad returns to the day Litvinenko fell ill were also confusing; I would have preferred his story keep that forefront (or even continue with his illness and ultimate death) and then introduce the other characters.All-in-all, an intriguing look at post-USSR Russia, the wonderful qualities brought out by fervent capitalism (ha!), and the continuing influence of certain party members and positions.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Terminal Spy is the story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former K.G.B./F.S.B. agent turned Russian exile. Alan Cowell has closely researched the life of Litvinenko and those who surrounded him in Russia and his home in exile, London. This insider's look into Russia since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. is truly mesmerizing at times. While I enjoyed the story and the mystery behind it all, I found the level of detail tedious and unnecessary at times. I frequently skipped pages of detailed finances, etc. I would recommend this book to those with an interest in Russian history or journalistic accounts of our times.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely interesting! I thought that it would be more of a shady conspiracy book, but it turns out that quite a lot is known about the events which occurred. The book is easy to read, throws around a lot of big words every now and then in a lame attempt to appear more intellectual than it is, but in the end, it's a riveting book that all interested people should check out.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alan Cowell takes us into the world of Russian émigré thuggery in “Londongrad” looking backward from “the beginning of the end.” The end in question is the death by poisoning in London of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko on November 23, 2006. Litvinenko was one of those who left for the West after the Soviet Union collapsed and the country was taken over by the Russian mafia or “oligarchs.” Putin’s rise to power sent additional ousted oligarchs over the border. Some of these were former members of the K.G.B. and/or the F.S.B., its successor organization. Litvinenko had served in the FSB as an investigator of organized crime. In London Litvinenko held press conferences, outted fellow spies, and consorted with shadowy contacts from Russia in search of new ways to make money. The FSB was not happy about this. Someone offered Litvinenko a cup of tea spiked with Polonium 210 (a supposedly very highly controlled substance) and he died a very painful death.Cowell obviously invested a lot of time and energy into finding out information from very secretive sources. But he is overstating to claim that “the death of Litvinenko would come to be seen as a defining moment of the Putin presidency.” He threw in too many details we don’t really need (although I can empathize because it was probably very hard to get them) and inserted way too many melodramatic flourishes into the text (e.g., “Were they players or bystanders, in place by accident or by design?”).It’s a story worth telling, but maybe as a long magazine article, toning down the drama, and thinning out the details.