After four years working for MI6 and being exposed by the Soviets for his role in the plot to overthrow Lenin in 1918, Reilly mysteriously disappeared in Russia in 1925. By the 1930s the press had turned him into a household name, dubbing him the ‘Master Spy’ – the myth was cast. It was upon this myth and the first-hand access to British intelligence records on Reilly that Ian Fleming, himself a secret service desk officer during the Second World War, was inspired to create James Bond.
This revised and expanded biography – itself a detective story of epic proportions – cuts through the myths revealing for the first time the truth behind Reilly’s ‘disappearance’ in 1925, using new, independent and expert photographic analysis of the photographs of Reilly’s corpse to ascertain their authenticity, and finally providing concrete proof that he was executed by the Russians in 1925.
Ace of Spies
‘A myth-shattering tour de force’
SIMON SEBAG MONTIFORE
The figure that emerges is more of a confidence trickster, murderer and serial womaniser than a British hero’
THE GUARDIAN
The most definitive biography of the spying ace yet written with its remarkable original research and its profound grasp of the secret world of spies, arms dealers, adventuresses, oil tycoons and politicians in the early twentieth century, it is both a compelling narrative and a myth-shattering tour de force’
SIMON SEBAG MONTIFORE
‘The absolute last word on the subject’.
NIGEL WEST
‘Brilliantly cuts through the webs for lies that Reilly spun …. A fascinating tale of dark deeds, treachery and skulduggery’.
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE