The Terminal Spy

A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder

By: Alan S. Cowell

Narrated by: Simon Vance

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.©2008 Alan S. Cowell; (P)2008 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

“Absorbing.”—The New York Times

“Meticulous reporting . . . Cowell plays out the Byzantine possibilities behind this killing with heroic clarity . . . The Terminal Spy is not simply a wholly engrossing and thought-provoking story of espionage and homicide.”—Los Angeles Times

“Doggedly reported and dramatically written . . . Cowell tells the story with literary panache but doesn’t let his stylish prose eclipse the substance of a sordid tale. The sections about espionage and the assassination are worthy of Tom Clancy, but the author’s political analysis is equally riveting. . . . A well-told true-crime tale mixed with expert political/historical analysis.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Reads like a thriller. But The Terminal Spy is a chilling and horrific true story. Alan Cowell has done a brilliant job of investigative reporting.”—David Wise, author of Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI’s Robert Hanssen Betrayed America

“Compulsively researched and sourced.”—The Guardian (London)

“In The Terminal Spy Alan Cowell, a top-flight investigative journalist, digs deep into today’s brutal Russia to find a new Soviet Union waiting to be born. Or maybe it never went away.”—Alan Furst, author of The Spies of Warsaw

“Alan Cowell has used a veteran journalist’s skill to lead us through the roads of deceit and brutality and has exposed the vicious retribution of Russia’s security apparatus against the former KGB officer who dared to condemn Putin’s modern Russia, and paid for it with his life. This is a story of the real world in which we live—brilliantly told—and chilling in its implications. The Terminal Spy should be read by everyone seeking an insight to today’s Moscow.”—Gerald Seymour

“The cast of characters is astonishing and so complex that the author felt compelled to list them all in a who’s who at the beginning, and you’ll be glad he did. Complementing this outré ensemble is a Byzantine story line that could have dissolved easily into a hopeless stew in less adroit hands, but Cowell, the New York Times’ former London bureau chief and an investigative reporter, knows the story inside out. And he writes exceedingly well.”—Star Tribune

“A brilliant, subtle book . . . a fascinating account which tells us much about the people involved, and even more by inference of the world they inhabit and the society which created them.”—Anthony Robinson, former Moscow bureau chief, Financial Times

Slow but gets there in the end.

The initial part of the book is detailed and slow going but the story picks up when it gets to the hunt for the Polonium around London and into Europe. While it covers Russian politics and intrigue in great depth we are never really sure, even at the end, who, if anyone, authorized the poisoning but with such a full exposition of the background and facts the listener is well equipped to come to their own conclusion and realize why we may never know the full details of the story.

The chapters regarding Polonium should be required reading for anyone involved in public safety.

Great news story

A 5 star behind the scenes investigation on Russian politics. A well researched well narrated expose on Putin era assassination. How the billionaire oligarchs bought up England's prime real estate and put down roots while criticizing Putin's thug-like diplomacy.

But one former KGB star spy just talked too much and was poisoned with a potent radioactive agent triggering an international murder investigation.

Terrific tale.

Polonium 210

I did enjoy the story, but the narrative seemed to all over the place. The instance of Litvinenko's death is foreshadowed more than a dozen times. This made the book seem really repetitive. Also the narrator's instance of calling Polonium 210 "two, one , oh" really got annoying. I have never heard it called that.

Excellent

If you could sum up The Terminal Spy in three words, what would they be?

I enjoyed the book very much. I like listening to Vance, he always does a great job.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to many of his performances. This is an excellent one.

Any additional comments?

Great book, great performance. Definitely recommend.

Don't purchase this book

The only reason I even finished listening was because I paid $25 for it. If you decide to give it a try skip staight to chapter 11. Before that it's a boring, pointless history that only marginally has to do with the story.