A Very Expensive Poison, Luke Harding
A Very Expensive Poison, Luke Harding
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A Very Expensive Poison
The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West

Author: Luke Harding

Narrator: Nicholas Guy Smith

Unabridged: 13 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/24/2017

Synopsis

A true story of murder and conspiracy that points directly to Vladimir Putin, by The Guardian’s former Moscow bureau chief and author of The Snowden Files and Collusion

On November 1, 2006, journalist and Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. He died twenty-two days later. The cause of death? Polonium—a rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance.

Here Luke Harding unspools a real-life political assassination story—complete with KGB, CIA, MI6, and Russian mobsters. He shows how Litvinenko’s murder foreshadowed the killings of other Kremlin critics, from Washington, DC, to Moscow, and how these are tied to Russia’s current misadventures in Ukraine and Syria. In doing so, he becomes a target himself and unearths a chain of corruption and death leading straight to Vladimir Putin. F

rom his investigations of the downing of flight MH17 to the Panama Papers, Harding sheds a terrifying light on Russia’s fracturing relationship with the West.

About The Author

Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya and Syria. 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rowan on June 06, 2017

I’ll never look at a cup of tea the same way again. Imagine someone handing you a document classified “top secret”; the anticipation builds as you turn the page. That is this book. James Bond films have nothing on this and one day, much like Harding’s other work, it will no doubt be made into a film......more

Goodreads review by James on May 16, 2016

This is possibly the first serious book to look at the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, post the publication of the official inquiry. Even prior to that, while there were many books on the subject, more than a few were either conspiracist in nature or had an axe to grind. Luke Harding, an experienced......more

Goodreads review by Randal on February 02, 2017

Easily the best reportage I have read in many years. Thorough, clear, engaging. It both tells the story of Andrei Litvinenko and places it into the wider context of the criminal nature of the Russian government and in particular Vladimir Putin. I found much of it chilling, particularly the later chapt......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on June 09, 2018

At the G7 summit yesterday, President Trump fulminated about Russia’s expulsion from the group of nations, formerly known as the G8. “Where is Russia?” He blathered, in characteristically moronic fashion. "You know, whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, we have a world t......more

Quotes

“Gripping. . . . The case against Mr. Putin, his intelligence agencies and their hitmen was built gradually over the years, by detective work and intelligence. As set out by Mr. Harding in this book, it arouses a demonic fascination. . . .Mr. Harding ranges widely, far beyond the Litvinenko case, in A Very Expensive Poison. . . .  Presidents who sup with Vladimir Putin should bring a very long spoon indeed.” —Daniel Johnson, The Wall Street Journal

“Harding is a great journalist. . . . His work is precious. . . . With experience and lucidity, he helps us to understand that we must be vigilant and always ready to guard the most precious asset of all, not a gift but a right: freedom.” —Roberto Saviano, l’Espresso

“Drawing on interviews, original reportage, and a British public inquiry, Harding reiterates the inquiry’s findings: Litvinenko was the victim of a political assassination that was indistinguishable from a gangland hit. . . . Harding suitably conveys the shocking, violent, and tragic story of a man whose murder has gone unpunished.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Harding’s exposé, shortlisted for the CWA Nonfiction Dagger Award, could not be more chilling or timely. . . . A devastating and disturbing must-read." - Booklist

"A chilling look at the Putin regime's murderous suppression of its critics. . . . In this fast-paced book, Harding, who was expelled from the Kremlin while serving as the Guardian's Moscow bureau chief, covers all the bases while exposing the weakness and accommodationism of the now-departed British leadership. Hard-hitting and timely given Russia's continued sway in international politics as well as its documented influence over an incoming American administration that is also hostile to the press." - Kirkus 

"Extraordinarily pacy...one of the best political thrillers I have come across in years." - The Evening Standard

"Harding...tells this ghastly tale with real authority, wit, and panache. . . . The book is as 'definitive' as it claims." - The Times

"Impassioned...Harding paints deft portraits of the tragi-comic duo suspected of carrying out the crime." - The New Statesman

"Gripping." - London Review of Books

"A Very Expensive Poison reads like a John Le Carré spy novel, but shockingly it's all true. Luke Harding has followed the criminality of the Putin regime from Russia to the West and his story leaves us with terrible feelings of dread about what Putin will do next." - Bill Browder, author of Red Notice

"An expert chronicler of a sensational but opaque crime...Enthralling." - A. D. Miller, author of Snowdrops

"Harding lays out every fact connecting it in thrillerish detail to the dark undercurrents of life in today's Russia." - Oliver Bullough, author of The Last Man in Russia

"Horrific, instructive and, at times, hilarious. He is a masterful storyteller and an impeccable researcher." - Federico Varese, Professor of Criminology, University of Oxford

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