A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West - Brossura

An expert chronicle of a sensational but opaque crime, and of the terrifying lawlessness it epitomised. Enthralling. (A.D. Miller, author of Snowdrops)

This extraordinarily pacy book - I downed it in two sessions - by the Guardian's former Moscow correspondent is one of the best political thrillers I have come across in years. It is also a wonderful guide to criminality and power in today's Russia - Boris Godunov pals up with the Cosa Nostra, as it were. (Evening Standard)

Harding, a former Moscow correspondent for The Guardian, tells this ghastly tale with real authority, wit and panache ... The book is as "definitive" as it claims, though "national security" means that the MI6 aspect of the story will never emerge. It is not only Russia that needs a change. (The Times)

Gripping ... Harding doesn't overcook the metaphor, but Mayfair and all it represents is portrayed here as something potentially, maybe inherently toxic. When does a soft power aimed at attracting investment start to undermine real power? (Peter Pomerantsev London Review of Books)

Pacy and impassioned ... Harding paints deft portraits of the tragi-comic duo suspected of carrying out the crime. (New Statesman)

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 feeling of dread about what Putin will do next. (Bill Browder, author of Red Notice)

When Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned, the media speculation was frenzied. Yet, even the most fevered journalistic fantasy failed to come close to the truth. Luke Harding lays out every detail of his murder, connecting it in thrillerish detail to the dark undercurrents of life in today's Russia. (Oliver Bullough, The Last Man in Russia: And The Struggle To Save A Dying Nation)

This book convincingly shows that the death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was state-sponsored murder. Luke Harding has written a story that is horrific, instructive and, at times, hilarious. He is a masterful storyteller and an impeccable researcher. (Federico Varese, author of The Russian Mafia)

Luke Harding has been reporting on this story for years, hunting down key witnesses and digging for new evidence. As a result, he has managed to provide the most thorough and vivid reconstruction of Alexander Litvinenko's assassination. (Andrei Soldatov)

His work is the most precious thing that could exist.

Harding is a reporter, a great journalist and his story never strays from everyday life and the news.

Here comes Harding, who intimately and lucidly links seemingly distant events to help us understand that our focus must always be aimed at and protect the most precious asset of all. It is not a gift, but it is ours by right: freedom.

What makes a journalist a great journalist is an obsession... that can poison family relationships and that certainly is poisoning relations with colleagues and friends. ...Harding has a sworn enemy: 'Putin's mafia government "and a goal: to tell what port the absence of democracy.

(Roberto Saviano L'Espresso)

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