The Terminal Spy
By Alan S. Cowell

Published by Doubleday 2008 $26.95 432 pps.

A Review by Colin J. Edwards

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.

The Terminal Spy, documenting the incident of an ex-KGB, Russian émigré's poisoning death in London, reads like the best espionage thriller, full of shadowy characters and murderous intrigue.

The one thing that Cowell never lets us forget however is that this book is different from spy thrillers in one chilling aspect - it's all real. Every place, event, action and most of all, every person is real.

Alexander Litvinenko's story was, in the long run, about parents mourning a child, a wife mourning a husband, children mourning the loss of a father, to paraphrase Cowell.

Cowell does a good job of outlining the history of all the key players related to the incident, including the poison itself. He does the same for the political history of Russia prior to and leading up to the incident.

While there was a lot of detail, I didn't find myself tired of it, but rather wanting to read further. With one exception - in a probable attempt to keep the main personage and what happened to him at the forefront of the reader's mind, Cowell has to find too many ways to refer to the day that Litvinenko was actually poisoned, and it did become redundant after about five or six references.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to gain a deeper insight into the Litvinenko incident, as well as anyone who enjoys a well-written, well-researched, solid piece of journalism.

This story could have been written in 20 pages. The author goes on and on with words that try to enhance the story in every detail. I will never purchase a book by this person again.

Mr. Cowell was a reporter for the New York Times when he covered the sensational murder of former KGB spy Alex Litvinenko in London. The book occassionally packs too much information in its attempt to be conprehensive for the "true crime" reader, but otherwise it is quite readable. While the Russians were clumsy in their murder which the author shows the ease which the police unravel and trace the nuclear poison, the book can not say with certainity who ordered the murder (there are no dearth of suspects). A good beach read for the summer.

This is a page turner, a "can't put down" thriller of the London murder of Alexander Litvinenko on November 1, 2006. Thoroughly researched, carefully thought through, all its nuances and angles and dark pockets are explored and analysed leaving the reader satisfied but wide awake at night suffering from the heebie jeebies.