TRUST NO ONE : The Secret World of Sidney Reilly - Hardcover

Richard B Spence

3.75

32 ratings by Goodreads

9780922915798: TRUST NO ONE : The Secret World of Sidney Reilly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0922915792 ISBN 13: 9780922915798

Publisher: FERAL HOUSE, 2003

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A master criminal spy, a """"man who never made a mistake"""" - the living prototype of James Bond - Sidney Reilly amassed a fortune through the ruthless bartering of influence and information while employed and feared by capitalists and commissars alike. A window into the pre and post-W.W.I era's secret underworld of political and economic intrigue, this extremely readable but academically reliable biography includes many illustrations and photos, plus information that has never before been seen by Russian and British intelligence.

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Synopsis:

Sidney Reilly spent most of his life in the shadows of international intrigue and counted among his legion of friends, victims and accomplices the likes of Rasputin and Churchill. He is often portrayed as a master spy, a "man who never made a mistake" - the living prototype of James Bond. But Reilly's real exploits exceeded anything credited to fictional Bond. Born into a Polish Jewish family as Salomon Rosenblum, he embarked on an amazing, daring and often bewildering career in which he assumed the persona of an Irish-named British gentleman along with many other identities. He was a slightly different person to every man who knew him and every woman who loved him. Using "the System" (betting on all sides while manipulating the odds to maximise his own profit), Sidney Reilly was as much a master criminal as spy and amassed a fortune through the ruthless bartering of influence and information. He was employed and feared by capitalists and commissars alike. Was he a dedicated anti-Communist, the Soviet's first "mole," or simply an unscrupulous con man? Even his end is an enigma: did the Soviets shoot him in 1925, or did he live to scheme on for many years to come?

Reilly's career offers a window into the pre- and post-WWI era's secret underworld of political and economic intrigue and reveals a side of recent history that most works overlook or avoid.

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