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Trust No One: The Secret World of Sidney Reilly
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Trust No One: The Secret World of Sidney Reilly

Average customer rating:

Scholarly but irresistible reading
Attempting the impossible
Seems like good scholarship, but not much fun
Popped my bubble about Reilly
Publisher's Response to Smear

Trust No One: The Secret World of Sidney Reilly
Richard B. Spence
Manufacturer: Feral House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly (Revealing History)
Reilly - Ace of Spies
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The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes
Sidney Reilly: The True Story of the World's Greatest Spy

ASIN: 0922915792

Book Description

Sidney Reilly remains one of the most elusive figures of the last century. He used a variety of personas--from English gentleman to Bolshevik commissar--to build his legend in the underworld of international intrigue. Historian Richard Spence draws on photographs, illustrations, and uncovered records from British, Russian, and American intelligence sources to create a powerful portrait of a man who was feared by friend and enemy alike. The dramatic true-life tale of this 20th-century master spy--and consummate criminal--was the subject of the acclaimed PBS series Reilly: Ace of Spies starring Sam Neill.

Customer Reviews:

Scholarly but irresistible reading.......2006-10-24

Richard Spence's research is astounding in its depth. Although this is in some ways a very "scholarly" work and demands effort on the part of the reader, it's worth it. It's obvious that no easy or pat answers to the mystery of Sidney Reilly are possible....and any book that pretends otherwise is just another red herring being dangled before the gullible.

Attempting the impossible.......2006-07-29

In the end, Sidney Reilly has the last laugh. He spent a lifetime covering his tracks, weaving a trail of deception and misinformation intended to obscure every aspect of his personal history and career. Spence takes on the noble task of trying to sift through the voluminous, vague, and usually contradictory material about this character. Unfortunately, almost nothing can be said with certainty about Reilly. We are unsure of his real name, place of birth, parentage, marriages...and those are just the biographical details. His work was obviously and carefully kept clouded. The author assembles as much data as one will probably ever find on this subject. He tries to be objective. However, the end result is a compilation of information mixed with supposition and conjecture. Yet, it is doubtful if anyone could have done more than Spence given the nature of the subject. In the end, we are not even sure if Reilly died as legend holds or if he lived on in mystery. No one will ever accurately chronicle the life of this remarkable enigma wrapped in a riddle...and that is exactly how Sidney Reilly wanted things to be.

Seems like good scholarship, but not much fun.......2005-11-03

It is obvious that Richard Spence is a diligent researcher and he did a great deal of homework for this book. The result is an exhaustive (and exhausting) compilation of Sidney Reilly's activities and associations over the course of his career. Unfortunately this wealth of information is not really drawn into any themes or any kind of coherent narrative. Some of the "Reilly myths" are convincingly de-bunked, but there's not much on offer here to replace them. This might be a helpful work for the history scholar looking for names, dates, and places associated with Sidney Reilly but it isn't much fun for the armchair history buff.

Popped my bubble about Reilly.......2005-09-29

I bought this after watching the BBC miniseries on Sidney Reilly. Spence has produced a very scholarly book written in a friendly tone. While I still view the Ace of Spies (the series, not the man) with affection and admiration, this book demonstrates that Reilly's life was much more complex than the BBC series made out. While not wanting to give too much away, I'll just say, watch the series, then read the book.

Publisher's Response to Smear.......2005-04-15

I wonder why a character who calls himself "Borwall" has attempted to discredit professor and author Richard Spence and his book and promote a competing book by one Mr. Cook.

From "Borwall's" comments I really have to wonder whether he actually read TRUST NO ONE himself. He definitely didn't read it very carefully because in the list of things cited as the author's cardinal errors and misinterpretations, he manages to misrepresent what is actually said.

For instance, author Richard Spence does not argue that Trust was a great Soviet achievement; exactly the opposite is the case. While Spence theorizes that elements in British intelligence sought to use Trotsky for their purposes, and vice versa, that's hardly the same as presenting him as a tool of capitalist restoration. Re Hill and Boyce's ambiguous loyalties, and the Radkevichs, Spence stands by his sources and conclusions. "Borwall" repeatedly tosses off phrases such as "absolute and complete lies" in attacking the author's views or "quite sure" in advancing his own, but in neither instance does he reference the slightest evidence to support these sweeping assertions. In the absence of a reasoned and factual rebuttal, he resorts to cheap shots of innuendo, ad hominem attack, and unsubstantiated claims of superior knowledge.

Finally, speaking of cheap smears, author Spence is not an agent of the KGB or its successors or, for that matter, a freemanson or tool of the Elders of Zion. Likewise, the folks at Sovershenno Sekretno would be very surprised to see themselves labeled a "KGB paper."

Adam Parfrey
Feral House

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