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The Umbrella Murder

The Umbrella Murder

The Hunt for the Cold War's Most Notorious Killer

Summary

In 1978 the Bulgarian author and dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by a poisoned umbrella on Waterloo Bridge in London. His murder is the most iconic killing in almost five decades of the Cold War, and no one has ever been prosecuted for it.

The Umbrella Murder reveals the real architect and hit man behind this spectacular killing: a spy code-named Piccadilly who worked for the Bulgarian secret service and the KGB, who has been hiding for more than forty years.

Written as a modern-day thriller, and drawing on an incredible thirty-year cache of original documents and recordings and never-before-seen archive material -- some not even seen by police or secret services -- this is a jaw-dropping and page-turning search for justice in the murky underworld of intelligence and across the shifting sands of spycraft.

Reviews

  • 'This masterly investigation, spanning 30 years, into the assassination of a cold war dissident, Georgi Markov, in London in 1978 exposes an assassin worthy of James Bond'
    Observer, Book of the Week

About the author

Ulrik Skotte

Ulrik Skotte is a Danish journalist who has been chasing the truth about the Umbrella Murder and the mysterious Agent Piccadilly for more than 25 years. He eventually managed to track down Piccadilly and met him face to face in an apartment in Austria in 2021. Shortly after, Piccadilly was found dead in the same apartment. Ulrik Skotte lives in Copenhagen and owns the TV company Doceye, which produces documentaries for the Scandinavian and European markets.
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