A gruesome murder and an explosive mystery: an exiled former KGB agent poisoned in the very heart of London. Who were the men who laced Alexander Litvinenko's tea with enough radioactive polonium to gnaw away his internal organs and condemn him to days of unbearable agony in the terrible knowledge that death was inevitable？

Within hours of his burial in a lead-lined coffin, the Litvinenko case had plunged Russia and the West into the sort of political stand-off unseen since the Cold War.But many things in the Litvinenko file are not what they seem. In this vivid and thrilling account Martin Sixsmith, former Moscow correspondent for the BBC, uses his unique access to voices in both of the warring camps to uncover the brutal truth about Litvinenko's own past and the murky dealings that gave many people a motive to want him dead.

PART ONE

1. A FUNERAL IN LONDON 3

2. EMISSARIES FROM RussIA 7

3. THE INVESTIGATION BUSINESS 12

4. AN ANNIVERSARY OF THE PAST 15

5. TRUST AND SECURITY 22

6. THE ITALIAN JOB 25

7. IN THE PINE BAR 31

PART TWO

8. FIGHT FOR LIFE 39

9. THE EMISSARIES DEPART 42

10. TOXIC SHOCK 47

11. 'I LOVE You So MUCH' 51

12. 'THE BASTARDS GOT ME' 55

13. PR AND PROPAGANDA 63

14. A NUCLEAR TERROR 70

PART THREE

15. THE LITVINENKO FILE I 77

16. THE LITVlNENKO FILE II 82

17. THE LITVlNENKO FILE III 88

18. THE TIPPING POINT 90

19. THE BEREZOVSKY CONNECTION 95

20. TURNING THE TABLES 99

21. THE PUTIN FACTOR 104

22. GOING PUBLIC 107

23. CHALLENGING PUTIN 112

24. REPENTANCE AND REPRISALS 117

25. ARREST 121

26. TRIAL 125

27. FLIGHT 129

28. IN LIMBO 133

29. To LONDON 137

PART FOUR

30. ABSENT FRIENDS 145

31. IRREVOCABLE WAR 148

32. BLOWING UP RUSSIA 152

33. AN EXPLOSIVE CAMPAIGN 156

34. UNSOLVED DEATHS 160

35. THE GANG FROM THE LUBYANKA 166

36. BEREZOVSKY ASCENDANT 169

37. PUTIN, THE MAN FROM NOWHERE 176

38. BEREZOVSKY CAST ASIDE 179

39. A CouP FROM LONDON？ 18840. THE LONG ARM OF MOSCOW 192

41. CLARKE OF THE YARD 196

42. FOLLOW THE POLONIUM 201

43. RADIATION PANIC 207

PART FIVE

44. ON THE POLONIUM TRAIL 213

45. SUSPECTS GALORE 218

46. NARROWING THE FIELD 223

47. TO Moscow 226

48. THE KREMLIN BITES BACK 230

49. THE CASE AGAINST BEREZOVSKY 233

50. HOME FOR CHRISTMAS 239

51. TRADE OR JUSTICE？ 243

52. THE THIRD MAN？ 246

53. THE BUSINESS CONNECTION 250

54. LITVINENKO THE BLACKMAILER？ 257

55. THE YUKOS CONNECTION 262

PART SIX

56. TAKING STOCK 267

57. TRAVELLING EAST 269

58. To THE KREMLIN 272

59. THE PROSECUTOR 278

60. THE HARD MEN 282

61. POISON IN THE BLOOD 285

62. WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE 289

63. MORE HARD MEN 292

64. DIGNITY AND HONOUR 296

65. A FINAL RECKONING 300

EPILOGUE 313