Leon Trotsky was Lenin's confidant and a privileged insider. One of the main players in the Russian Revolution, this intellectual changed the course of history. A Marxist, a revolutionary hero, a Red Army chief and Bolshevik leader, he left his imprint on the USSR - that is, until Stalin deemed him an enemy of the state and a heretic and targeted him for death. Stalin's own secret police agency forced him into exile in Mexico.

Here is where Patenaude's tale begins. Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary covers Trotsky's life from about 1937 through 1940, when he was ultimately murdered by a Soviet agent who drove an icepick into his brain.

The author makes more than just an historic retelling; there is drama and tension here. A lot of time is spent on the revolutionary's friendship with painter Diego Rivera, his affair with Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, and the way he was ultimately hunted down.

If you're a hardcore Russophile, this will intrigue you.