Adventures of a British Master Spy: The Memoirs of Sydney Reilly (Dialogue Espionage Classics)

In September 1925, Sidney Reilly journeyed across the Russian frontier on a mission to overthrow the Bolsheviks and restore the Czar. He vanished without a trace. The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. This classic autobiography reveals the intriguing adventures and exploits of the man widely credited as being the original twentieth-century super-spy, inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond. **Sidney Reilly**, the so-called Ace of Spies, was a womanizing British secret agent who claimed to be Irish but was in fact Russian. Awarded the Military Cross for his daring operations, he met his death in Russia in 1925 after a sting operation by the Soviet Secret Service. A real-life James Bond, alleged to have spied for at least four nations and executed on the direct orders of Stalin himself, Sidney Reilly left a trail of false identities that made him precisely the type of person the secret intelligence service needed as an agent. Hero, conman, master spy, womaniser - who really was the 'Ace of Spies'? In September 1925, Sidney Reilly journeyed across the Russian frontier on a mission to overthrow the existing Bolshevik regime and restore the Czar. Yet, soon after, he vanished without a trace... Just like the life he led, the circumstances surrounding his death remain shrouded in mystery and speculation. This thrilling autobiography, including entries from Reilly's own secret notes, reveals the intriguing, and often perilous, adventures and exploits of the man widely credited as being the original twentieth-century super-spy - and an inspiration for Ian Fleming's 007 thrillers. The latter half of this dual narrative is provided by Reilly's wife, Pepita, who is on her own mission: to discover the truth behind her husband's disappearance. What did happen to the master of espionage? The Dialogue Espionage Classics series began in 2010 with the purpose of bringing back classic out-of-print spy stories that should never be forgotten. From the Great War to the Cold War, from the French Resistance to the Cambridge Five, from Special Operations to Bletchley Park, this fascinating spy history series includes some of the best military, espionage and adventure stories ever told. The autobiography of the so-called 'Ace of Spies', the master of deception Ian Fleming would later use as a model for James Bond. The first part of the book is Reilly's life as told from his personal notes, and more specifically his attempt to overthrow the Bolshevik regime in Russia and restore the Czar. The second part is written by his wife, Pepita, who, is determined to find out what really happened after his disappearance, searches Finland and Northern Russia for her missing husband