To Kill Rasputin: The Life & Death of Grigori Rasputin

The murder of Rasputin on the night of December 16–17, 1916 has always seemed extraordinary: first he was poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river by Russian aristocrats fearful of his influence on Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Or was he? Dramatic new evidence from previously unpublished documents, diaries, forensic reports and intelligence records now mean the plot takes a remarkable twist.

Grigori Rasputin is probably one of the best known but least understood f...