Ace Of Spies: The True Story Of Sidney Reilly

The book, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly by Andrew Cook, underscores the true definition of international espionage. The themes in the book have been clearly brought out through the use of once an actual spy, Sidney Reilly. His stories and supposed accomplishments, though likely exaggerated, have been wound into a mind exploding experience that features suspense at its best. The plot and narration, however, portrays somewhat realistic scenarios.
Through this masterful writing, Cook has recreated a mental picture of the dark spy and war dominated period of the early twentieth century, with great detail. The narration singles out many aspects of this period. Some of these include the characteristic dialogues that dominated the

These events changed the perception of spies as gentleman 's play to a whole new meaning: the one that spies had to do all they could to obtain results. He had to kill Thomas to achieve his objectives. Sigmund plans were to get rid of all inconveniences, and Hugh Thomas was one. By killing Thomas, he married a rich widow and also assumed a new identity (20). His drive for money was huge. In France, he had to disappear after conning his way to a lump sum amount (31).
Evidence in the book underscores the cumbersomeness of a spy’s work. The death of Hugh Thomas had been planned methodically, and for a long time. Margaret, Thomas ' wife, had been involved all along with Sigmund secretly pulling the strings. The nurse, Anna, was involved, too. She had the opportunity and, perhaps, the motive (21). She had misled the family about her name, birth place as well as age (22).
Cook notes that Rosenblum had no conscience (23). A great spy quality, especially at this age and time. The events surrounding the death of Thomas were fool proof; characteristic of a skilful killer with no regards. After marrying Margaret in 1898, he changed his name to Sidney Reilly. A name that would later earn him praise and hate in equal measures. It also facilitated move to his birth country, Russia

Cook refers to Reilly as more of a con (100). Earlier, Reilly had claimed to be in employment of the SIS from 1890s, but records show that he formally got employed in 1918 (148) and even got fired, in 1921, for his tendency to be a rogue agent.
Reilly played a key role in intercepting a telegram that was being sent to the German Foreign Minister to the German Ambassador in New York (123). His marriage at the time saved him from being arrested. This would have jeopardized the mission.
The Russian government wanted Reilly arrested. Request was sent to the US but the US State Department declined due to unsolved issue they had with Russia. Reilly was, once again, lucky (132).
Reilly was a mysterious man. He got involved with many people, high ranking individuals in governments and in the society, and in many events but, unfortunately, few of these people knew him well. At one time, Thomas was questioned about his knowledge of Reilly and his associates. It was not at all surprising to realise that he knew nothing about them