The Nine Lives of Otto Katz Book

He was one of the most effective agents ever to work for Soviet Russia. For the first half of the twentieth century his fingerprints can be found on one world-changing event after another. But who was Otto Katz? To the FBI he was 'an extremely dangerous man'. The British Secret Service wondered if he was the 'Director of all Communist policy in the West'. In Prague and Berlin he was a drinking companion with the likes of Franz Kafka and Bertolt Brecht. To Marlene Dietrich he was one of her many lovers. But to others Katz was a passionate anti-fascist who witnessed Hitler's rise to power and was among the first to alert the world to the Nazi threat. He was a staunch Communist part of the Soviet infiltration of England during the period when the Cambridge spies were being recruited. In Hollywood he was a playboy socialite political mentor to director Fritz Lang and a star among stars. His example inspired the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca and Kurt Muller the hero of the Academy Award Winning Watch on the Rhine. To Noel Coward he was a potential double agent. In the Spanish Civil War he did Stalin's dirty work.Years later some even blamed him for the assassination of Trotsky. In a captivating detective story Jonathan Miles goes in search of the real Otto Katz - a brilliant daring charmer a double-dealing man with an unquestionable taste for the finer things in life who nonetheless served one of history's darkest masters - Joseph Stalin. Using recently released FBI MI5 and Czech files Jonathan Miles has created an action-packed story of the life (or lives) of one of the world's most intriguing influential and successful spies.

'Spies should be glamorous - James Bond in a Savile Row suit rather than Harry Palmer in a grubby mac . . . In those terms, Otto Katz was perfect. He was a Hollywood playboy who hobnobbed with Fritz Lang, he inspired the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca, he was a drinking buddy of Bertolt Brecht and among his lovers he claimed Marlene Dietrich. He was even known to Nöel Coward' The TimesIf you were to imagine the perfect spy, you may well be picturing Otto Katz. He was charming, suave, and utterly ruthless. In the golden years of the spy game, from Hitler's rise to power, through the Second World War, and on into the Cold War, Otto Katz was at the centre of Russia's web of international intrigue. His fingerprints can be found on one world changing event after another.Using recently released FBI, MI5 and Czech files, Jonathan Miles has created an action-packed story of the life (or lives) of one of the world's most successful spies . At the same time he paints a vivid portrait of the shadow world that exists behind the headlines where the actions of a man like Katz can, and do, change the course of history.