The Umbrella Murder

The Hunt for the Notorious Cold War Killer

Ulrik Skotte

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Paperback

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English

W H Allen
07 August 2025

True crime; Criminal investigation & detection; Politics & government

In 1978 the Bulgarian author and dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by a poisoned umbrella on Waterloo Bridge in London. His murder is the most iconic killing in almost five decades of the Cold War, and no one has ever been prosecuted for it.

The Umbrella Murder reveals the real architect and hit man behind this spectacular killing: a spy code-named Piccadilly who worked for the Bulgarian secret service and the KGB, who has been hiding for more than forty years.

Written as a modern-day thriller, and drawing on an incredible thirty-year cache of original documents and recordings and never-before-seen archive material -- some not even seen by police or secret services -- this is a jaw-dropping and page-turning search for justice in the murky underworld of intelligence and across the shifting sands of spycraft.

By: Ulrik Skotte
Imprint: W H Allen
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 35mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780753560181
ISBN 10: 0753560186
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 07 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ulrik Skotte is a Danish journalist who has been chasing the truth about the Umbrella Murder and the mysterious Agent Piccadilly for more than 25 years. He eventually managed to track down Piccadilly and met him face to face in an apartment in Austria in 2021. Shortly after, Piccadilly was found dead in the same apartment. Ulrik Skotte lives in Copenhagen and owns the TV company Doceye, which produces documentaries for the Scandinavian and European markets.

Reviews for The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Notorious Cold War Killer

'This masterly investigation, spanning 30 years, into the assassination of a cold war dissident, Georgi Markov, in London in 1978 exposes an assassin worthy of James Bond' * Observer, Book of the Week * The value of The Umbrella Murder lies in Skotte having known many of those caught up in the killing, its fascination in his psychologically astute portraits of them… Sebastian Faulks once lamented that the failing of biography is that the author never quite gets in the room with their subject. Skotte’s great coup is that, undeterred by official silence, he does do that, tracking down Gullino in 2021 to a squalid flat in Austria... A month later, he was dead. * The Times * An engaging account... a description of the author’s 30-year search for Markov’s killer, culminating in a confession on camera. It is a model for every would-be investigative journalist, a triumph of teamwork, persistence and essential record-keeping. * Spectator *