How to Kill

Front Cover
Random House, Jul 31, 2014 - Social Science - 448 pages

Exploding telephones, pipe-guns and bullets made of teeth, aspirin explosives, cobra-venom darts, a rifle that shoots around corners, a 'piss bomb' (10 cups of boiled urine mixed with nitric acid), exploding clams, samurai swords, karate chops, poisoned umbrellas and a fuel-laden light aircraft. Sometimes even a regular gun. These are just some of the methods that have been used over the last fifty years to speed 4,000 VIPs to a premature end.

How to Kill is not an encyclopaedia of assassination but rather a gripping history that charts the development of the modern world through the eyes of the assassins that tried to change it. It is also a work of investigation, surprising conspiracies and remarkable connections are uncovered throughout.

This book is the first to study in detail not only the causes and surprising consequences of assassination, but also the crucial seconds of the act itself and the psychology of the assassin in an effort to understand why some assassinations succeed where others fail - and what might be done to prevent them. It is also the first book to examine the fascinating facts and figures of assassination, revealing everything from the success rate by type of weapon and the escape and survival rates of assassins to the most popular time of year and location for assassination.

The definitive book on assassination, How to Kill shows that sometimes, one murder can change the world.

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About the author (2014)

Kris Hollington is a freelance investigative journalist living and working in London. He cut his teeth writing for a European news agency (International City Magazines) based in Luxembourg. Kris also hosted a daily lunchtime radio show on Radio Luxembourg for one year. Since returning to London, he has written for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, The Voice, BBC Radio 4's File on 4 and BBC1's Panorama. He is currently co-producing a crime drama-documentary for Channel 4.

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