The Good Assassin

Stephan Talty's "The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia" is a taut, meticulously researched work of narrative nonfiction that reconstructs one of the more obscure chapters in the long postwar effort to bring Nazi collaborators to justice. Talty, known for blending rigorous historical research with the pacing of a thriller, turns his attention to Herbert Cukurs, a Latvian aviator once celebrated as a national hero before the Second World War, who later became infamous for his role in the mass killing of Jews in Riga. The book traces the decades-long path that led to his eventual assassination in Uruguay in 1965, an operation carried out under the direction of Israeli intelligence.

The strength of the book lies in its dual structure. On one track, Talty follows Cukurs himself, detailing his transformation from a widely admired figure in interwar Latvia into a man implicated in some of the worst atrocities committed during the Nazi occupation. On the other, he follows the survivors and intelligence operatives who spent years piecing together evidence, tracking Cukurs's movements across South America, and building the case that would eventually justify action against him. This structure allows the narrative to move fluidly between continents and timeframes without losing coherence, and it helps illuminate how personal testimony, fragmentary documentation, and institutional patience combined to make such an operation possible.

Talty writes with a journalist's eye for detail and a novelist's sense of pacing. Chapters are short and propulsive, often ending on notes that pull the reader forward, yet the book never sacrifices historical rigor for the sake of momentum. He draws on archival material, interviews, and existing scholarship on the Holocaust in Latvia to ground the narrative in verified fact, while still crafting scenes that feel immediate and human. This balance is not easy to achieve in historical nonfiction, and it is one of the book's more notable accomplishments.

What distinguishes "The Good Assassin" from many other accounts of Nazi-hunting is its attention to the survivors who initiated and sustained the effort to identify and locate Cukurs. Rather than presenting the pursuit as the work of a single dramatic figure, Talty emphasizes the collective nature of the undertaking. Testimonies from those who lived through the Riga ghetto and the surrounding massacres are woven throughout, giving the book emotional weight without descending into sensationalism. These accounts serve as a reminder that the historical record depends on the willingness of survivors to speak, often decades after the events themselves, and often at great personal cost.

The book also situates its story within the broader context of postwar justice, or the frequent lack of it, for perpetrators of the Holocaust. Many war criminals evaded prosecution by fleeing to South America, where local governments were often indifferent or even sympathetic to their presence. Talty's account of the diplomatic and logistical challenges faced by those seeking accountability underscores how difficult, and how rare, such pursuits actually were. This context helps explain why the case of Cukurs remains significant even today, as one of the relatively few instances in which an operation of this kind reached its intended conclusion.

Stylistically, the prose is clean and unadorned, favoring clarity over embellishment. Talty resists the temptation to moralize, allowing the facts and testimonies to carry the weight of judgment. This restraint serves the material well, particularly given the gravity of the subject matter. The result is a book that functions simultaneously as a historical investigation, a character study, and a meditation on memory and justice.

"The Good Assassin" will appeal to readers interested in World War II history, the Holocaust in the Baltic states, and the postwar efforts to hold collaborators accountable. It is a carefully constructed account that neither sensationalizes its subject nor loses sight of the human stakes involved. For those seeking a well-researched and engagingly written addition to the literature on Nazi pursuit narratives, this book offers a compelling and sobering read.