The Golden Thread

On September 17, 1961, the United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld boarded a Douglas DC6 propeller plane on the sweltering tarmac of the airport in Leopoldville, the capital of the Congo, on a contentious mission for peace.

Hours later he was found dead in a patch of African jungle, amid the wreckage of the plane, with an ace of spades playing card on his body. Hammarskjöld had been the head of the UN for nine years. He was to become a revered figure, synonymous with peace and principle. But that September day, dark forces circled him: Powerful and connected groups from an array of nations and organizations—including the CIA, the KGB, white supremacist militant groups, business interests and others—wanted to see him fail.

A riveting work based on never-before-seen evidence, recently revealed accounts and new interviews, The Golden Thread, released by Twelve Books (US), Viking (UK), and Bonnier (SW) in July 2020, reveals the truth behind one of the great murder mysteries of the Cold War.