In September 1978, the Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was killed in London under highly suspicious circumstances. The playwright had defected from his Soviet-allied home country in 1969 and spent the ensuing years appearing on American and West German radio programs, so his demise was always going to raise eyebrows. It was the cause of death, however, that stood out: septicemia or sepsis, a kind of blood poisoning, likely linked to a telltale puncture wound that had been found on Markov’s thigh. While dying in the hospital, he said that a…
