The second edition of the book includes many new episodes such as:

The French Train Robbery
The first edition of the book expressed the view, based on anecdotal evidence, that Reilly had left France in 1895 for England in haste as a result of his involvement in a crime that had netted him a sizeable amount of money.

Now new evidence confirms Reilly's role in the audacious robbery of two cash couriers on a Paris bound train.

Reilly and an accomplice entered the compartment - one courier was thrown from the train, the other was stabbed and his throat cut. He was left for dead as the two attackers left the train at Maisons-Alfort.

Reilly used the money to set himself up in the patent medicine business in London. Within a year he had frittered it away, hence the seduction of Mrs Thomas and the murder of her elderly husband in 1898.

Reilly in Ottoman Turkey
Newly discovered files in Istanbul and Hamburg have revealed more stories of Reilly's double-dealing business activities. In 1909 Reilly arrived in Constantinople and immediately set about discrediting the agent representing the German Blohm & Voss shipyard.

Finally, by setting him up to take the blame for the leaking of a Blohm & Voss report, Reilly manages to get him fired and himself appointed as the company's new Constantinople agent. He then pulled off a major shipping deal between the Ottoman navy and Blohm & Voss before disappearing from Turkey.

Plots to Rescue the Tsar
A host of speculation over recent years has suggested that there were plans made to rescue the Russian Royal family in 1918. These theories are thoroughly examined in light of still closed records and Reilly's activities in Russia in the spring and summer of 1918.

Olga Starzhevskaya & Elizeveta Otten
Recently discovered material held by the Russian Red Cross has revealed the handwritten testimonies of Reilly's two main Russian mistresses during the period he was involved in an attempt to topple Lenin. The two women (Elizaveta in Petrograd and Olga in Moscow) had been arrested by the secret police when the coup was foiled.

Sent to Butyrka Prison, they appealed to the Red Cross for help. Their detailed statements are more of interest from a personal point of view, telling how they were seduced by Reilly and how he used them and abused their trust for his own ends.

The Account of Boris Gudz
Boris Gudz was 101 years old in August 2003. He is now the only person alive who was personally involved in "Operation Trust", the snare that led to Reilly's arrest, capture and execution by the OGPU secret police in 1925. Gudz was then a junior OGPU officer.

His detailed account of the last month of Reilly's life has enabled us to fill in a number of gaps in the story. Most importantly, Gudz was able to provide locational detail that enabled us to find the precise spot in Sokolniki Park where Reilly was shot.

Proof of Parentage
Kenneth Linge, one of Britain's leading forensic experts and a veteran Old Bailey witness has analysed the photographs of Saloman Rosenblum (aka Sidney Reilly) and Boris Rosenblum, using the latest photo-forensic techniques The results indicate that Saloman and Boris are related and almost certainly share a common parent.

This scientific analysis gives concrete support to the theory of Reilly's parentage as outlined in the first edition of the book. After decades of speculation about his true origins and identity, science has finally provided the key to the conundrum.