I probably have read more books about Rasputin than can be justified by one who would claim to have a healthy mind. This one by Douglas Smith is the latest (2016), probably the longest (over 800 pages with notes and index), and maybe just the best and most accurate. Let me say that I find Smith's writing style to be highly readable and one can get through page after page in a brisk manner, so do not let the length of this volume put anyone off (as some other commenters have noted, however, there a great many names and keeping track of all these people are can be challenge). Herein is included lots and lots of additional materials unearthed from long unavailable Russian records, some of which was missed by previous researchers. Despite its length, I got through it much faster than the rambling slog by E. Radzinsky The Rasputin File (Radzinsky does present a lot of new material on his subject, but injects too many of own speculations into matters -- Douglas Smith acknowledges the value of the Radzinsky, but advises to approach with caution on page 683), or a more turgidly academic (though not particularly accurate) go at the subject by Brian Moynahan Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned . Author Smith regards the best English biographies to have been the two by Joseph T. Fuhrmann; I am familiar with his first one from 1989 Rasputin: A Life (which I have reviewed and found to be very good for its day, but a lot more about Rasputin has been discovered since that time), but I have not read Fuhrmann's newer account Rasputin: The Untold Story . [UPDATE: I have read that one, and it is a most excellent account, second only to this Smith book; actually, it is a better book for anyone looking for a simple, straight-forward, up-to-date and accurate account of Rasputin's life and influence -- the specialist, however, will want the Smith, which is about 3 times as long.]One of the good things about Smith's account is that he does try to keep things true as the evidence indicates. He also follows what I think is vital for a biography of this nature -- report on all the scandals and speculations as nothing more than what they actually were; and , avoids too much speculation on his own part; when he does speculate, which must be done at times, it is not done in any way to advance some new, goofy theory about things, but simply to provide a possible, rational explanation for things that are known to really have happened. This is best noted in the most legendary episode in the entire life of Rasputin -- his assassination. Smith sums the whole thing very neatly on page 595 when he writes that what really happened will never be known, but Rasputin was killed by 3 bullet shots, dead at age 47. Not very exciting, but given contradictory statements given by those involved and the investigative data available, that is how it was. Those interested in the sensationalized accounts must look elsewhere, especially the wild accounts given by the chief assassin, Felix Yusupov. On this subject, there are at least two volumes out there which try to pin the killing on British agents, by Andrew Cook in 2005 To Kill Rasputin: The Life & Death of Grigori Rasputin, and Richard Cullen in 2010 Rasputin: The Role of Britain's Secret Service in His Torture and Murder . The Cullen book is interesting for some of the accounts of the murder and investigation, but the conclusions of both I consider to be nonsense. For a more "traditional" Rasputin biography, with myth, legend, and scandal intact, one cannot go wrong with Alex de Jonge, 1982 The Life and Times of Grigorii Rasputin (BCE) ; Colin Wilson, 1964, also spins a good yarn Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs .Douglas Smith also does some interesting analysis of several other legendary attributes of Rasputin, such as his ability to perform miracles -- here it is pointed that Rasputin never claimed to do any such thing, though his fans and followers may have interpreted his words or actions to represent such; quite simply, no evidence the miracles ever happened. A major event scandal attributed to Rasputin involved a scene he created one night at the Yar Restaurant in Moscow, Smith shows this simply never have happened, but made up after the fact by those wishing to slander. Smith also analyzes and debunks, at length, other reports that Rasputin was a member of a bizarre religious sect. While Rasputin retains his credit for being an advanced debauchee (case not argued against, though there are some issues with these stories), his legendary alcohol consumption appears to have been a factor in only the last couple of years of his life when he knew he was a marked man (barely surviving one failed attempt in 1914) and having to watch his beloved Russia going down the drain and heading to complete destruction. One of the beauties of this book is how it shows that Russia's freedom of the press, established after the 1905 revolution, resulted in the liberty to lie, and lie big, in the effort to sell papers. The Rasputin of the press and the gossips was far more sinister and destructive than the reality (Rasputin: Sleeping with the Empress; and her 4 daughters; ruling Russia; stealing the Empire blind; spying for Germany; etc., whatever one wanted to make up -- the sky being the limit). What people believed Rasputin was doing was far more destructive to the regime than anything he actually did do. To that degree, this book is almost a fine analysis of mass hysteria and a public's willingness to believe anything, regardless of how outlandish or absurd (my assessment, not that of the book's author).So, for this time, I am declaring this tome to be the best yet produced biography on a person who is for sure one of the most extraordinary characters ever to appear on the stage of world history! (Should I have the opportunity to read the second Fuhrmann, that opinion may change.)