Murder in Room 117: Solving the Cold Case That Led to America's Longest War

Murder In Room 117 is a page turning investigative thriller.

Author and journalist Arthur Kent reveals the truth behind one of the Cold War’s darkest crimes, the murder in 1979 of the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Spike Dubs. Washington’s official version was that its investigation of the murder was inconclusive. In reality, the State Department’s investigator delivered a report laying blame squarely on Soviet KGB spies and Afghanistan’s Communist regime of the time.

The aftershocks of the crime helped ignite more than 40 years of war, with lasting consequences for the United States and the world.

Now Murder In Room 117 advocates a new chapter in the Spike Dubs story, the reopening of the cold case for a complete forensic reexamination, aided by twenty-first century science.

Veteran journalist Arthur Kent began his reporting career in 1973 and filmed his first documentary in Afghanistan in 1980. He has reported for The Observer, NBC News, the BBC, CBC News, CNN, TBS, PBS and A&E's The History Channel. His documentary Afghanistan Captives of the Warlords was broadcast by PBS in June 2001, three months prior to the 9/11 attacks.