Adult Book of the Month
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Published by Simon & Schuster in 2008.
Child 44 is a thriller set in the terror of 1950s Stalinist
Russia where the mere suspicion of disloyalty to the State, the wrong
word at the wrong time, can send an innocent person to his execution.
Officer Leo Demidov never questions the party line and believes he's building
a perfect society. When the body of a fellow officer's son is found on
railway tracks in Moscow, Leo is ordered to stop the family from spreading
the notion that their child was murdered, as the official line is that
there is no crime in this perfect society.
However, Leo has his doubts and his belief that his actions as a state
security agent serve the greater good is further shattered when he witnesses
the interrogation of a man he knows to be innocent. And then he is told
to investigate his own wife. Exiled to a bleak town in the Ural mountains,
he realises that a crime similar to the one he covered up in Moscow has
occurred here and further investigation reveals that a serial killer has
been killing children in a similar way in towns along the railroad lines.
Leo must risk everything to find a criminal that the State won't admit
even exists.
Child 44 is a gripping thriller which portrays the harshness
of life under the Stalinist regime not just for ordinary people but also
for the soldiers overseeing its enforcement. However it shows that the
inherent kindness and goodness in people can survive even in the most
difficult of circumstances.
‘ I can think of few novels that have touched so eloquently
on the complex moral climate of life in the Soviet Union while delivering
all the pleasures of a brilliant airport read.’ Angus Macqueen
The Guardian
Tom Rob Smith was born in London where he currently lives. Child 44 is
his first novel and has been translated into 17 languages. It was awarded
the 2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the year by the
Crime Writer's Association. The book was named on the long list for the
2008 Man Booker Prize and was also nominated for the 2008 Costa First
Novel Award.
By the same author
The Secret Speech
Agent 6
