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Product Description: A propulsive, relentless page-turner.
A terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted.
A surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience.
CHILD 44 is a thriller unlike any you have ever read.
"There is no crime."
Stalin's Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its citizens live free from the fear of ordinary crime and criminals.
But in this society, millions do live in fear . . . of the State. Death is a whisper away. The mere suspicion of ideological disloyalty-owning a book from the decadent West, the wrong word at the wrong time-sends millions of innocents into the Gulags or to their executions. Defending the system from its citizens is the MGB, the State Security Force. And no MGB officer is more courageous, conscientious, or idealistic than Leo Demidov.
A war hero with a beautiful wife, Leo lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has arrested and interrogated.
Then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal-a murderer-is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, his world turned upside down, and every belief he's ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it's a crime against the State to suggest that a murderer-much less a serial killer-is in their midst. Exiled from his home, with only his wife, Raisa, remaining at his side, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the MBG to find and stop a criminal that the State won't admit even exists.
Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge in 2001 and lives in London. Child 44 is his first novel.
Amazon.com: If all that Tom Rob Smith had done was to re-create Stalinist Russia, with all its double-speak hypocrisy, he would have written a worthwhile novel. He did so much more than that in Child 44, a frightening, chilling, almost unbelievable horror story about the very worst that Stalin's henchmen could manage. In this worker's paradise, superior in every way to the decadent West, the citizen's needs are met: health care, food, shelter, security. All one must offer in exchange are work and loyalty to the State. Leo Demidov is a believer, a former war hero who loves his country and wants only to serve it well. He puts contradictions out of his mind and carries on. Until something happens that he cannot ignore. A serial killer of children is on the loose, and the State cannot admit it. To admit that such a murderer is committing these crimes is itself a crime against the State. Instead of coming to terms with it, the State's official position is that it is merely coincidental that children have been found dead, perhaps from accidents near the railroad tracks, perhaps from a person deemed insane, or, worse still, homosexual. But why does each victim have his or her stomach excised, a string around the ankle, and a mouth full of dirt? Coincidence? Leo, in disgrace and exiled to a country village, doesn't think so. How can he prove it when he is being pursued like a common criminal himself? He and his wife, Raisa, set out to find the killer. The revelations that follow are jaw-dropping and the suspense doesn't let up. This is a debut novel worth reading. --Valerie Ryan Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
Debut novel - an author's unique twist!
Long a fan of "Citizen X" the HBO film about Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who killed children at large in the Soviet Union from 1978-1990, I'd heard some buzz about "Child 44", but didn't read any reviews until I purchased the book.
The young British author, Tom Rob Smith, made my jaw drop with his version of historical fiction, because yes, Smith takes the tale of Andrei Chikatilo (who has been written about in true crime genre) and moves it BACK in time, keeping the tale somewhat intact but setting it in Stalinist Russia in the early 50's. The contrast is startling, because, by the 80's, near the end of the Cold War, the denizens of the USSR had been disillusioned by the "glory" of Communism and had spent decades poor, hungry, frightened of the state. Despite that, the hunt for Chikatilo in the 80's was funded and followed, somewhat as an afterthought, by the state.
In the 50's, with Stalin's grip on the nation--it's a worker's paradise in everything but reality. And the leader would never allow such crimes as murder to exist. And with this change of landscape, the author, with what must have been painstaking research of the times, heightens the suspense, creates a sense of absolute hopelessness, and puts the military hero tracking the killer in fear for his own life and those of his family.
Pursuing the killer, and refusing to denounce his own wife, Leo Demidov places his own career and life in jeopardy. In addition to the deft way in which the author moves from Leo's childhood to his present, from the killer to Demidov and back, and into the stark conflict that is Leo's life with his wife, Raisa, Smith doesn't give up his terse, descriptive style; of the forbidding Lubyanka, he writes:
"Its façade created the impression of watchfulness: rows and rows of windows crammed together, stacked up and up, rising to a clock at the top which stared out over the city as though it were a single beady eye. An invisible borderline existed around the building. Passersby steered clear of this imaginary perimeter as if fearful they were going to be pulled in. Crossing that line meant you were either staff or condemned. There was no chance you could be found innocent inside these walls. It was an assembly line of guilt".
Brilliantly conceived, and flawlessly executed, "Child 44" is the best book I've read so far this year.
Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
Crime and Punishment (Stalin edition)
Leo Demidov, war hero in the post-war Stalinist Soviet Union, is an officer of the NKVD the CID of the Red State. Crime was a simple matter in these times. The suspect was inevitably guilty simply because he was suspected. Some crimes, considered bourgeois officially could not exist in a workers paradise. Among these non-crimes was murder. Demidov is assigned to tell a father his son was not killed but rather the victim of an accident. But doubts continued and in Stalinist Russia doubts were treason. Convinced a serial killer was killing children, Demidov pushes forward despite the danger.
Demidov is soon a victim of this Alice-in-Wonderland state. When it happens this book quickly becomes a thrilling tale of pursuit and capture. To discuss it further is to dimish the pleasure that awaits the reader.
There are sure Edgar nominations for Tom Rob Smith from the Mystery Writers of America in two categories-Best First novel and Best Novel. He may well win both awards. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
WOW!!
WOW! I totally LOVED this book! What an amazing story told exceptionally well. I hope Mr. Smith writes another novel VERY soon.
This book had it all. It is indeed a thriller. A mystery. Murder. Spies. A love story. History. You can't put it down and yet, you have to put it down to absorb what you just read before you can go on.
Read this book. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-04
Serial killer takes on Russia
12 years ago, I saw an HBO movie called "Citizen X." It was based on the Russian serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted of killing 52 people. I couldn't peel my eyes away from this movie. So when I found out that "Child 44" was based on the same character, I had to read it. The book was as compelling and engrossing as that movie. It provides details of an atrocious, all-powerful Soviet Union that created a state of fear and paranoia among its people. This book focuses on a government that was so arrogant and yet so ignorant that a serial killer could manipulate the system for his own killing vendetta. "Child 44" is an intelligent read with plenty of mystery and suspense set against a corrupt and bleak regime. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-03
Early Seeds
Ostensibly a murder mystery, this novel is set against the background of Stalin's Soviet Russia, replete with all the ideological ramifications and shibboleths of the Worker's Paradise, where there is no "crime". Added to the mystery is a psychological twist worthy of the Freud abhorred by the Communist regime.
The protagonist is Leo Demidov, hero of the Patriotic War and now a State Security Officer who serves his country blindly, even to the extent of ignoring the obvious to toe the Party Line. However, when it becomes patently clear that there is a serial killer committing unspeakable crimes against children, Leo begins to question his superiors' decisions. He is demoted and sent hundreds of miles away to a "nothing" position. He discovers another murder there, and finding the killer becomes an obsession, in the process developing his own integrity, assisted by his wife, Raisa, despite unspeakable obstacles, even fighting against the overwhelming resources of the State.
This powerful debut novel has all the earmarks of an accomplished author. It has already been tapped for a film. It has a very different plot and is well-written and fast-paced--the reader can hardly put it down so as to find the next development. The background on life and thought (or lack thereof) in the Soviet Union is telling. The story is based on a real-life killer. Very highly recommended.
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