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Title: Child 44
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Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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| Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing `There is no murder, only crimes against the State.' | Mr Smith uses as his backdrop the Stalinist Soviet Union of the 1950s, combines elements of the real case of Andrei Chikatilo, and delivers an engrossing and impressive debut novel.
Leo Demidov, a decorated war hero, is unswervingly loyal to the State. The body of a young boy is found on train tracks in Moscow, and his family are convinced the child was murdered. Leo's superiors order him to ignore this information and, while he obeys, he senses there is more to the case.
Action moves quickly: combining elements of jealousy, suspicious paranoia and human survival where reality is defined and enforced by the State. In this atmosphere, Leo is disgraced and exiled to a distant town where more murdered children are discovered.
There are a number of layers to this story. While some aspects are predictable, it is the way in which Mr Smith combines the pieces which make this such an absorbing read. Who is the murderer, and how many children have been murdered? Will Leo, his wife Raisa, and their marriage survive? Along the way, this novel touches on both the best and the worst of humanity.
`To stand up for someone was to stitch your fate into the lining of theirs.'
I highly recommend this novel, and I look forward to reading more from Mr Smith.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
| | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing A new and exciting genre of book | | Some books you read.... others change the way you see the world. Never has one book so completely captured every nuisance of a culture during a specific era in history as "Child 44." Tom Rob Smith's debut novel takes us to Russia in 1953. To a people controlled by fear. To a society where no one is exempt from the retaliation of the government; from the starving, desperate peasants to the well-supplied elite. To a place where your life hangs in the balance every minute of every day. Everything you think, say or do must be guarded to ensure your loyalty to the Party... and sometimes even all the taken precautions cannot save you. In the mist of this we meet Leo Demidov, who begins to doubt the veracity of the system that he has been a part of all his life when the crimes of what is obviously a serial killer are attributed to the most convenient person that can be apprehended. Through a series of events Demidov , a MGB hunter, becomes the hunted as he flees to be free long enough to prove that these crimes are being committed by one man that has not yet been captured. Each character in the astonishing novel is so fully developed socially, physical and psychologically that they are as alive to us as our own family and friends. Reading like a non-fiction account of Stalin's Russia, a complex and captivating mystery/thriller and a dark and engaging true crime story that defies current book definitions, Tom Rob Smith may have very well started a new and exciting genre of book. If you only have time to read one book this year, do yourself a favor and make it "Child 44." | | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing Strong Debut Thriller Based on a Real Soviet Serial Killer | I generally don't care for serial killer stories, I find that everyday "regular" crime holds plenty of drama and is much easier to connect with. However, the Soviet setting of this debut thriller intrigued me enough to dip into it for a few pages, and the writing on those first few pages swept me into the story very quickly. For the first 3/4, it's an excellent grafting of the serial killer genre onto the everyday horror of the early-'50s Stalinist era Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Smith succumbs to the thriller writer's temptation of having a huge plot twist toward the end, which unnecessarily sabotages what had been a grim and realistic story to that point. It's one of those twists that comes out of nowhere, and really doesn't serve much purpose other than as a "gotcha" moment -- the story could have worked just as effectively without it.
Other than this one vastly annoying flaw, the book is excellent. After a chilling prologue in the famine-devastated Ukraine of the 1930s (a famine engineered by Stalin, it must be noted), the story opens in 1953 Moscow, where we meet Great Patriotic War hero and militia officer Leo Demidov, as he pursues the interests of the state in tracking down its enemies. Smith takes plenty of time to build up the totalitarian setting, where fear and paranoia reigned, and reason was a luxury unavailable to the state. If you were a suspect, you were guilty, since the state did not make mistakes. The story focuses on Demidov, showing the privileges his family enjoys due to his position, and the precariousness of his position as a jealous underling plots to destroy him. (This underling is the weakest element in the book, as his hatred for Demidov is a critical catalyst several times in the story, but the motivation for it is far too one-dimensional.)
It isn't until 1/3 of the way into the book that the serial killer plotline starts to assert itself, and Leo begins to realize that the same killer might have struck hundreds of miles apart. It's also at this point that I realized that Smith was taking the case of the real-life Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo (aka "The Rostov Ripper") and moving it back in time a few decades. The killer's background, physical details, MO, and more are all based on the Chikatilo case. (I find it a little bit odd that while the "further reading" section at the end of the book makes a passing mention to a book on the Chikatilo case, Smith doesn't explain who Chikatilo was or just how directly he drew upon the case for the book. There have been several non-fiction books written about the case (such as Hunting the Devil), and two mediocre films based on it: Citizen X and Evilenko.) In any event, once Leo starts to suspect the existence of such a killer, he is severely hamstrung in his ability to do anything about it -- partly because the existence of such a madman is incompatible with the utopian ideals of the Soviet state. To admit such a killer would be to admit the imperfection of the state.
As Leo's star falls, he is also subject to a shock in his personal life which makes him question everything. Galvanized to find and kill the serial killer as an act of redemption, he manages to enlist some help even as he comes under further pressure from his nemesis. A classic trope of the thriller is that the hunter/truth-seeker becomes the hunted, and Smith pulls just such a maneuver off brilliantly. The book picks up momentum, and other than the unnecessary plot twist mentioned above, races toward the climactic showdown with great skill. It's an excellent debut novel, and should have wide appeal to fans of thrillers, the serial killer subgenre, and fans of Martin Cruz Smith. | | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing "A guardian of the state had become its prisoner, not an uncommon reversal of fortune." |
Set in Stalin's Soviet Union circa 1953, Child 44 is a dramatic, troubling tale of life under a repressive system that controls its citizens by regimentation and fear. Although the novel begins with the separation of two young brothers from a starving Ukrainian village in 1933, the events of that one day set in motion a terrible series of crimes that surface twenty years later, just prior to Stalin's death. The protagonist, Leo Demidov, is a member of the State Security, the MGB, rigorously performing his assigned duties, arresting accused traitors for questioning, their sad fates ordained the moment these unfortunates are arrested. Days before his life is altered by the mischief of another, Leo is assigned an unusual case, the mutilated corpse of a child, of necessity declared an accident. There are no crimes, no mistakes in the Soviet Union, a rigid hierarchy that controls the population with propaganda and terror, survival the currency of repression, people accusing others in order to save themselves.
Buoyed by his investigative instincts and sense of invincibility, Leo has built an enviable life; when all that is necessary to establish guilt is accusation, it is not surprising when the finger of suspicion points at Leo, a jealous rival facilitating his fall. Leo has had no quarrel with his life, avoiding introspection until he and Raisa are the targets. Leo is demoted, the couple sent to a remote country village as punishment for an error in judgment. Once Leo is stripped of his power, the marriage is revealed as a sham. Raisa demands total honesty or she cannot stay. Then another child is found murdered, eerily similar to the one in Moscow, Leo caught in an impossible conundrum, not authorized to investigate crimes that do not exist in the eyes of the government. It is Leo's profound emotional journey that is the heart of this intriguing, provocative novel. With Raisa as the catalyst for a dormant conscience, Leo risks everything to accomplish one good thing before the long arm of the MGB reaches out once more to deal another blow. For Leo is not deceived: his punishment has only begun, a reprieve before a final reckoning.
Relentless, Smith contrasts Leo's awakening in an environment meant to stifle individuality, Leo's soul blooming against a frozen landscape where horrors are perpetrated by a madman and a government that cannot bear scrutiny. This protagonist does not survive unscathed, battered by a government meant to intimidate, to silence dissension. The rigid constraints of a lifetime give way to Leo's quest for justice, a surprising tie to a forgotten past adding unexpected complications, Leo and Raisa under constant threat from one man's determination to see Leo punished for his earlier successes. The prose is consistent, compelling, the plot brilliantly sustained until the inevitable confrontation with the MGB. Dredging unexpected moments of humanity from morality's massive graveyard, Smith has written a stunning indictment of political repression in collision with hope. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
| | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing "One of the fundamental pillars of the new society: there is no crime." | This non-stop train-ride of a crime thriller will seize your attention from the first twenty emotionally wrenching pages and keep you hanging on for dear life for the remaining four hundred pages. Set in Moscow in 1953, when Communism controlled every aspect of daily life, and government officials believed that "there is no crime," the novel recreates the turmoil in the life of a State Security Force official who begins, reluctantly, to question the "facts" before him. Leo Stepanovich Demidov, working for MGB (Internal Security), is drawn into an investigation of the death of a four-year-old, supposedly struck and killed by a train. The child's family believes he was murdered, but Leo conveys a not-so-subtle warning to them not to question the state's findings regarding the child's death.
Because each community certifies its own causes of death, Leo can only regard the death of this child as a single instance of a mysterious death. When he is relocated to a more remote village and discovers that there has been a similar death there, however, he begins surreptitiously to investigate. Always, he must hide his reasons for asking for information. He cannot afford to be labeled as a doubter--he has a wife and parents to protect. Soon he has created a map showing dozens of similar crimes along the railway line.
As Leo is trying to identify a serial killer, he must also deal with internal politics within the security service, including his own demotion and loss of reputation. A fellow MGB officer will stop at nothing to bring him down. At the same time, however, Leo is still a party man, and he plays by the book in his other investigations, including the interrogation, beating, and eventual execution of two men he knows to be innocent victims of the system. Torture, the use of informants, constant spying on each other, and the manipulation of records, are public policy--"Terror protects the Revolution," the party believes.
Author Tom Rob Smith's accomplished debut novel is filled with carefully drawn and vivid characters, all of whom convey their complex personalities within the structure of their communist society. His creation of Moscow life feels realistic, and his inclusion of maxims which could be part of a communist handbook adds to the sense of realism--and horror. Comparisons with Martin Cruz Smith (one of my favorite mystery writers) are inevitable, and this novel is at least as good as the best of Cruz Smith. In some ways--notably his ability to recreate the emotional milieu of the communist society--he may be even more successful. Outstanding!--and already scheduled for filming by Ridley Scott. n Mary Whipple
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| | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing 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.
| | Child 44 by Grand Central Publishing 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 |
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