Child 44

Leo Demidov #1

by Tom Rob Smith

'This gripping thriller has everything you could wish for ... and more. A real page-turner' Independent.

In Stalin's Soviet Union, crime does not exist. But still millions live in fear. 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, an idealistic war hero, believes he's building a perfect society. But after witnessing the interrogation of an innocent man, his loyalty begins to waver, and when ordered to investigate his own wife, Raisa, Leo is forced to choose where his heart truly lies.

Then the impossible happens. A murderer is on the loose, killing at will, and every belief Leo has ever held is shattered. Denounced by his enemies and exiled from home, with only Raisa by his side, he must risk everything to find a criminal that the State won't admit even exits. On the run, Leo soon discovers the danger isn't from the killer he is trying to catch, but from the country he is trying to protect.

'A real achievement' Guardian
'A perfectly plotted, utterly terrifying adventure' Daily Mail

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Russia, Historical

484 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 3, 2008

About the author

Tom Rob Smith (born 1979) is an English writer. The son of a Swedish mother and an English father, Smith was raised in London where he lives today. After graduating from Cambridge University in 2001, he completed his studies in Italy, studying creative writing for a year. After these studies, he worked as a scriptwriter.

His first novel, Child 44, about a series of child murders in Stalinist Russia, appeared in early 2008 and was 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. It was recently a Barnes & Noble recommended book. On July 29, 2008 the book was named on the long list for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. In November 2008, he was nominated for the 2008 Costa First Novel Award (former Whitbread).

Child 44 followed-up by The Secret Speech (2009)and Agent 6 (2011).

Japanese: トム ロブ スミス

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: Nothing special and a bit bland and repetitive, but a real page-turner with loads of atmosphere and a chilling ending.

[Federico DN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastatingly Perfect.

Soviet Russia, 1950s. Leo Demidov is an MGB intelligence officer; by all accounts the perfect soldier, never questioning his orders, and extremely loyal to the Party. When a child is found dead at some abandoned rail tracks, he is tasked to question the neighbors and close the incident. When evidence suggests a possible child murder spree, he finds himself in an impossible situation that will test the system and everything he believes in. Soviet Russia is a perfect society where everyone is happy; by default crime doesn’t exist, murders can’t happen, and serial killers even less. And to even dare investigate further would mean treason, putting his own life in danger, not to mention his wife, parents and everyone he loves. Meanwhile, the murders continue…

This is the best thriller I’ve ever read. I remember being so wowed at the time. Every chapter a new development, each chapter a new thrilling surprise. A terribly suffocating atmosphere of oppression, hopelessness at every turn, and yet also a never ending veiled fight against the impossible. Things spiraling so out of hand you thought there’s no possible way out of it, and yet there was. Dictatorships bring out the worst in people, and the best in those who try to fight it. So overwhelmingly gripping, unputdownable even. Leo and Raisa so simple and complex multi-layered characters. The theme was brutal, the events atrocious, and yet there was always the tiniest ray of hope to keep things forward. Few times I felt so invested in rooting for the win. So captivating and beautifully tragic. This is one of those books I always wish I could reread as the first time, and never dare to because I fear in my soul not liking it as much a second time around. For me this was a flawless masterpiece. Extremely Recommendable.

*** Child 44 (2015) is a lousy adaptation, and barely faithful to the book. A lot of scenes were added that had nothing to do with the plot, and most of the best stuff of the book was cut off. Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace are two of my most favorite movie stars ever and even they couldn’t help me like the movie better. It was SO dull and boring I think I doze off a couple of times and didn’t even bother to rewind, which I normally do because I don’t like to miss a thing. This is seriously not worth watching, not even for curiosity’s sake. I sincerely wish I hadn’t. So please. DON’T. You’ll only regret it.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[2008] [509p] [Thriller] [Historical] [Extremely Recommendable]
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★★★★★ 1. Child 44
★★★★☆ 2. The Secret Speech
★★★☆☆ 3. Agent 6 [2.5]

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Devastadoramente Perfecto.

Rusia soviética. 1950. Leo Demidov es un agente de inteligencia del MGB; a todas cuentas el perfecto soldado, nunca cuestionando sus órdenes, y extremadamente fiel al Partido. Cuando un niño es hallado muerto en unas vías abandonadas, él es asignado a interrogar los vecinos y cerrar el incidente. Cuando la evidencia sugiere una posible ola de asesinatos de niños, se encuentra a sí mismo en una situación imposible que pondrá a prueba el sistema y todas sus creencias. La Rusia soviética es una perfecta sociedad donde todos son felices; por defecto el crimen no existe, los homicidios no pueden suceder, y los asesinos seriales menos incluso. Y tan sólo atreverse a investigar más significaría traición, poniendo su propia vida en peligro, sin mencionar su esposa, padres y todos aquellos que ama. Mientras tanto, las muertes continúan…

Este es el mejor thriller que jamás leí. Recuerdo haber estado tan maravillado en su tiempo. Cada capítulo un nuevo acontecimiento, cada capítulo una nueva sorpresa alucinante. Una terriblemente sofocante atmósfera de opresión, desesperanza en cada esquina, y aun así una encubierta lucha sin final contra lo imposible. Las cosas saliéndose tanto de control que pensás que no existe forma alguna de escapar de ellas, y sin embargo había. Las dictaduras sacan lo peor de la gente, y lo mejor en aquellos que tratan de combatirla. Tan arrolladoramente atrapante, sin poder dejar de leer. Leo y Raisa tan simples y complejos personajes a varios niveles. La temática fue brutal, los eventos atroces, y aun así había siempre una diminuta luz de esperanza para seguir adelante. Pocas veces me sentí tan entregado en alentar para que ganen. Tan cautivadora y hermosamente trágica. Este es uno de esos libros que siempre desearía poder releer como la primera vez, y que nunca me atrevo porque temo hasta el alma que no llegue a gustarme tanto en una segunda ocasión. Para mí esto fue una impecable obra maestra. Extremadamente Recomendable.

*** El Niño 44 (2015) es una mediocre adaptación, y apenas fiel al libro. Un montón de escenas fueron añadidas que no tenían nada que ver con la trama original, y lo mejor del libro dejado afuera. Gary Oldman y Noomi Rapace son dos de mis más favoritas estrellas de cine jamás y ni siquiera ellas pudieron hacerme gustar la película más. Esto fue TAN soso y aburrido que creo que dormité en un par de ocasiones y ni siquiera me molesté en rebobinar, lo cual normalmente hago ya que no me gusta perderme nada. Seriamente no vale la pena verla, ni siquiera por curiosidad. Sinceramente desearía no haberlo hecho. Así que por favor, NO LO HAGAS. Sólo vas a lamentarlo.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[2008] [509p] [Thriller] [Histórica] [Extremadamente Recomendable]
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[Zinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

If it weren't for the Soviet Union and the blood lust of the Russian communists, I would not exist. My parents were World War II refugees, on the run for their lives from Soviet-occupied Latvia. They arrived in the United States at about the same time, immigrants with nothing but what they wore on their backs, with the most skeletal English language skills. Had they not spotted each other across the room of immigrants and felt drawn one to the other, well, that would have been an entirely different story, and without me in it.

Even so, you won't hear gratitude from me. My existence does not by any measure outweigh the brutalities of Soviet power. A large percentage of the Latvian population was deported, tortured and executed under the communist regime. My life cannot measure up to such suffering of the multitudes. In later years, I traveled several times to the Soviet Union to see for myself this world that had so often been described to me, yet nonetheless remained and remains nearly incomprehensible. The experience of my travels behind the Iron Curtain is a memory that will never leave me. These are the memories and impressions returned to me with the reading of Tom Rob Smith's debut novel, Child 44.

Tom Rob Smith has taken his premise for Child 44 from the true story of Russian serial murderer, Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered over 50 women and children in Russia during the 1980s. Although Smith has set his story in an earlier time period, the 1950s, he has not lost, but only gained levels of intrigue and suspense by choosing the worst years of Soviet oppression. The difference, the author explains, is that in the latter years, someone in open rebellion against the political system might lose an apartment, while in earlier years, it would have meant the loss of life.

The story of Child 44 has the chill of historical and political accuracy. The author is still in his twenties at this writing, yet the combination of his research and already rich life and travel experience have given him the depth of insight required to bring this tale of Soviet horror vividly to life. I had to wonder, in fact, and quite often during my reading, how many readers less aware of Soviet history might construe this as mere fantasy. In too many ways, it is not. The sense of unraveling sanity and logic threaded throughout daily Soviet life is all too real: Black is declared white and white, black. What you see, you are told, is not what you see. What you know is not to be known. Deny everything. And in saving your own life, choose who will die among your loved ones.

Leo Demidov is a key character, the communist detective pursuing the killer who cannot be named. The first insanity is that the Soviet government denies the existence of crime in its so-called utopian state. If life is perfection, why would anyone commit a crime? Crime, they claim, is an outgrowth of a capitalist society. And then, a crime so gruesome as to kill a child, ripping open his belly to expose his insides, stuffing his open mouth with bark and gravel. Yet such dead and tortured children's bodies appear throughout Soviet Russia, and despite the growing threat to his own safety, Demidov is determined to stop the child murderer. He cannot question witnesses, however, when there is no official crime to witness. He cannot conduct investigations when there is no official crime to investigate. To stop these murders, Demidov must become himself a criminal against the state. Such is Stalin's workers' paradise ...

The stakes grow ever higher, as Demidov's loyalty to the state is tested when his wife is accused of being a spy. In spite of her innocence, Demidov is faced with calling the authorities liars by defending his wife--or handing over his innocent wife to be executed but show his loyalty to the state that does no wrong.

A page-turner, indeed, but blood runs even colder when one knows this type of existence was all too real behind the Iron Curtain of the very real Soviet Union. Tom Rob Smith has my respect and admiration for putting into words what makes so little sense to the rational mind. I suggest supplemental reading in the form of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago for the true history of this nightmarish world.

~Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet, Summer 2008 Issue

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smith offers a look into the Soviet Union of 1953, a dark, desperate place in which the state had become a manifestation of Stalin’s paranoia. The ideological need of the state to present the communist ideal as an actualized reality impaired its ability, its willingness to address bad things when they happened, for surely, in this workers’ paradise, such things would never happen. Things like serial killers, things like crime of any sort. Thus all crime is ideological and all criminals are enemies of the state. This is not a family trip to Disney World.


Tom Rob Smith - image from his site - Photo credit: James Hopkirk

Leo is a member of the MGB, state security, and has spent his adult life doing what he has been told to do, doing what is expected, whether it is drinking the ideological Kool-Aid or rousting suspected traitors at 4 in the morning for a nifty round of torture before they are disappeared. Life is ok for him, professionally respected, married to a beautiful woman, able to access for his family goods and services not available to the less connected in this classless society. But when a child is found murdered in Moscow, the child of a fellow MGB officer, and when he treats this crime the way he would any other, he is redirected from his safe path to a dangerous route, pushed along by a jealous work competitor.


Tom Hardy as Leo Demidov in Child 44. Photograph: Summit Entertainment/Allstar - image from The Guardian

The big secret in Smith’s tale is not that tough to figure out, but the up-side of this fast-paced thriller is the depiction of a stalag-Soviet. The characters are sometimes thin, but Child 44 does not pretend to be classic literature. Leo changes, as do some around him and we get a roller-coaster ride through a scary, dark place, learning things we might not have known about in an important time and place. An entertaining and gripping read.



=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, GR, and FB pages

FB has been inactive since June, 2018

Here is a link to the wiki for the film - release date 4/17/15. The film was not well received, getting only a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite and and usually absorbing sub-genres if a very well written mystery set in a perfectly creates historical or alternative reality, this book is a prime example. A savage, yet curiously stylised murder of 'child 44' in 1950s Moscow is customarily cleared by a state security service, as everyone is continuously informed there is no crime in Stalinist Communist Russia.. Upwardly mobile secret police officer Leo clears the case as instructed, by begins to have serious concerns when he discovers other victims! How does one solve a murder in a state terrorised country where there is no crime, and where investigating a crime is perceived as treason, a attack on Communism itself?

I'd been seeing this book on bookshelves and in thrift stores for years, but subconsciously(?) passed over it believing it to be some sort of child abuse drama... I couldn't have been more wrong. A delightful dark piece of historical fiction depicting a savage crime spree under the cloak of Totalitarian Russia where acquiring the knowledge, tools and means to investigate murders would immediately make the pursuer of justice act contrary to state policy and social mores. The writer said he was inspired by the concept of the Fox TV show '24' which was created specially to force the viewer to be unable to stop watching; and this book comes very close to being structured in a way that a reader can't put it down! 9 out of 12.

2022 read

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Set at the end of Stalin's reign in 1953 this book was an eye opener for me. I just had no clue.
Living in Russia at that time was when you lived in fear of that four a.m. arrest. Are you an enemy of the state? It didn't really matter if you were truly innocent, once you had been named you might as well kiss it good-bye.
Leo Demidov is a former war hero who works for the MGB or state security force and had always done his job with no questioning of authority.


There was a joke, popular among officers, who could tell it with impunity. A man and his wife were asleep in bed when they were woken by a sharp knock on the door. Fearing the worst, they got up and kissed each other goodbye:
I love you, wife.
I love you, husband.
Having said their goodbyes they opened the front door. Standing before them was a frantic neighbor, a corridor full of smoke and flames as high as the ceiling. The man and his wife smiled with relief and thanked God: it was just the building on fire.

Then when Leo is forced with an impossible choice he is demoted and sent to a distant out-breach. He and his wife Raisa must start a different kind of life.
He then figures out there is a serial killer targeting children all over the place. This blows my mind but there was supposedly "no crime" so that fact must be covered up and innocent people suffered. At one point one hundred and fifty homosexual men are exposed and punished. Just because of their homosexuality.

This book is gritty and violent but it was an awakening to a point in history that I will not forget.
The writing in the book did distract me with all the conversations being done in italics but I still couldn't stop reading it. Then the ending was not what I really wanted thus the 3.5 stars, but I'm interested in reading the rest of this series.
There is soon to be a movie based on this book starring Tom Hardy. I hope they do this book justice.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: In the Socialist Worker's Paradise that is Stalin's 1953 Russia, There Is No Crime. (Sorry, I know that all the caps are like having your lashes tweezed, but this is the Soviet Union we're talking about, and everything is A Slogan.) The proletariat is blissfully free of the Capitalist Curse Called Crime.

They're more afraid of the State than they are each other. With good reason. There are traitors, informants, everywhere. Even in your own bed, you are never safe from the danger of being outed as a bad Socialist with the least, most offhand criticism of the Paradise. And death comes, whether quickly or slowly, to those whom the Cthulhu of the State Security apparatus notices.

Leo Demidov, then, shouldn't have a job as a criminal investigator. In fact, he doesn't. He's a well-rewarded apparatchik who, in the course of interrogating his fellow citizens, notices a disturbing pattern of murders...which do not officially exist...taking place with no effort, or a completely inadequate effort, being made to see the forest for the trees. Leo's life changes, from privileged servant of the regime to lone wolf investigator to vengeful assassin, over the course of the story. His solution to the crimes being committed is chilling in its outlines and satisfying in its conclusion.

My Review: I don't believe I've ever read so much text in italics before, and I don't think I've ever read a thriller with so little direct action before, either. The dialogue, what little there is of it, is italicized; there are few places where anyone addresses anyone else for more than a sentence or two. Husband Leo and wife Raisa have one--that's all, one--intimate conversation, which is a new low count in my thriller reading.

But what a wallop this book packs! I can't imagine the agonies of researching and writing such a grisly book, given that most writers are sensitive flowers whose emotional lives are very much up on the surface of their lives.

Tom Rob Smith wrote this awful book about awful people doing awful things in an awful country to amuse and entertain us. He succeeds in this, though sometimes I wanted to wash my eyes out with Clorox. The main character, Leo, is a nasty apparatchik in the State Security forces under Stalin. He's a man who has put his sense of rightness, fairness and justice into the hands of vile, unworthy leaders, and turned off his moral compass. The reasons that it turns back on, and the results of Leo's single-minded pursuit of a child murderer, are...gosh...they're *right* and yet, given the 400pp we've spent being plunged into foul, icy sewage, again and again, they're weak tea.

Leo's past leads him to a future that I can't call bright, but at least he's able to do the right thing sometimes. I don't think this book is for everyone, but I think it's really, really interesting and quite exciting and well worth the attention of the non-squeamish.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[♡ Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Geschichte spielt in Moskau/ in der Sowjetunion 1953. Auf Bahnschienen wird ein toter Junge gefunden, der ganz offensichtlich ermordet wurde, doch zu Stalins Zeiten hat es keine Verbrechen zu geben. Also ist der Junge verunglückt. Auch Geheimdienstoffizier Leo Demidow glaubt zunächst daran, doch im Laufe der Geschichte beginnt er, die Dinge zu hinterfragen und seine Meinung zu ändern...
**
Die Geschichte ist beklemmend, bedrückend, manchmal schwer zu ertragen. Ab der ersten Seite herrscht eine unglaublich düstere Atmosphäre. Gleichzeitig ist der Roman sehr spannend. Einerseits möchte man den Roman weglegen, weil die Stimmung so bedrückend ist, andererseits möchte man unbedingt weiterlesen, um zu erfahren, was als nächstes geschieht. So ging es mir.
Das Buch regt zum Nachdenken an.

[Francesc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena novela.
La trama es entretenida y tiene un ritmo ágil. Los primeros capítulos son introductorios para que el lector empiece a conocer el personaje de Leo Demidov.
La documentación del autor es muy buena y demuestra un gran conocimiento de la URSS preestalinista y de los primeros meses después de la muerte de Stalin.
La trama está un poco forzada y el final se resuelve demasiado rápido para mi, demasiado fríamente. Toda la tensión previa, todas las páginas dedicadas a la resolución del caso, se resuelven de repente.
El personaje de Leo Demidov es complejo y profundo y vivimos perfectamente su transición ideológica, igual que su mujer, Raisa.
Llegas a sentir mucho asco por el sistema policíaco soviético de la época, reflejado, sobre todo, en Vasili, el despiadado agente de la MGB.
Una novela fantástica, solo lastrada por pequeños detalles.

------------------------------

Very good novel.
The plot is entertaining and the pace is fast. The first chapters are introductory for the reader to get to know the character of Leo Demidov.
The author's documentation is very good and shows a great knowledge of the pre-Stalinist USSR and the first months after Stalin's death.
The plot is a bit forced and the ending is resolved too quickly for me, too coldly. All the previous tension, all the pages devoted to solving the case, are suddenly resolved.
Leo Demidov's character is complex and deep and we live perfectly his ideological transition, as well as his wife, Raisa.
You come to feel a great deal of disgust for the Soviet police system of the time, reflected, above all, in Vasili, the ruthless MGB agent.
A fantastic novel, weighed down only by minor details.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ Stars Right from the start, Tom Rob Smith introduces us to an inhumane existence of starvation and brutality under Stalin's rule. You can trust no one.....no one. Life is Fear. Life is Torture. Innocence does not matter. Life is a matter of Efficiency, more important than Truth.

And while living the unimaginable, there is a mysterious child killer on the loose that Security Officer, Leo Demidov is determined to stop, even after his demotion, even after mind altering drugs, even when he is on the run, and even to the detriment of his own life and family. Clues lead to a place difficult to go, but where answers are found.

Great mystery filled with secrets, intrigue and more than one twist along the way....plus a few gross-out moments! Recommend!

Update: September 26, 2015

Watched the movie and all I can say is that I wish I would have spent the two plus hours reading. If I had not read the novel, I would not have understood half of what was transpiring before my eyes. Do not recommend.

[La loca de los libros · Rating 5 out of 5]

"La protección de una nación era más importante que una persona, más importante que mil personas. ¿Cuánto pesaban todas las fábricas, máquinas y ejércitos de la Unión Soviética? Comparada con esto, la masa de un individuo era insignificante."

No es perfecta (dudo que alguna novela lo sea), sentí que el final se resolvió de manera muy conveniente y rápida, pero tiene justo lo que le pido a una novela en estos momentos; es un thriller que no te da respiro, con sus momentos de acción y giros inesperados. Otros más pausados que te ponen en contexto de esa fatídica etapa de nuestra historia con el régimen stalinista como marco para crear una trama muy rica en cuanto a los géneros que abarca, tanto policíaco (con un asesino en serie sádico como protagonista y que existió realmente) como histórica, al igual que mucho drama por el régimen totalitario que ello conlleva, e incluso un poco de romanticismo por la relación entre Leo y su mujer, Raisa.
Como también por la fuerza de sus personajes y la gran habilidad del autor para crear y documentar una historia potente, emotiva y con fuerza durante la Unión Soviética.
Una etapa de la historia de la que desconocía muchos aspectos que me han impactado conocer (los gulags, la policía política, ejecuciones o "purgas" en masa y un largo etcétera.)

👌🏻 "El niño 44" es mucho más que una novela policíaca o un thriller, es la lucha de un hombre contra un régimen opresor y todos los obstáculos que tendrá que derribar en su lucha incansable por tener una vida mejor junto a su mujer, por todo ello, pienso que es una muy buena opción si desean conocer más sobre este nefasto momento histórico a la vez que les inunde la impotencia por las atrocidades que se cometieron. Disfrutarán también de una trama repleta de acción, momentos emotivos y una pizca de amor en esa guerra inagotable por vencer al régimen stalinista.

Una novela que no dudaré en recomendar y ya tengo por aquí su segunda parte, El discurso secreto, esperando su turno en la estantería 👌🏻

"Hasta esta noche, había creído que haría cualquier cosa por su amigo. Eso era una mentira. Su lealtad, valentía y amistad habían demostrado ser muy frágiles; se rompieron en la primera prueba seria."

🎥 Por cierto, hay una adaptación cinematográfica del año 2015 dirigida por Daniel Espinosa y protagonizada por Tom Hardy y Noomi Rapace, la cual aún no he tenido oportunidad de ver pero que no pienso dejar pasar porque tiene toda la pinta de ser un buen film basado en la presente novela superventas de Tom Rob Smith 🖤✨
¿La han visto? De ser así, ¿la recomiendan?

"Nunca se había considerado un cobarde, y durante la guerra, cuando su propia vida estaba en juego, nunca se comportó como tal. Pero tener una familia lo había hecho temeroso. Era capaz de imaginar cosas mucho peores que su propia muerte."

"El miedo fue cultivado. El miedo era parte de su trabajo. Y para que este nivel de miedo se mantuviera, necesitaba un suministro constante de personas alimentadas de el."

https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 🖤📖✨

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verdade ou Ficção


Se há livros capazes de transmitir quão ténue é a linha que separa a realidade da ficção, este é um deles.
A história começa no período do Holodomor - uma época de fome induzida pelo próprio Estaline à população da Ucrânia - numa altura em que o Estado se apropriou de toda a produção do campesinato ucraniano.
Alegava-se que tal medida se enquadrava no projecto de coletivização agrícola da URSS. Contudo, não era mais que uma punição ao nacionalismo rebelde dos ucranianos que redundou num extermínio de 5 milhões. Segundo consta, os esfomeados e desesperados ucranianos, chegaram a envolver-se em atos de canibalismo…☠️💀☠️
Inspirado nesse hórrido período da História, o autor oferece-nos uma narrativa chocante, mas deveras credível

Quanto à componente de thriller que aqui encontramos, é, também ela, radicada na verdade. Um dos mais famosos serial killers de sempre - Rostov Ripper - era de nacionalidade russa e, as suas vítimas , na sua maioria crianças, foram além da meia centena.
Consta que a investigação criminal foi largamente prejudicada porque, supostamente, os serial killers eram inexistentes na URSS. Tratava-se dum regime político perfeito, sem lugar para o crime. Os assassinos eram uma praga exclusiva dos regimes capitalistas!...

Esta proximidade com a Rússia de Estaline, torna esta leitura praticamente histórica.

São 5 estrelas bem merecidas⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Nota: A conversão desta obra em filme, que ocorreu em 2015, foi banida na URSS.
Apesar dos crimes cometidos, a atual Rússia não reconhece a culpabilidade de Estaline.
Os assassinatos em massa - o genocídio - foram encarados como um mal necessário. Segundo os Compêndios de História, tratou-se duma medida imprescindível à construção duma Rússia leal e imaculada sob uma perspectiva de disciplina executiva.
É essa a "verdade histórica" que vai passando de geração em geração...

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Child 44 is one of the best books I’ve read all year. So of course while I was reading, I wanted to tell everybody about it, shout it to the rooftops, fighting the urge to send a recommendation to all my good GR buddies. One of the reasons I didn’t was because I realized that while I was riveted, this book is definitely not for everyone. It’s grim and gristly, and there are a couple of scenes that are like a punch to the gut. In fact, the beginning almost reads like a horror novel. It’s a thriller though…a very good thriller.

Tom Rob Smith creates this nightmarish, claustrophobic world of mistrust and fear that made me feel like I had been thrown into a horrible dystopia. Moscow during the time of Stalin was brutal, and I think the realization that these atrocities really happened is what grabs you. I’ve read reviews from people that lived in Russia who criticize that Smith gets it wrong and his world is about as subtle as a brick to the head. But since this is fiction, I didn’t mind that. I was so completely engulfed in the paranoia along with the characters that I loved it.

The basic story is about a murderer traveling around Russia slaughtering children (based off a true story). But instead of trying to catch the killer, the State wants to push it under the rug. You see it doesn’t look good if there is an unsolved crime. Consequently, for an officer of the Militia to honestly try to fight crime is very dangerous. In many ways the story is a lot like The Hangman's Daughter. But where ‘Hangman’s Daughter’ was boring, Child 44 is almost impossible to set down. That’s because Smith pulls you into his gritty world. His characters are not modern, enlightened individuals that are better than everyone else. They are part of this society, with their own fears and rationalizations. Leo is a cold-blooded police officer who only decides to make a stand because he’s forced into it. I liked that. I like the journey that Leo has to take.

And to my surprise, the suspense for Child 44 does not come from endless action scenes. It comes from the anticipation that the State can and does horrible things to innocent people all the time. What is going to happen to Leo? What will happen to his wife, his parents and anyone that helps him? I think through a good portion of this book, I was clutching the pages. Some reviews complain that Smith’s writing is too simplistic and choppy, but I was so into the story, I didn’t notice. I didn’t even mind that he didn’t use quotation marks or tags (a usual writing complaint of mine).

There’s a strong premise in this book about what it means to throw others under the bus to preserve the peace. The rationalization of ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’ (as Spock would say) changes a bit when it’s used as an excuse for the arrest and conviction of innocent people, especially if you are one of those innocent people. Smith never forgets his premise either. That’s why the book ended the way it did. The premise had to have a full arc. And while I appreciate a strong underlining theme, I’m not sure the pessimist in me believed it. The ending was a little bit too pat and easy, consequently making it the weakest part of the book. But how much gloom and doom can a reader take?

I think Child 44 is excellent! I give it six stars! I will definitely read book 2.


For an awesome review of this book, please check out Steve's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Maria Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hace unas semanas vi la película de este libro y no pude resistir la tentación de leerlo. Necesitaba volver a vivir la historia de Leo y Raisa, sus miedos e inseguridades; pero sobre todo, sentir esa sensación de opresión que tan bien describe el autor. Sin duda es una historia dura, sin cloroformo en ninguna parte, atroz en su mayoría, brutal, pero hermosa al mismo tiempo.

[Arah-Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Denouement matters.



3.5 stars.

[Metodi Markov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Преди няколко месеца гледах филма направен по тази книга. Не беше никак лош и затова реших да я прочета.

Том Роб Смит е посветил много време и усилия на изследването на героите и събитията от епохата - СССР, Сталин, Голодомора, ВСВ, хората живяли тогава и това му се е отплатило, позволявайки му да напише един добър роман.

Разбирам и защо толкова много хора са потресени от нещата описани в нея - и до ден днешен престъпленията на комунизма не са наказани или признати дори, а част от извършителите им спокойно доживяват в лукс края на дните си в Русия на Путин. Голяма част от тези престъпления не са известни на широката общественост. За съжаление, даже има своеобразен ренесанс на тези зверства - празнуват отново Ден на чекиста, имаше опашки за полагане на цветя пред паметника на Сталин миналия месец...

Народ, който не познава историята си, е обречен на безкрайни повторения. Руснаците са точен пример за това.

На мен като цяло книгата ми допадна, въпреки на моменти тромавия изказ на автора и малко нелогичните му герои, защото само документите не стигат да вникнеш в една епоха, трябва и да си я живял.

[Dem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Child 44 is one of those books that only come along once in awhile and when it does it makes you exclaim out loud. This novel draws you into the story, the characters are very well drawn and the plot is excellent, one of those book that you just cant put down, I loved this thriller/murder mystery book, it is set in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule and is loosely based on real life killer Andrei Chikatilo and follows the story through the eyes of Leo Dimidov, the government agent who is trying to solve the murders committed by Andrei Chikatilo. Its a book not for the faint hearted but a real page turner.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very long time ago and far away, I used to starve myself. On purpose. I had this idea I would transform into a super model. Instead, one day I scratched my arm and tore my skin off. Taking a deep breath, I almost broke ribs, but as it turned out, I simply pulled rib muscles. True story.

Going without food is terrible. It does awful things to your body, not just to your mind.

'Child 44' opens in a small Ukraine village in 1933. The entire Soviet Union, but mostly the Ukraine, under the dictatorial hand of the mass murderer Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), is starving, much as Stalin himself did as a child.

Ten-year-old Ukrainian Pavel and his brother, seven-year-old nearsighted Andrei, are starving. It is 1933, and their village thinks it has eaten all of the rats and cats. People are chewing bark to kill the hunger. Luckily, one day the boys see what must be the last surviving cat. So they run after the single remaining cat which has slinked off into the forest. Unknown to the boys, someone is hunting them. The children are thin, but they have on their bones good meat in the eyes of the starving, whether man or beast. The desperate hungry man following the children gets ready with his club and sack...


From Wikipedia:

"Under Stalin's rule the concept of "Socialism in One Country" became a central tenet of Soviet society, contrary to Leon Trotsky's view that socialism must be spread through continuous international revolutions. He replaced the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the early 1920s with a highly centralized command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial power. The economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, known in Ukraine as the Holodomor. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led the "Great Purge", a massive campaign of repression of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the working class" were imprisoned, exiled or executed, often without due process. Major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were killed after being convicted of treason in show trial." from Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josep...

"The exact number of deaths caused by Stalin's regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions."

"The Holodomor famine is sometimes referred to as the Ukrainian Genocide, implying it was engineered by the Soviet government, specifically targeting the Ukrainian people to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a political factor and social entity. While historians continue to disagree whether the policies that led to Holodomor fall under the legal definition of genocide, twenty-six countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as such...It would appear that Stalin intended to use the starvation as a cheap and efficient means (as opposed to deportations and shootings) to kill off those deemed to be "counterrevolutionaries," "idlers," and "thieves," but not to annihilate the Ukrainian peasantry as a whole. Ellman also claims that, while this was not the only Soviet genocide (e.g., the Polish operation of the NKVD), it was the worst in terms of mass casualties."


In Moscow, twenty years later, little four-year-old Arkady is angry with his older big brother, Jora. Jora cheated, throwing a snowball full of rocks and mud which knocks out one of Arkady's teeth. Disbelieving and hurt, Arkady runs off towards the train yard to cry - and he becomes a key to a mystery. The 43rd key. Forty-three murders...

Little Arkady's body is discovered, unclothed, gutted like a deer, and with his mouth full of chewed bark. The Soviet Union does not, cannot, accept that Arkady's unusual death presentation was a murder. Communism is a perfect system of economics and social organization, and under Communism, nobody can possibly want to murder anyone. The Soviet people have all been remolded by the Great Leader Stalin into a perfect society where all necessities are met; so if there has been a death, it must be an accident. Anyone who saw the actual condition of the body must be convinced of their error of their perceptions.

Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a member of the MGB, the State Security force, has come to investigate the child's death. Well, gentle reader, 'investigate' is perhaps the wrong word, since Leo's job is actually about tracking down social anomalies and dissonances that hurt the image of the perfection of Communism. He forces witnesses to retract any statements marring the picture of the perfection of Communist society. These folks who insist on 'deviant' attitudes towards Communism - not recognizing its social perfection - are made to confess their errors. Then they are tortured for any information about close friends, neighbors and work acquaintances who might also be in error regarding the perfection of Communism and Stalin. They then are shot or sent by train to the gulags. Since these 'deviants' may have contaminated their families, grandparents, children and other near relatives with their lack of faith in Communist perfection, the entire family is also arrested, tortured and imprisoned, just in case.

Leo is good at his job. He has a talent for hunting anti-Communist 'deviants', and he, at age 30, is respected by his superiors. He actually has been rewarded with a small apartment for himself and his wife, a survivor of the last war, and he has a bit more food available to him than most. Although he lives with unending anxiety, mostly because no one around him seems to live very long without being accused of anticommunism and arrested for errors of thinking, or acting as if they are thinking incorrectly, Leo is a absolute believer in Stalin and Communism.

At least, he was. Lately, he has been noticing torture creates factual inconsistencies in confessions. There seems to be excessive killing and torture of obviously innocent and worthy citizens. Reports are concocted with standard boilerplate instead of facts.

Not trusting anyone, including your parents, wife or child, is an awful way to live, especially in having to monitor even minute movements of body language - a raised eyebrow, or a hand playing with a pen. It is very wearing. However, even though Leo has discovered one can be a perfect Communist under Stalin's leadership and still be accused, tortured and shot (which is confusing and surprisingly, beginning to terrify him) he believes in the theories of Communism. He hopes people will be remolded into something better in the end. They all just need to concentrate on the Big Picture for the common good and change themselves and eliminate their obstinate personal physical desires and motivations, like for food, warmth and love.

But Leo is given two cases which together shake his faith. The first case is forcing Arkady's family to say the little boy was hit by a train and not bizarrely murdered. The second case is the tracking of a 'criminal' of the state, someone who was suspected of errors of infected thought from contact with foreigners. Both jobs result in executions which shake him to his core. He experiences a mental dissonance, and Leo can no longer ignore his doubts.

An MGB competitor takes advantage of Leo's new hesitations and reports him for suspicion of being a dissident. Although he is cleared by heroic actions in the capture of the runaway criminal with infected thoughts, he is demoted anyway because he may yet possess possible philosophical deviations. Suspected deviations of thought means he might be a spy according to Stalin's book of Marxist-based writ, slogans and rote (any suspicion is enough proof of philosophical deviation). So finally, Leo and his wife Raisa are sent away to serve in an impoverished starving Ural village militia near Voualsk.

In Voualsk, a child is discovered murdered in the forest, being gutted like a deer with chewed bark put in her mouth. Impossible, but there it is. Leo finds he is driven to find the murderer now that his barriers against improper thinking have cracked. Luckily, he finds allies and with their help, he figures out there have been at least 44 murders of children by one man. But mistakes are made, and under the police mechanisms of the Soviet Union his suspicious research activities are spotted. The official network of the State cannot allow him to find such a person as a murderer under Communism because murderers are an impossibility in the Soviet Union. If Leo discovers an actual murderer, it is Leo who must be executed for his knowledge. Nonetheless, he can't let it go. People are going to die, and not the guilty. Will Leo be arrested before he can find the childkiller?

Wow! This is the best thriller I have read this year! It is the type of thriller which I had to put down frequently, though, gentle reader. It is THAT kind of good. Stalin's Soviet Union is described in vividly stifling and claustrophobic horror. The state-sanctioned punishments and intended consequences for destroying anything remotely natural in human behavior are historical fact. The author studied historical documents and read interviews given by Soviet citizens to use as background for this incredible mystery. The murderer is also based on historical fact!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre...

Unfortunately, so was the officially sanctioned murdering of suspected dissidents in the Soviet Union.

Beginning with Karl Marx:

Karl Marx (1818-1883), grandson of Jewish rabbis, joined socialist societies, wrote articles for newspapers, and wrote first and second drafts of books which would make him an influential historical figure. However, he and his family starved from terrible poverty in England. He came from money, but his views on labor and capitalism made him a pariah to many European monarchs and governments. On the run for most of his youth, he finally settled in London. Several of his children died from poor health developed after starving in London.

"Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and his work has been both lauded and criticized. His work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx's work, with many modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern sociology and social sciences."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_...

Marx was a deep-thinking intellectual, whose interest mainly was in alleviating economic inequality. At the time, many of his ideas were also being expressed by other intellectuals, but his books pulling together all of the untried economic ideas plus adding his own unique thought caught fire with those of the public concerned with the huge gaps in opportunity and wealth between social classes. Anyone who reads his most famous books, The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital will see how attractive these theories were to the starving poor (and me, frankly, years ago) as well as intellectuals. However, they have proven disastrous when practiced, mostly because they do not take into consideration human nature itself. As Dr. Moreau in H. G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau discovered, the animal flesh persists.

Stalin may have honestly believed in Communism, but he also was a psychopath, in my opinion. He twisted Marxist principles into something monstrous which seemed to satisfy a personal hunger for killing and torture more than about fixing inequality in society. Looking at the results of Stalin's social reengineering in the Soviet Union, it was as if he wanted to recreate a society which mirrored the abused starved childhood he had had. Stalin forced his countrymen into the same harsh poverty under which he had been raised.

Regardless of Stalin's personal vision, all Communist states have proven themselves to be the most cruel of the systems of governance people invented. 'Child 44' brings to the foreground what living under Stalin and Communism must have actually been like, an awful reality if true, and I believe it was true.

Omg, was this book painful to read, despite the thriller elements. But worth it. I recommend it.


Edit: If one requires further validation of the veracity of the author's research, here it is:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...

[Justo Martiañez · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Estrellas

Estupenda ambientación en la Unión Soviética estalinista de la posguerra donde la represión, la delación y la deshumanización total del individuo alcanzó cotas nunca vistas.

En esta sociedad cualquier desviación de los ideales comunistas y sociales establecidos era considerada un crimen contra el sistema y todos los implicados eliminados o silenciados.

Podía haber hambre en la Unión Soviética? Evidentemente no, ya se encargaba el Estado de matar de hambre a los que le interesaba y mantener desnutrida a la mitad de la población.

Podía pasar frío la gente? Claro que no, el Estado no lo permitiría.

Podían existir crímenes, robos, homicidios o asesinatos, en este estado ideal? Imposible, si la gente tenía de todo, estás cosas no tenían cabida en esta sociedad, el paraíso comunista no podía generar este tipo de engendros. Ya se encargaba el Estado de asesinar a quien le venía en gana. Y quién hablara de estas cosas, evidentemente era un enemigo del Estado y debía ser eliminado. Esto puede parecer infantil o pueril, pero en realidad era un sistema terrible, terrorífico....

Es en este clima, en este sistema totalitario, donde se desarrolla la trama. Un asesino en serie lleva matando niños de forma impune muchos años. Pero nadie quiere relacionar los casos, se tratan de forma aislada y se resuelven de forma chapucera...nadie quiere enfrentarse al Estado y morir por ello......bueno nadie no. Leo Demidov, agente de la seguridad del Estado, la policía secreta, empieza a verse involucrado en la maquinaria de intrigas y purgas del sistema y cae en desgracia. Es deportado a los Urales junto con su mujer y allí empieza a conocer diversos casos de asesinatos de niños, que parecen estar cometidos por la misma persona. Se juega las pocas posibilidades que le quedan de sobrevivir y decide investigar los crímenes y dar caza al asesino.

Inspirado en un caso real que aconteció en la Unión Soviética años más tarde ( el de Andrei Chikatilo, que actuó entre los 70 y los 90 del siglo pasado), nos vemos envueltos en una trama difícil, en la que la vida de nuestros protagonistas está continuamente en juego, amenazada por aquellos que deberían protegerlos y colaborar con ellos y cuyo único objetivo es mantener el sistema y su propio poder, sin ser consciente que está brutal maquinaria de terror acababa devorando a sus propios creadores.

Quizá el alma del pueblo ruso todavía no estaba totalmente corrompida y los valores humanos seguían habitando en sus corazones: la cooperación, la compasión, el ayuda desinteresada, la justicia social......no sé qué pensar......el zarismo, la Unión Soviética, Putin.....no son capaces de salir de la mierda del totalitarismo...lo llevan en los genes?

Peros. La trama es lenta y no acaba de arrancar hasta bien mediados el libro, centrándose en la ambientación y en la descripción de la sociedad y la maquinaria estatal en la que se mueve Leo.

Las motivaciones del asesino me parecen cogidas con pinzas. Nos sirven para hilar la trama, pero son un brindis al sol sin credibilidad. Las asumimos, pero no nos las creemos. En cualquier caso se ven venir de lejos.

Buen libro entretenido, muy bien ambientado. Te hace pensar sobre estas sociedades totalitarias y de cómo manipulan y deshumanizan a sus ciudadanos, siendo el terror, la delación y la traición sus herramientas preferidas.

Buena lectura.

[Ali Book World · Rating 5 out of 5]

عالی عالی عالی !!!!
کتابی بر اساس یک تراژدی واقعی در مورد پرونده‌ی قتل چندین کودک در دوران شوروری...
بی‌نظیر بود.
اگر دنبال یک کتاب معمایی - جنایی و جذاب میگردید که خوب شروع بشه و عالی هم تمام بشه و بعلاوه براساس واقعیت نوشته شده باشه قطعا باید این کتاب رو بخونید.
محشر و بدون نقطه ضعف

پ.ن: البته این کتاب جلد اول از یک سه‌گانه‌ی دنباله داره اما ماجرای این کتاب، مستقله !

[Warda · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Updating my rating to 5 stars]

“Isn’t this how it starts? You have a cause you believe in, a cause worth dying for. Soon, it’s a cause worth killing for. Soon, it’s a cause worth killing innocent people for.”

This book was all kinds of awesomeness. Set with the backdrop of the Soviet Union and the Russian communists, this brutal story follows our main character, Leo, who works as a detective, chasing a real-life murderer which this story is based on. The research that went into this story is pretty much flawless. The author managed to accurately convey the political turmoil of the country in the 1950s, bringing the horror of the oppression and the injustice fully to life. So much so, that it was painful to read at times. I personally wasn't aware of the history of the Soviet Union, so in that sense this book was extremely educational. The injustice isn't new. You see this taking place on the daily, yet it was astounding to realise how disgustingly corrupt the political system was. Everything was black and white. You were told one thing, and were ordered not to question it. The idea of the government being flawed was not something plausible. There was the sense of utopia that they didn't allow to collapse. So, instead of the perpetrator being convicted of his or her crime, it was blamed on the West, possible Nazis regrouping, the mentally ill and homosexuals. The truth was twisted, left to die and buried.

So, it's a tale of Leo embarking on this journey of self-realisation of coming to terms with the crimes of his government and his loyalty to the state being tested. It's an absolute gripping story, one that I loved from beginning to end!

[Farnaz Farid · Rating 4 out of 5]

فضایی سرد و پر از سوظن . کشوری که با قوانین کمونیستی استالین و توسط اداره ی امنیت اداره می شود.
همه تحت نظر و کنترل شدید قرار دارند و هر مخالفی متهم به خیانت و محکوم به اعدام.
تفتیش عقاید ، انگ ضد حکومت بودن و جاسوس و عامل بیگانه!
تهدید خانواده ی مخالفین به اعدام و زندان و مرگ و ...

در بحبوبه ی جنگ جهانی اول در شوروی که مردم تمام موش ها و گربه ها و ... را خورده اند کودکی دزدیده میشود تا به عنوان غذا استفاده شود.

سالها بعد کودکانی با فجیع ترین وضع ممکن به قتل می رسند. اما این حکومت که خود را مدینه ی فاصله می داند این جنایات را لاپوشانی می کند، و تصادفی جلوه می دهند.

در این بین لئو افسری که خود سرسپرده ی حکومت است با شواهدی سعی در یافتن قاتل اصلی و کشف معمای این قتل ها دارد.
و این ۳ گانه ی پر کشش و هیجان انگیز تام راب اسمیت را شکل میدهد.

اگر به دنبال هیجان و معما و قتل هستید این کتاب برای شماست..

ترجمه: خوب
امتیازم : ۴/۲

پ.ن: کتاب رو با صدای فوق العاده گیرای تایماز رضوانی گوش کنید مطمئنم لذت می برید.
پ.ن۲: ۲ تا کتاب دیگه ش هم با صدای دلنشین تایماز صوتی شده که بیصبرانه دلم می خواد گوش کنم .
پ.ن۳: چیزی که کتاب رو ترسناک می کنه اینه که این کتاب بر اساس واقعیت نوشته شده .

۹

[Xabi1990 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Para que lo siguiente que escriba no os lleve a engaño comienzo con la nota : 8,5/10 o algo más, que, traducido estrellitas y como no quiero traducir por debajo de mi nota, le caen las cinco.

Si nos ponemos exquisitos la novela tiene una estructura normalita : comienza con un flashback de la infancia de nos niños y luego avanza hasta la “actualidad” de la Rusia de Stalin, poco después de la II Guerra mundial y sumida en el miedo a la policía política MGB (precursora de la KGB). Y de ahí a investigar unos asesinatos de niños.

¡Pues no, no es tan “normalita”!. Para no destripar (spoilear se suele decir hoy) la historia no os puedo contar más, pero quedaros con que no soy nada generoso y ese 8,5 que le he dado es que me ha parecido muy original el desarrollo de la trama.

Y los personajes muy bien. Oye, muy muy bien.

¿Tal vez me ha impactado más porque no había leído sobre esa época de la Rusia stalinista y su temible policía política, sobre las purgas, el miedo a la delación por parte de vecinos, familiares, amigos, todos con miedo a ser tachados de anti-soviéticos si no delataban – con motivos o no- a alguien?. No se, pero ya os digo que me ha enganchado cosa mala.

Y, claro, me he metido inmediatamente con su segunda parte –totalmente independiente de la primera en cuanto a trama-, el discurso secreto.

[Sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

چقدر عالی بود این کتاب👌
این کتاب سه گانه ست و خیلی دوست دارم دوتای دیگشو هم بخونم به محض اینکه سرم خلوت بشه میخونمشون.

[Supratim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to rate it 4.5 but alas I don't have that option.

Let me begin by saying that this book has exceeded my expectations. Personally, I would say that it is a tad better than Gorky Park - an excellent book about a Soviet policeman.

The atmosphere of fear, desperation, tension, suspense has been used so effectively by the author. The start itself is so chilling - it is 1933 and we visit the village of Chervoy, Ukraine - then a part of the Soviet Union. Lack of food has reduced humans to eating their pets and further degradation is portrayed when people try to eat earth. In such a setting, two little boys- two brothers set out to hunt a cat while their mother waits for them at home. Then of course, something terrible happens.

Twenty years later we move to Moscow where a child's horrific murder is being brushed under the carpet by the Stalinist regime. Crime does not exist in the Soviet Union. The man tasked with bringing the grieving family in line with the state's theory of accident is Leo Demidiv of the MGB, the State Security Force. Like Arkady Renko of Gorky Park and Xavier March of Fatherland, Leo is a decent human being. But, there is a big difference between Leo and the others – unlike Renko and March, Leo is a true believer in the state. He is dedicated to his country and the cause espoused by the state. Leo will kill and die for it.

The horrors of living under a totalitarian regime has been emphatically stressed throughout the book. A mere slip of tongue, a silly joke, a mere suspicion is enough for a person to be executed or may be worse – be exiled to the Gulag. The person needs to prove his loyalty to the state, the state does not need to prove the accused person’s guilt. Torture and forced confessions are the accepted norms of interrogation. “Barbarity passes off as necessity for the greater good.”
The policy of the state – “Better to let ten innocent men suffer than one spy escape.”

Leo, in his heart, was never that comfortable with the terrors inflicted on the so called “enemies of the state.”

Leo, becomes a victim of the state too. All his beliefs, values, accomplishments go for a toss. He is demoted and sent off in the middle of nowhere. Here starts Leo’s investigations into the horrific murders of children.

Though this is a serial killer novel, the state emerges as the bigger villain than the killer. Leo risks his life as well as the lives of his loved ones in order to expose the killer. The risk is not from the killer but from the state itself as crime does not exist in Soviet Russia and people trying to prove so are Western agents- enemies of the glorious revolution. Leo and his wife Raisa try to catch and punish the killer and are helped by a lot of kind-hearted people, some prisoners themselves while others are complete strangers – humble citizens of the USSR.

There are plenty of events and twists which would make you tense, afraid, excited etc.

Do we really know and understand the people whom we love? People try to forget things which make them uncomfortable. I loved the way the relationship between Leo and Raisa evolved.

The book, parts of the book at least were so faced paced that I did not realize how time went by.
Saying I am looking forward to the next books in the series is an understatement – I simply can’t wait to get my hands on them.

I would recommend this book to all lovers of thrillers – but please keep in mind the book can be a bit depressing. There are descriptions of acute starvation and the inhuman behaviors that result from it, horrific brutality inflicted on children – if you don’t mind all these then this book won’t disappoint.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک رمان جذاب و به شدت دارای پازل های به هم ارتباط داده شده
داستان پیگیری قتلهای زنجیره ای در زمان شوروی استالین زده . فضای سرد و پر از سوظن آن زمان به شکل عالی به تصویر کشیده شده و سرمای همیشگی شوروی هم محیط را سردتر و گرفته تر نشان میدهد .
فقط در بخشی از داستان ادبیات هالیودی وارد ماجرا شده و به نظر من از باور پذیری داستان کم کرده .
متاسفاته کتاب از صفحه 304 ناگهان به 321 پریده گویا هزینه های سرسام آور زندگی انتشارات را مجبور به حذف 17 صفحه از کتاب کرده !!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an expertly rendered and well-executed thriller set in the Stalinist-era Soviet Union. The plot machinations are done just right, and there is enough grim local color--including some harrowing scenes of starvation at the very beginning and the wonderfully iron-clad certainty among the Soviets that a serial killer would be impossible in their country--to lend heft to the proceedings. It's a real page-turner for those who enjoy the cat-and-mouse guessing game of thrillers.

[Michelle F · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accomplished mystery that blends organically with its chosen setting, Child 44 is a genuinely gripping read.

My buddy-reader and I have our own little TBR, and this has been on it for at least a year. We finally started it in January of 2022 and were having amazing discussions about it... mainly because it's one of the few books where we haven't been grumpy about skill and style. Child 44 is well crafted, no debate, and that left us wide open to focus on the story itself.

But then Russia loudly took center stage as current real-life villains, and suddenly this historical suspense novel set in Stalin's Soviet Union felt like...too much. Not bad, just a doubling down of atrocity that made it hard to escape the realities of our world right now. So, we took a step back and moved on to rabidly judging the skill and style of Sanderson and set Child 44 aside.

I picked at it off and on, by myself, until the mystery got its feet under it and started gaining momentum.

There's been a string of children killed across a region, and MGB agent LEO Demidov begins making connections between the incidents. In a country where the state has decreed that its citizens are happy and murder doesn't exist, trying to catch a killer is more dangerous than you know.

Smith uses the setting expertly, highlighting the atmosphere of oppression, fear, and distrust while Leo must face his crisis of conscience. During a time when people had to turn on neighbours and even family to ensure their own survival, the book is an exciting exploration of which moral lines are uncrossable.

Also fascinating was the examination of Leo and Raisa's marriage and how it evolves.

There are a few logic leaps in the investigation, and the somewhat broadcasted 'twist' was far-fetched without a bit more supporting set-up, but overall this was really good. Well written, fast-moving, but with enough attention to the human side of things. I'd recommend this widely.

[Jonetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on The Book Nympho

The story is set in 1953 Russia, shortly before the end of Joseph Stalin's reign of terror. There's evidence of a possible serial killer at large but one of the propaganda "truths" is that Russia is crime free. Leo Demidov, a member of the powerful and feared MGB (predecessor of the KGB), is sent to investigate one of the murders but is instructed to classify it as an accident. It sets off a chain of events that will forever change the man and his life.

I was mesmerized by this story as it offered a glimpse into an era I knew little about but is important as it provides insight into the probable foundation of current Russian culture. Part mystery and part historical fiction, the storytelling aspect is outstanding. While Leo is the main character and most everything is seen through his point of view, that view transforms as everything he's believed in and been a part of begins to unravel as it turns on him. To challenge any of the government positions often means certain death so Leo's change doesn't happen without consequence.

The setting represents one of the most important in world history where millions of the so-called "enemies of the Soviet people" were imprisoned, exiled or executed. I've known the facts of the era but this story provided more clarity of how a system designed to provide social and economic equality could go so horribly awry. Leo is at times unsympathetic and at others heroic. The story has an emotional punch I hadn't expected and the narrator just nails everything. I highly recommend listening to this book as it contributes to its authentic sense. 4.5 stars

[Ms. Smartarse · Rating 5 out of 5]

To survive as a detective in 1950s communist Russia, you have to put your country above all. Anything less is tantamount to high treason.

When your superiors tell you to investigate a possible spy, you go and apprehend him/her without stopping to think about the accuracy of the accusation: "Better let ten innocent men suffer than one spy escape."

If your subordinate thinks his son's tragic accident was in fact murder, you go and remind him of one of the fundaments of his society: "There is no crime".



So when he refuses to denounce his own wife as a traitor, MGB detective Leo Demidov knows that they'll both be executed. Stalin's sudden death however, grants them reprieve and an exile into the remote town of Voualsk, where they'll at least have one another. But then his wife Raisa shocks him, by suddenly confessing that she had married Leo out of fear, and in fact hates him.

A "routine" arrest in the case of a dead child, whose circumstances seem eerily familiar, gives Leo a new purpose. He decides to find the actual culprit, and not just allow the militia to pin it on an unfortunate scapegoat.



Having previously watched the movie, I was not expecting to like the book so much.
The basic story about a disgraced MGB agent hunting a serial child murderer remains the same, but life in the cut-throat world of communist Russia, as well as Leo's past (and as such his connection to the killer) are missing.

I especially liked Leo's character development.
In the movie, there is Tom Hardy who's running around and brooding handsomely, while the rest of the world is busy hating him.
In the book, we see Leo's life as a dedicated MGB agent, who would not hesitate to resort to drugs in order to keep doing his job, even when this comes with severe memory loss.



It was also quite fascinating to read about Leo's inner turmoil, when it came down to actually believing the communist propaganda that he enforces. At times, it was almost heart-breaking to see him attempt to brainwash himself, by repeatedly memorising communist slogans, when the methamphetamine-induced memory loss manifested itself.

And most of all, Leo's past is what left quite an impression on me. Despite the fact that the novel actually starts with a scene from his childhood, the reader doesn't find its relevance until after having gone through more than half of the book. The chilling conclusion of this first chapter is, nevertheless, an excellent way of catching the reader's attention.

Score: 5/5 stars

The first 5 star book this year.
Admittedly, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information, when it comes to detailing life in 1950s Russia, but the manner in which it is described is definitely effective. I could barely put the book down, and even then I kept counting the hours I could pick it up again to continue.