Child 44, Tom Rob Smith
Child 44, Tom Rob Smith
8 Rating(s)
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Child 44

Author: Tom Rob Smith

Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris

Unabridged: 12 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/29/2008


Synopsis

A propulsive, relentless page-turner filled with conspiracies, hope, and resilience, from a bestselling author.

"Inventive, edgy and relentlessly gripping from the first page to the last." —Scott Turow, #1 bestselling author of Presumed Innocent

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.

About Tom Rob Smith

Tom Rob Smith is the author of the acclaimed Child 44 trilogy. Child 44 itself was a global publishing sensation, selling over two million copies. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and won the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His most recent novel, The Farm, was a #1 international bestseller. Tom also writes for television and won a Writer’s Guild Award for best adapted series and an Emmy and Golden Globe for best limited series with American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. He is also the creator and executive producer of FX’s suspense thriller series Class of ’09.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Federico on September 10, 2023

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 t......more

Goodreads review by Zinta on January 05, 2009

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 t......more

Goodreads review by Will on May 03, 2023

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 th......more

Goodreads review by Baba on February 20, 2022

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......more

Goodreads review by Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ on August 26, 2024

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......more


Quotes

"Child 44 not only is one of the best mysteries of this year, but it is one of the most remarkable and original debuts in recent years. Set in post WWII Stalinist Russia, Child 44 works equally well as a hard-boiled novel, a political thriller, a regional mystery and an emotional, even romantic story about a couple rediscovering each other. It is at once gritty, chilling, depressing, hopeful and, above all, fascinating...Dennis Boutsikaris is the perfect reader for this story. Boutsikaris, who frequently shows up on Law & Order, captures the story's angst, nuances and accents."—Sun Sentinel