Child 44
by Tom Rob Smith
Published by Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster)
ISBN 978-1-84739-159-9
This is a crime thriller story set in 1950s Stalinist USSR, thick with social and political paranoia. Leo Demidov is a MGB Officer, tasked with arresting dissidents and "deviants" to charge with various offences against the State, whether they committed the offence or not. In such a country, crime is not officially recognised as existing, however several children between Moscow and Rostov are being found in wooded areas close to train lines dead, with their stomachs cut out and tree bark stuffed in their mouths. Officially, as crime does not exist, they are not classified as murders, nor are they deemed connected in any way.
However, Leo slowly comes to realise that they are connected, and a serial killer is travelling the train lines, able to lure children away to their deaths. (slowly, the reader comes to realise the murders are based on the Rostov Ripper, Andrei Chikatilo of the 1990s). However, The State cannot allow the murders to be accepted as murders as that would reflect badly on The State, and worse on their investigative techniques.
Towards the end of the book, Leo is forced to face a past he has tried so hard to forget.....
This is a brilliant page turner of a book that highlights wonderfully the total fear and paranoia, social and political, of the time...... GO READ THIS!!!
