ReviewsOfBooks.com

Your one stop for finding multiple professional reviews of recently released books.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Child 44 is set during the 1950s in the Soviet Union, and Leo Stepanovich Demidov is a war hero who works for the MGB, the secret police. When the bodies of murdered children are found, Leo is sure they're the work of a serial killer, but the Communist Party refuses to accept that conclusion in their worker's paradise. Bucking the system is not a good career move and Leo is demoted and exiled to the countryside, where he encounters another child's corpse. His marriage to Raisa is already on shaky ground and becomes fodder for his enemies to use against him. He refuses to compromise his sense of right and wrong and is determined to stop the madman. Tom Rob Smith's novel (and soon to be motion picture) has received positive reviews with The Scotsman saying, "Child 44 is not only a thriller of the highest quality – addictive, pacey, frighteningly unpredictable – but also a magnificently written novel with far more to offer than carefully managed tension and twists."