Tom Rob Smith - Child 44

Review by Maggie Perkovic on show 18th Feb.
This book was first reviewed by Malcolm Martland last year on the show and although he was not a great fan I thought I might like the historical content of Russia after the defeat of the Zsar and the life under Stalin's rule.
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 waiver and when he is 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 the criminal that the state won't even admit exists. On the run Leo soon discovers the danger is not from the killer he is trying to catch but from the country he is trying to protect.
That is the blurb on the back cover and I must admit the opening chapter where a very thin pet cat is killed in a rather unpleasant way for food, I must add, did not endear me to the following chapters.
I have read the 'Russian Concubine' and the 'Concubines Secret' with all the ensuing "blood and guts" but this book seems to me to almost glory in the descriptive killing scenes!!
We all know that of many countries Russia has suffered a lot. Its people have starved, they have been used and abused but in this book I found it very hard to sympathise with the characters and that is wrong. Despite an intelligent and atmospheric book without that empathy with the characters the story fails.
'The Secret Speech' by Tom Rob Smith appears as an extract at the end of this book. It features Leo, Raisa and two young girls orphaned by the state when their parents were accused of helping an enemy of the state, he and his wife are now their guardians and yet they blame him for their parents death!!
Maybe someone might review this at a later date??
Review by Maggie

footnote from show host: In an interview with the author he was asked about this book and this was his comment (taken from Amazon.co.uk):
'It was inspired by a true story, a killer called Andrei Chikatilo who murdered over sixty children, girls, boys, over a period of ten years. Reading about the case I realized this wasn’t a criminal mastermind who’d evaded capture through devious skill. He’d gone on killing for so long because the system refused to admit he even existed. He should’ve been caught on numerous occasions but the prejudices of the State got in the way and, as a result, tragically, many children died. I felt such a tremendous sense of frustration reading about the events that I saw its potential as a piece of fiction. The real killer murdered in the 1980s. In Child 44 I moved the story back to the 1950s, when the stakes were much higher for someone who dared to risk opposing the State'.