One of my favorite books of last year was Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. It was Smith's debut novel and it introduced the world to Russian state security office Leo Demidov, who chases down one of the USSR's most heinous mass murderers in the early days of the Cold War.
Both Smith and Leo are back with The Secret Speech, the new novel featuring the now head of the secret homicide department in Moscow. It's the early days of Khruschev's reign and in the days following the death of the dictator Stalin, the new premier takes a rash step and releases a "secret speech" denouncing the dead tyrant and promising change. Unfortunately, it also denounces anyone who followed Stalin, including the military and secret police. And that means Leo.
From out of Leo's dark past comes a threat which uses this secret speech as a means to get revenge. In the days following Child 44, Leo and his wife Raisa have adopted the two young daughters, Zoya and Elena, of a couple whose unfortunate death Leo was a part of. Zoya, the older of the two children, holds Leo responsible and plots against him. She's the perfect vessel for revenge when that threat mentioned above comes home to roost.
The Secret Speech is an incredible follow-up to Smith's first novel and Leo, Raisa, and everyone else are compelling and well-etched characters, trying their best in one of their country's most trying times. Smith's depiction of 1950s Russia is harsh and uncompromising, and his story takes Leo across the country to one of the Gulags, a place that makes maximum security in the U.S. look like Disneyland. The story is an epic--aren't all Russian dramas?--and ends with an extended sequence during the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Thrilling, thoughful and sad, The Secret Speech is one of my favorite books of 2009. I can't wait to see what Smith comes up with next as he moves Leo, Raisa, and company through the Cold War and Russian history.
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