Child 44

Child 44 is the debut novel of Tom Rob Smith set in early1950s Soviet Russia where "crime" was not recognised because in this "perfect society" it couldn't exist, so to suggest that there was a child serial killer at large was itself a crime. Officer Leo Demidov has hunted down "criminals" whose "crimes" were non-existent in any free society e.g. being late for work, reading a "western" book, dissident thoughts or actions. When Leo begins to understand that the child murders are connected and not random acts of local "lunatics", he himself is hunted down for daring to believe that these crimes could happen. So it is a race against time as he hunts the killer and he himself is hunted. This was a thrilling story which at the same time revealed a society driven by paranoia, where "innocent" people were summarily executed or sent to spend years in the gulags. This era has been thoroughly researched by the author, who provides a list of books for further reading. It draws heavily on the case of Andrei Chikatilo. A follow up The Secret Speech was published April 2009. 5/5