Child 44

By: Tom Rob Smith

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Thriller and Suspense, 2009

Thriller Award Winner, Best First Novel, 2009

It is a society that is, officially, a paradise. Superior to the decadent West, Stalin's Soviet Union is a haven for its citizens, providing for all of their needs: education, health care, security. In exchange, all that is required is their hard work, and their loyalty and faith to the Soviet State.

Leo Demidov knows this better than most. A rising, prominent officer in the State Security force, Leo is a former war hero whose only ambition is to serve his country. To defend this workers' paradise - and to guarantee a secure life for his parents and for his wife, Raisa - Leo has spent his career guarding against threats to the State. Ideological crimes - crimes of thought, crimes of disloyalty, crimes against the revolution - are forcefully suppressed, without question.

And then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal - a murderer - is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, all but sentenced to death. The only way to salvage what remains of his life is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it's a crime against the state to suggest that a murderer - much less a serial killer - is in their midst.

To save his life and the lives of his family, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the security forces, with only Raisa remaining at his side, to find and stop a criminal that the State won't even admit exists.

©2008 Tom Rob Smith (P)2008 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Child 44 is a remarkable debut novel - inventive, edgy and relentlessly gripping from the first page to the last." (Scott Turow)

Exciting Crime Thriller in Oppressive Soviet Union

Very good crime thriller with superb narration. Agent Leo Demidov hunts for a serial killer in oppressive communist Soviet Union. I found this book engaging from the start. It's well worth your time to listen. FYI: Child 44 can be listened to on it's own, you don't need to purchase the others in the series to find out how this particular story ends.

Kept my interest.

GREAT narrator. Good story. I Am anxious to look into other books in the series.

Riveting!

The darkness of surviving amidst fascism, mixed with a murder mystery? Yes please! This book never lets up.

Engrossing thriller

I had the opportunity to listen to this book while doing a deep cleaning of my house and became so engrossed in the plot that I noticed myself slacking on my duties but I just couldn't stop. I have to admit the story did start slow after the initial opening but once you get into the story it really does take you to another time and place.

Interesting story.

A good narrator and a good book make a good combination. Overall I enjoyed it very much.

Good read

Would you consider the audio edition of Child 44 to be better than the print version?

I don't know.

What did you like best about this story?

The many twists and turns. I also enjoyed the bits of art history.

What does Dennis Boutsikaris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His accents are good and very understandable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Neither. It made me wonder. Some of the twists seemed a little unbelievable, when I stopped to think about it.

Any additional comments?

Still a good read.

Ok

It’s ok. Nothing special. If you haven’t read a book in this genre you will probably enjoy it.

Wonderful story!

I have the physical book but I had a very hard reading it due to the foreign words and phrases. The narrator of the story was fantastic. He definitely brought the book to life and it was a much easier read for me.

original & riveting

This is a thriller unlike most you've spent time with. Set in the morally corrupt Stalinist era, this is at once a political lesson, a love story, and a story of virtue among the ruins of a failed society. The characters are well developed and the narration is very effective even if the accents can sometimes be annoying. excellent use of your time and money!

It read like great science fiction

While this was basically a detective story set in Stalinist Russia, the Russian cultural details set forth in Child 44 are so alien to our American values, the whole story felt otherworldly. This is not a bad thing, just a writer painting a brilliant canvas. I remember in junior high school, my history teacher stating that millions of people died in the Stalinist purge. It wasn't until I read this book that I understood how those numbers could have easily come about. The tidy ending however probably doomed this book to only being one of the best mystery books of the past few years instead of contending for being one of the best mystery novels of all time.