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India Press Store - Child 44
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List Price: $24.99
Our Price: $11.32
Your Save: $ 13.67 ( 55% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780446402385
ISBN: 0446402389
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: 2008-04-29
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Thriller as Literature
Comment: Yes, it should be compared with Martin Cruz Smith's novels of inspector Arkady Renko in a good way. Child 44, like Gorky Park, is more thriller as literature and blows away the typical bestseller thrillers (the ones you typically see in the airport gift shop) with their clumsy writing and carboard characters. It also occupies its own space apart from the Renko books in its backdrop and the big questions it poses its protagonist. I read this eagerly and well into the morning. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Debut Novel
Comment: It is 1950s Soviet Russia. Stalin rules with a heavy Communist fist. Suspicion is everywhere and fear of the State runs rampant. In a society created to nurture equality, it is the government workers, the very people policing society and keeping Stalin's government in check, that have become the most corrupt.
When children begin showing up brutally murdered, their deaths are heralded as accidents - the blame sometimes easily ascribed to existing malcontents and other degenerates of society, wrongfully influenced by Western ideals, culture, and propaganda. Seen as a stain on the integrity of Russia and its politics, these men, already in disfavor and being monitored are quickly taken under false arrest and accused of murder Convinced that the deaths are not connected, scattered across hundreds of miles with little to no inter-city communications, the pattern of disease goes unnoticed.
But Leo Stepanovich Demidov, trained in the art of espionage, subterfuge, exquisite torture, and schooled in the maxims of Lenin and Stalin - taught to memorized and believe their tenets of a moral, unquestioning society - becomes suspicious after a recent interrogation subject refuses to confess to a crime he did not commit. Called guilty with no intention to prove him innocent, he is imprisoned and executed. Convinced of the man's innocence an aware of the dangers his sudden doubt in the State mechanism poses both for him and his family, Leo's world is suddenly turned upside down. Now, it's up to Leo and his wife Raisa to investigate matters of the cover up after his suspicions become threatening to the very foundation of the country he works for. In an attempt to atone for a lifetime of misguided wrongs, Leo pursues the connection to the crime of the murdered children, even as doing so risks the lives of the ones he loves.
Child 44 is a frightening tale of innocents and survival exploited under Stalin's dictatorship. Smith has a keen historical eye and a developed understanding of the inner workings of Stalinist Russia. At times the text was so saturated with paranoia and back-stabbing, the unfairness of it all became depressingly ridiculous. I wanted to reach into the pages and shake everyone awake to the reality of what they were perpetuating. My frustration though is testament to the power of Smith's writing. At times difficult to differentiate the quick switches in perspective from one paragraph to the next with no other demarcations, the narrative was overall enjoyable and engaging.
The story itself unfolded rather well with surprising twists, turns, and revelations that picked up about halfway through the novel. The characters of Leo and Raisa developed beautifully and with a care of such I haven't seen in a long time. Theirs was a romance believable in the odd context of circumstances which brought them together. I found myself exhilarated at their honesty and by the end of the novel, devotion and determination to hel peach other and pursue the future together.
I really enjoyed this novel and recommend it not just to fans of the thriller or crime fiction genre, but to everyone. After all, this is my first venture into that universe and it was a memorable journey. My thanks to Simon & Schuster UK for the lovely Christmas present!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Thriller?
Comment: Read this book as science fiction or fantasy (and poorly edited as that). As far as describing Russian people's relationships and society, the book is sheer nonsense. Every page is riddled with implausible situations. Just several examples:
A vet opens an office close to embassies and treats diplomats' pets. [Neither medical nor veterinary doctors could have private offices. They always worked for the state and thus couldn't decide to open anything or treat whoever they wanted]
The state approved of war-time rapes by Russian soldiers. [Though no doubt the rapes happened, the state prosecuted the offenders who were caught]
A man says [and a militia man believes him] that he carries a knife because his wife insists on buying only cheap hard salami. [The hard salami was the most expensive kind, the most coveted. Salami was harder to find than any other type of sausage]
A collective farm chairman supports aiding and abetting a criminal by his entire kolkhoz membership. At the same time, the criminal is wondering if this kolkhoz has any Communist and regime sympathizers. [To be a kolkhoz chairman, one had to be a Communist party member. ]
But the following example will surely impress English teachers and any person who studied English in school: "Entering the farmhouse, the boy's body was gone." This is by Tom Rob Smith, a Cambridge University graduate no less.
Customer Rating:
Summary: He aspires to someday write like Philip Margolin
Comment: This is an example of a fascinating idea treated by a writer with little skill and less vision. The idea of a culture where crime doesn't exist because the state decrees it CAN'T exist is a great starting point, and Leo, the protagonist, is flawed enough to be vaguely interesting. But as a stylist Smith can't even tie Ludlum's shoes (let alone those of a competent writer) and as a serial killer novel it falls firmly in the bottom half of the genre.
I could go on about his Fiction Writing 101 errors for several pages, so let a few examples suffice. First, he blatantly steals an idiosyncrasy of Stephen King, taking a word or phrase out of context and italicizing it in a new paragraph before picking up the thread again. In King's hands this technique is a clever way to reveal the subconscious element of the narrative; when Smith employs it it seems wooden, artificial and self-conscious. Also, Smith's imagination is limited to the point of confusion--at one point he refers to a footpath by a river that "runs both ways". These points may seem picky, but they represent the dominant characteristics of his style--an accumulation of errors and poor writing that constantly distract from the plot.
And then there is the twist, mentioned by several reviewers, an unearned Dickensian moment that made me finally throw the book away in disgust. If you think Philip Margolin (with his one-black-Ferrari-for-every-ten-pages-of-a-book ratio) is the greatest writer of the last 100 years, then this book is for you. Otherwise, run.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 90% of a great thriller
Comment: The concept is simple, take the Andrei Chikatilo serial murders and move them back in time to an era of dogma and fear in the Soviet Union.
I have no idea how accurate Smith's portrayal of the time and place was. It was very claustrophobic and the book moves along very well. The societal paranoia and suspicion gives rise to a strong thriller.
I bought in as the hero starts a star MGB agent who believes in the state and all that it entails. The transformation from disciple to heretic is believable and exciting. The plot moves along quickly and is well written.
Smith loses two full stars from me for the M. Night Shyamalan twist at the end. The twist is preposterous and truly ruins a good piece of writing. A thriller often has twists and surprises but when it inspires a response of "That's really stupid" then it has gone wrong.
This book was longlisted for Booker which is surprising for a novel of its genre.
I highly recommend 90% of this novel but as noted the ending really ruined the book and left a bad taste in my mouth.
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Editorial Reviews:
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A propulsive, relentless page-turner.
A terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted.
A surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience.
CHILD 44 is a thriller unlike any you have ever read.
"There is no crime."
Stalin's Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its citizens live free from the fear of ordinary crime and criminals.
But in this society, millions do live in fear . . . of the State. Death is a whisper away. The mere suspicion of ideological disloyalty-owning a book from the decadent West, the wrong word at the wrong time-sends millions of innocents into the Gulags or to their executions. Defending the system from its citizens is the MGB, the State Security Force. And no MGB officer is more courageous, conscientious, or idealistic than Leo Demidov.
A war hero with a beautiful wife, Leo lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has arrested and interrogated.
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, his world turned upside down, and every belief he's ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family 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. Exiled from his home, with only his wife, Raisa, remaining at his side, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the MBG to find and stop a criminal that the State won't admit even exists.
Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge in 2001 and lives in London. Child 44 is his first novel.
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