Child 44

Written by Tom Rob Smith

Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris

Now a major movie, directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and Gary Oldman.

 

For fans of Robert Harris, John Le Carre and Martin Cruz Smith comes a gripping thriller set in Moscow, 1953. Under Stalin's terrifying regime families live in fear. When the all-powerful State claims there is no such thing as crime, who dares disagree? 

 

An ambitious secret police officer, Leo Demidov has spent his career arresting anyone who steps out of line. Suddenly his world is turned upside down when he uncovers evidence of a killer at large. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must risk both their lives to save the lives of others.

 

Inspired by a real-life investigation, Child 44 is a relentless story of love, hope and bravery in a totalitarian world. It is a thriller unlike any you have ever read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio UK
• Release date: Nov 20, 2008
• ISBN: 9780743596503

Tom Rob Smith

Tom Rob Smith is the author of the acclaimed Child 44 trilogy. Child 44 itself was a global publishing sensation, selling over two million copies. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and won the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His most recent novel, The Farm, was a #1 international bestseller. Tom also writes for television and won a Writer’s Guild Award for best adapted series and an Emmy and Golden Globe for best limited series with American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. He is also the creator and executive producer of FX’s suspense thriller series Class of ’09.

Reviews for Child 44

[maz74_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I would never have imagined that a thriller set in 1950's Russia would turn out to be one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Inspired by the true story of the murders of over 60 children, this is a deeply moving and emotional novel. Breathtaking.

[sundowneruk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although it ends rather well it just took too long to get started. I wouldn't have finished it if others hadn't have said how much they enjoyed it and it would all be worth it in the end.

[ksimon-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Russia under Stalin: dreary, dismal, oppressive. Paranoia rules the day as citizens inform on each other, each of them guilty until proven innocent -- except that any proof of innocence is ignored, since that would imply that the state erred in its original presumption of guilt. A healthy dose of Catch-22 thinking rules this murder mystery, as Leo, our main character and an officer of the MGB (forerunner of the KGB), confronts evidence that a serial killer is on the loose. But according to the government, such a thing is not possible, as it would imply that such a perfect system as Communism has created something as imperfect as a murderer run amok. Will Leo risk his career, his life, and the life of his family, to pursue the killer?
Child 44 got off to a very slow start. For over 150 pages, I read on, feeling blanketed by the dark and dismal portrayal of life in the Soviet Union. For those first pages, I admired the writing but felt a little suffocated by the suffering being portrayed without any sense of just where things were going. Finally, though, the plot began to take a more substantial form, and the book became a real page-turner. There is plenty of character development and a real sense of peril, and some twists and turns that, even if they don't come as a complete shock, still make for an affecting read.
I recommend Child 44, but you do have to be prepared for some pretty depressing extended setup. With patience, you will find that it pays off.

[midnitereader-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An intriguing story of a man caught between what he knows is right and what he is expected to do.

[blnq-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good thriller should have believable characters, a tense and engaging narrative and a sensible plot. Child 44 has the checked the box for the first two but missed the third. The ending (which I will not spoil) seemed both rushed and implausible. The first 90% of the book was engaging and even riveting. The main character was actually a country, namely the Soviet Union around the time of the death of Stalin. Tom Rob Smith does a terrific and really interesting job of detailing life in a totalitarian state. Lives are monitored, directed and very often destroyed by forces remote and unreachable by the average citizen. Paranoia is a virus that affects every single citizen including the man at the top, Joseph Stalin. The key to survival? Don't stand out. Don't be remarkable in any way as that makes you a potential target for informers and accusers of all stripes.

In this environment we have a state-security officer who stumbles upon a series of child murders after being demoted and disgraced and then is compelled to solve them in a country where the solution to these monstrous crimes would only be viewed as a horrendous embarrassment because, after all, this is a workers paradise and has no crime, therefore, how can such an awful series of murders even happen in such a place ? The central character must try to solve these serial child murders not only without the help of any authorities but risking discovery by those authorities and a trip to Siberia or worse. It's an intriguing premise and the author does a good job for the most part. I really enjoyed this book and especially its central characters. I read it straight through and could not wait to find out what was going to happen next. Others may disagree but, in my opinion, the ending was rushed, implausible and a great disappointment to me. In fairness to the author, it might have just been my sadness at having to say goodbye to his wonderful cast of characters. On balance, it was a great read, or in my case a great listen, as I "read" the audiobook by way of a very good narrator.

P.S. The book is loosely based on a real-life person. You can read about him on Wikipedia. Just google: “Russian serial killers” and you should be able to pick him out fairly quickly. I don't think reading the Wikipedia entry, which I did while reading the book, will spoil anything, it didn't for me. Be forewarned that the real-life story is gruesome, even by serial killer standards and you may find it hard to read. Indeed, the subject matter of Child 44 is not for the squeamish though I think the author thankfully ... mostly ... uses restraint when describing the gory details.

[azbob1951 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first few chapters were so very brutal (along the lines of 'The Kite Runner) that I set the book aside for several weeks and then re-started on February 24th. Don't do that.

Good book about post-war USSR (Russia, et al). Which seems to be the direction the United States is currently heading...

[jamestomasino · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well that was dark as shit.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've had this book for a while and I picked it up in an effort to finally read a few of the books I've had for years, and wow, this book is so much more than I was expecting. Part murder-mystery, part-thriller, part-historical fiction, this book makes for fascinating reading. Set in the 1950s Soviet Union, this world is both familiar and strange. Secret government agents abound, myths about crime allow a murderer to operate freely, and the central characters of Leo Demidov and his wife Raisa struggle to find the truth in a world full of lies and propaganda. This book is the first in a trilogy and while I only intended to this volume, I found it compelling enough that I think I'll be reading the sequels before long.

[cjordan916 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

long paragraphs, distracting. too cumbersome

[tmph_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just so you know, the novel has very little to do with the murders. It is about the Soviet Security State apparatus, the fear, repression, and punishment. All for the "good" of the State. It is powerful, hard. Mixed in is the death of Stalin, some changes, and a husband and wife with a very elaborate story having to do with all of this and their own pasts. Highly recommended.

Saw the movie on opening day and was sadly disappointed. The book deserved much more. It actually deserved a teevee series to tell the whole story. Ah, well.

[ikeman100 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an amazing and painful book. I can get quite depressing but the story draws you in. I have to take a break between books. Reading about Soviet life during the Stalin years is painful.

[mrs.soule · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well-written, but a very dark read. For some reason, I thought this was sci-fi when I started reading it and I wasn't ready for the stark realism of communist Russia. I kept waiting for the aliens to show up, so I clearly need to wait a few years and try again when I'm in the right mindset because the story-telling and scene-setting really are excellent.

[edwinkort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Stalins arbeidersparadijs is een seriemoordenaar actief die kinderen vermoordt. Maar in de Sovjet-Unie zijn zulke misdaden onmogelijk. Er bestaan alleen politieke misdaden. Voor de dood van de kinderen is er altijd wel een logische oplossing. Een ongeluk, buitenlandse agenten, ...

Leo Demidov is een voormalige oorlogsheld, die werkt voor de MGB (de voorganger van de KGB) en heeft altijd zonder vragen zijn werk gedaan.

Het lichaam van een kleine jongen werd ontdekt langs de spoorlijn in de stad Moskou, hevig verminkt. Leo Demidov, een MGB officier krijgt de opdracht van zijn superieuren om aan de rouwende familie te vertellen dat de dood van hun jongen een ongeluk was. De ouders van de jongen zijn echter niet overtuigd.

Al snel daarna wordt de loyaliteit Leo aan de MGB getest. En als gevolg daarvan, werd hij gedegradeerd en overgeplaatst naar Voualsk, een industriële dorpje, waar een ander lichaam van een kind werd gevonden. Zonder een grondig onderzoek, arresteerde het hoofd van Voualsk's Militie een zwakzinnige jonge man voor de moord (een gemakkelijk doelwit), en houdt het op een eenmalige incident.

Leo begint anders te denken. Er waren te veel overeenkomsten tussen de 2 doden voor een eenmalig incident; de manier waarop het lichaam werd ontdekt was hetzelfde, inclusief de verwondingen. Met de hulp van zijn vrouw en enkele leden van de lokale bevolking in naburige dorpen, voert Leo zijn eigen onderzoek uit. En wat hij ontdekt is gruwelijker dan gedacht! Een totaal van 44 sterfgevallen - alle kinderen, gedumpt langs de spoorbaan, gestript, en neergelegd ... allemaal op dezelfde manier.

In totaal 44 kindermoorden, door de overheid in de doofpot gestopt.

[indygo88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the mid-20th century, Russia was full of brutalism and paranoia in the era of Stalin. The MGB, or Soviet State Security, was an entity to be feared, and all it took was the hint of possible wrongdoing or heresy in order to be imprisoned or killed. Leo Demidov is an MGB officer who has killed numerous times and thought nothing of it. However, after falling from grace and being demoted, he discovers a series of child deaths, likely the work of a serial killer, and suddenly he has a change of heart. When he attempts to track down the details of the deaths in order to find the killer, he is ruthlessly cut off by the government and finds that he must proceed under the radar, as the MGB denies that the murders and claims them all as accidental deaths. I really wanted to like this more than I ultimately did, but I just found the details of Soviet Russia so brutal and disturbing. While the main character of Leo developed some redeeming qualities throughout the story, I am still not quite sold on him as a hero. The verdict is still out, in other words. However, as this is the first of three in the Leo Demidov series, and I have all three on audio, I'll continue along to see how things develop. Maybe I'll come to like him after all.

[amaliagavea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

’Brother, if you were a playing card what card would you be? Would you be an ace or a king, a spade or a heart?’’ What a month this has been so far… Gearing up the scheduled readings for the coming Holy Week and the much-needed Easter holidays, I’ve spent March with a number of strange, memorable books that proved to be a rather demanding company. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that Child 44 was the finest, darkest, most emotionally draining reading experience. This isn’t merely a thriller or an excellent Historical Fiction novel. It is a deep dive to the rawest of emotions of the human soul. The fight to preserve and survive as opposed to the inclination of some to destroy all that is good and pure. Before I continue, I must say that I will not engage in any discussion regarding political commentary or historical accuracy. I’m sure we’re all educated, open-minded readers that have studied our fair share of Fiction and Non-Fiction on the nightmare that was the Soviet Era. Each one of us has an opinion but we’re here to talk about books not international relations. Any relevant comments will be promptly deleted and dealt with.And as a novel, Child 44 is brilliant, in my opinion. Leo is a high ranking officer of MGB but a personal quarrel with Vassili, another member of the State, leads him to forfeit the life he knew. His sole purpose becomes the discovery of the man who commits crimes beyond all reason. The murders and mutilations of children in the wintry forests across the country. Leo’s only ally is Raisa, his wife, while both are keeping secrets from each other. So, everything comes down to a race against time and people whose false ideals demand absolute silence and blind obedience.‘’Doing nothing is no guarantee we won’t be arrested anyway- I’ve learnt that lesson.’’ The world of Child 44 is a living nightmare and, obviously, one has only to read the basics of Stalin’s reign of terror to feel that the descriptions are not only tangible. They are the Boschian History of a quite recent past. Tom Rob Smith writes without cheap sensationalism but with raw, razor-sharp language that is beautiful in its darkness. This is a time and place where anything can cause an arrest and anyone can be accused of treason. People are persecuted because their clients are Westerners. Others are persecuted on the basis of unheard prayers despite their age or sex. You pray therefore you want Stalin dead, off with you! You are guilty unless proven innocence. But if you’re proven innocent, someone hasn’t done their job right. You can’t be innocent but you can be an abomination that the State has to throw up in a society where there is no crime…‘’Is that how you’re able to sleep at night, by blanking events from your mind?’’ Leo and Raisa are masterfully crafted characters. They are flawed but sympathetic. They are controversial and ambiguous, a couple equally strong, determined, secretive and honest. As honest as they can be given the era and the circumstances. Smith succeeded in creating protagonists that are the driving forces of the story. They are realistic, brave and intelligent without seeming fake. Even Vassili and the culprit are believable. They aren’t caricatures and they retain the reader’s interest. This is what makes the difference between a proper villain and a cardboard figure. I cannot say anything about the storyline, obviously, but I can tell you that the development of the mystery, the twists and implications as well as the conclusion compose a novel that is a work of Art in its genre. The references to the hardships that people had to face on a daily basis, the fate of the accused, the small details about the fight of the Russian people against the Nazis make the narration even more vivid and enrich the historical background. I particularly appreciated the reference to the Night Witches, the legendary female pilots who became the terror of the Nazi monsters during the Second World War. If you don’t know their story, make sure to check it out.I didn’t know that this was the first book in a series and although I loved it to the point of losing my stop twice during my commute to work and back, I don’t think I’ll read the second installment soon. I need Child 44 to sink in and I doubt its follow-up will stand up to its predecessor.‘’They listened to her cries. But there was nothing unusual about this kind of grief and people did not watch for long.’’

[kerns222 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Proof that something complex can be simplistic. Leo moves from unthinking agent of the secret police dispensing terror to being a feeling, warmish human (with a little help from his wife and a serial child killer). So long Leo--I am done with you.

[dougcornelius_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Who can you trust when you can't trust anyone? A Soviet detective is driven to solve a grisly murder in a society that doesn't want the truth.The story takes some weird twists and turns. I enjoyed the main protagonist for most of the story. In the audiobook version, I was baffled why the narrator chose to use a Russian accent when speaking the dialogue. It did nothing to help portray the characters, they are all Russian.

[ibkennedy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stalinist Russia of the 1950s is the setting for the crime thriller, Child 44. Security Ministry Officer Leo Demidov is a good man whose patriotism has led him to commit heinous acts against his fellow citizens “for the greater good” or so he tells himself. Lies, spying on friends and family, manufacturing evidence, even torture and murder are all acceptable as long as they help ensure the survival and security of Stalin’s “workers’ paradise”. When he begins to suspect there is a serial killer on the loose, killing children across Russia, he's ordered to stop investigating. Leo is an idealistic war hero with a deeply held belief in the superiority of his country and the communist way of life. Before long he realizes he's just a cog in the flawed totalitarian regime.

When he refuses to denounce his wife, Raisa, as a traitor, he is demoted and humiliated. Even his parents are punished for his crime. He and Raisa are sent away from Moscow to the wastelands of the newly industrialized city of Voualsk. Here Leo and Raisa must work outside the law to find a killer in a political culture that doesn’t even admit they exist, and already wants him dead.

The who-did-it ending disappointed me and made me feel a bit manipulated. But that is my only complaint for this incredibly stark and chilling story. In the end, Stalinist Russia was the real criminal as far as I'm concerned. The author's writing is austere and elegant. Ridley Scott has already bought the film rights, and is working on adapting this book into a movie. I'm on hold at the library for the next book in the trilogy and can't wait to find out what happens next.

[sianpr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A gripping and well-paced thriller - albeit gruesome, in which Tom Rob Smith captures the zeitgeist of life in the USSR under Stalin. Officer Leo Demidov has his dreams shattered one after the other in the search for a serial killer.

[creighley_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stalin's Soviet Union is a paradise where everyone lives free from crime and fears one thing: the State. Leo Demidov is a war hero who believes in the iron hand of the law. When a murderer starts to kill and Leo begins to investigate, he is demoted. Now, with only his wife, Leo sets out to find the serial killer in a society where things like this don't exist.

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leo Demidov was an investigator for the MGB, State Security during the waning years of the Stalin era. Positions with the organization are tenuous since action or inaction which brings embarrassment to the Communist Party can result in your dismissal, transfer to a forced labor camp, or execution.When a political prisoner escapes under Leo's watch, he is placed in an untenable position--save his position by falsely accusing Raisa, his beautiful wife of treason. When he refuses, Leo is stripped of his position and all of its privileges and the couple are sent to a small village west of the Ural Mts and Leo reassigned to an entry position with the local militia. When Leo discovers the nude body of a young woman killed in a similar manner as a young boy in Moscow, which he originally refused to label as a murder, he believes an investigation is warranted. However, this could be difficult since any investigation would cast aspersions on the State that failed to allow a murder in an alleged Utopian society. Raisa joins Leo investigating the serial murders in Moscow and surrounding villages, an investigation which will take Leo into a past that he ran away from.This historical thriller is the first novel I have read by Tom Rob Smith and it won't be my last. The author created a realistic depiction of life under an oppressive communistic regime. I was enthralled accompanying Leo in his investigation as he used his knowledge of state security procedures to avoid detection. Fans of Martin Cruz Smith's novels would enjoy the Child 44 trilogy.

[apopova-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant page-turner! Had no idea it was going to be so thrilling, a great story, on to the next book in the series....

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the words of Emily Dickinson, Child 44 is a brilliantly plotted novel that had me feeling "zero at the bone" many times. From its staggering depiction of Stalinist Russia to the blood-chilling meaning behind its title, Tom Rob Smith's book grabbed me by the throat and refused to turn me loose. The devastating things Stalin's government did to the minds and bodies of its people almost beggars belief, and I have to admit that I did read this book in small sips until about the two-thirds mark simply because I wasn't quite in the mood for such a depressing book. The sips may have been small, but they were very frequent because Smith knows how to tell a tale, and once Demidov's investigation hits its stride, there was no way I could put Child 44 down.However, this isn't merely a nose-to-the-window depiction of an era and an absorbing murder mystery. Smith's characterization is superb. Through the course of the book, Leo Demidov loses his innocence and grows up. His wife Raisa later shows depths undreamt of when readers first met her. The differences between city folk and country folk give readers hope for humanity, and there's a little girl named Nadya, who was probably my favorite character in the entire novel.Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 made me say "Wow!" more than once while reading it, and I'm certainly looking forward to continuing Leo's story in the rest of the trilogy.

[imyknott · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad book but I did find it difficult to follow at first and one of my pet hates is having to read long and unpronounceable names. However the story was enjoyable and continued at a reasonable pace. The twin identity of Leo was a good twist and the story concluded well.

[soniaandree_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This thriller is sure to make you paranoid about Russian authorities of the time and their ideas: in an ideal country, there is no murder - it is a capitalist invention which has no place in Russia in the fourties. Still, inspired by the true murders committed by the Rostov Ripper (Andreï Chikatilo), the narrative follows the life of the (fictionnal) investigator, Leo Demidov, as he desperately tries to convince himself then his hierarchy, of the reality of the killings, so that the true killer can be apprehended. Fighting against the odds and social demotion, Leo is a war hero who followed the regime's ideology until he realised that things were not as they seemed. He is helped by his wife Raisa and they make for an unlikely investigating pair, as both also learn from each other in a difficult environment.The narrative can seem slow at times, but it helps build up the narrative in a bid to give readers a sense of historical realism. It also builds up tension in the plot, so that it all go faster towards resolution. We also learn to like Leo in spite of his faults and patriotism. Good book, I'll be sure to read the other two novels in the series, which follow the adventures of Leo Demidov and his wife, Raisa.

[fothpaul · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was by no means a terrible book, in fact for most of the way through it was quite a good book. The last 100 or so pages completely lost it for me though. It went from being an interesting thriller with an interesting setting to being a bit abrupt and convenient. It felt a little like a book by numbers with 3 distinct parts, with the last part being by far the weakest. The tying together of all the strands into an ending that was a little twee (despite the violence) just felt a little disjointed for my tastes.Another issue I had with the book was the strange dialogue style, which felt to me as though the characters speech was emotionless, I'm sure there was a purpose behind this but it just read strangely to me.Given all the praise lavished on the inside over of the book I was expecting a bit more, as usual maybe it's just me. It wasn't terrible, just not great.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Leo Demidov, a decorated war hero, is unswervingly loyal to the State. The body of a young boy is found on train tracks in Moscow, and his family are convinced the child was murdered. Leo's superiors order him to ignore this information and, while he obeys, he senses there is more to the case. Action moves quickly: combining elements of jealousy, suspicious paranoia and human survival where reality is defined and enforced by the State. In this atmosphere, Leo is disgraced and exiled to a distant town where more murdered children are discovered.

I wasn't crazy about the ending. Things were wrapped up, but not very neatly; questions were left unanswered (the reason behind the method of the murders, for one), and some of the reasoning and solutions seemed convenient rather than plausible. It's one of those situations where you have to throw darts to see if it gets 2 or 3 stars. 2.5 maybe.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Real thriller with lots of surprise climaxes, but more importantly a convincing picture of a complete world: late Stalinist Russia, where everyone is out to eat the next man. Only the hero is, somewhat unrealistically, both part of the system and uncorrupted by it. Also at the end some humble people at the bottom of the heap have to have hearts of gold to give our hero a chance to win out. So there's a bit of paradox: the system corrupts everyone but some remain uncorrupted. For all that a thriller of high order with a fully fleshed out context relevant to more than just USSR.

[far2manybooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The way it was to live in a closed society. People in Stalinist Russia could not trust anyone, including family and friends. Anyone could denounce you for no reason, just to better their own lot in life or to prevent themselves from being sent off to the gulag or executed.

Filled with plot twists, keep reading, all will come together in the end.

It was awarded the 2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the year by the Crime Writer's Association.