Fiction Pick of the Week: Child 44

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith 2008

When war hero Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a rising star in the MGB, the Russian State Security force, is assigned to look into the death of a child, he is annoyed, first because this takes him away from a more important case, but, more importantly, because the parents insist the child was murdered. Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, this debut novel from British author, Smith, offers a sadly convincing portrayal of Russia under Stalin, a paranoid society based on ruthless domination under the guise of perpetuating 'the collective good.' This amazing first novel by a British author has already garnered many “starred reviews". It is totally original, frightening and chilling and has moved onto my all-time memorable reads list!