Review: Child 44

I heard rumours about this debut novel last year after I attended the London Book Fair as it was subject to a bidding war resulting in the work being sold to 22 countries, as well as film rights being secured by Ridley Scott. Filming has commenced with Scott behind the camera and Clive Owen in front. So with all this hype ahead of publication, I was sceptical holding the review copy in my hands; especially as it was a debut of such a young and unknown writer who is a couple of years shy of his 30th birthday.

My opinion after reading Child 44?; a remarkably brilliant debut that had me clutching the book with both hands as if my life depended upon me completing the book in a single sitting. Why is this debut so bewitching? Firstly the backdrop – Stalin’s cruel regime that enslaved the Russian people in poverty and paranoia. This setting is a most interesting canvas to pitch the hunt of a child-murdering serial killer as the Russian-state refuses to believe that crime exists in the communist nirvana they project to the West. Then there’s the characters themselves. Leo Demidov a respected secret policeman and his wife Raisa who find themselves on the wrong-end of state politics when the case of a murdered child turns to obsession. They discover that the death on a railway-track was not an accident that the authorities concluded. Nor is the death an isolated case for a trail of child murder snakes along Russia’s railway system showing the work of a deranged mind or minds. Then we have the cruelty of the instruments of the state oppressing the people with the threat of the Gulag, contrasted against the compassion and strength of the human spirit.

Loosely based on the case of prolific Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, we find Leo and Raisa exiled from their privileged home in Moscow to the freezing hinterlands. Leo finds himself under scrutiny from his superiors due to professional jealously from a subordinate [the banally evil Vasili Ilyich Nikitin] when an operation to capture a soviet veterinary surgeon [and suspected spy] goes terribly wrong. The brutality of this book is shocking but is placed into context of the terrible extremes of the Stalinist era. There is in the darkness, a warmth and insight into the good within people struggling against the tyranny.

The novel feels very well researched, but the level of detail is not thrown in your face, but rather subtly painted into the plot, enriching the narrative and making the hunt for a serial killer take on a fresh dimension. Child 44 at times is harrowing; at times terrifying; and at times brings you to tears such is the power of the remarkable talent of young Mr Smith. I was however concerned whether the ambition of the first half of this tale would be sustained in the later half, and the answer is a resounding yes. The tension and terror of this novel is striated evenly throughout the narrative until the chilling and satisfying denouement. Consider this debut to be part Martin Cruz Smith, part Thomas Harris, part Robert Harris with a smattering of George Orwell. I really do not want to reveal any more for fear of spoiling one of this years greatest literary treats. Believe the hype and feel the terror as Child 44 delivers a stunningly original twist in a genre that I considered having very few surprises. Tom Rob Smith is a name that is blinking blood-red on my future reading radar, Bravo!

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.

Book Review: Child 44

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.