Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jan 05, 2009

Zinta rated it:

If it weren't for the Soviet Union and the blood lust of the Russian communists, I would not exist. My parents were World War II refugees, on the run for their lives from Soviet-occupied Latvia. They arrived in the United States at about the same time, immigrants with nothing but what they wore on their backs, with the most skeletal English language skills. Had they not spotted each other across the room of immigrants and felt drawn one to the other, well, that would have been an entirely differ More...

6 comments like (44 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2008

Michael rated it:

Child 44 is a novel that's hard to figure out where to place on the bookshelf. It's a political thriller, a murder mystery and a horror story all in one. Combining those elements alone would have been enough, but first-time novelist Tom Rob Smith takes is further, setting his story around the time of the death of Stalin in the former Soviet Union. Smith recreates the atmosphere of paranoia, doubt and suspicion of the time and place with ease, adding an extra layer of tension to his story.
More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2008

Maggie rated it:

How do you stop a serial killer operating in a State where one of the fundamental pillars is that crime does not exist? Set in Stalin's Soviet Union, Child 44 - part political thriller, part murder mystery, and part horror story - is the gripping exploration of that very question.

Leo Demidov is a high-ranking MGB officer who has dedicated his adult life to rooting out enemies of the State, and in the process is responsible for sending innumerable innocent citizens to the Gulags or ma More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2008

Shea rated it:

Absolutely amazing for both a debut novel and a mystery/thriller type novel. I find that novels written in this genre (especially the big hitters like James Patterson, Vince Flynn, and sometimes John Grisham...none of which I read on a regular basis) are thrown together haphazardly without any real attention to detail or the basic necessities for putting together a really good story. When I initially started reading Child 44, I did not expect to find what I did. Since this was an Advanced Reader More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Mike added it

I think I made it to child 4 or 5.

No, not really. As they used to say in Soviet Russia, I keed, I keed.

I was mostly just unhooked here, not gripped by context, protagonist, or plot. It was all fine enough, but.... meh. It did irritate me a little that the conceit (the hero is an investigator in '50s-era Russia who is faced with a serial killer, even though party doctrine has it that Russia does not have crime let alone serial killers) was intriguing but so quickly, con More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Sharon rated it:

Just found out my 13 year old son and a school friend have both just read this one ! Not on the school reading list I hasten to add but it appears to be the 'in book' to read. Bill said it was 'really good'.

Well now I'm going to have to read it to :
1. See if I agree and
2. Find out what my son has been reading !

Well I enjoyed this tale of political intrigue, murder & suspense. It was an easy read but with such depth and atmosphere that you could actually feel the fear and paranoia of More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Kelanth, in tenebris lux tua rated it:

Nell'unione sovietica di Stalin, il crimine non può esistere. Dunque non può esserci anche un distretto di polizia che se ne occupa; i delitti semplicemente non avvengono. Ora però dei bambini cominciano a morire. Contro le istituzioni in cui ha sempre creduto e difeso e che lo hanno trasformato come uomo, Leo decide lo stesso di investigare contro tutti, anche con chi gli sta vicino.

Una bellissima sorpresa questo libro di Tom Rob Smith, un grande esordio da cui sarà tratto un film More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 25, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Officially my last book of 2008! Finished on New Year's Eve. :) Quite an impressive first novel. Contains elements of a lot of different genres. A little historical, a mystery, a little horror, and some suspense/thriller.

Apparently there really was a serial killer in Russia in the 1980s that was similar to this fictional one. The author placed the story back in the 1950s instead, right around the time of Stalin's death. Early in the book I thought the author gave an excellent fe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2008

Will rated it:

Smith offers a look into the Soviet Union of 1953, a dark, desperate place in which the state had become a manifestation of Stalin’s paranoia. The ideological need of the state to present the communist ideal as an actualized reality impaired its ability, its willingness to address bad things when they happened, for surely, in this workers’ paradise, such things would never happen. Things like serial killers, things like crime of any sort. Thus all crime is ideological and all criminals are enemi More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

Brian rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 26, 2008

Emma rated it:

Child 44 is the tale of Leo Demidov, a top official working under Stalin's Russian Soviet regime in the 1950s. All is well in his career, until the day the body of a murdered child is found on the railway tracks- and Leo is asked to cover it up...

This is literally the best book I've read all year. Absolutely phenomenal. I couldn't put it down. I don't usually wax this lyrical about a book, but until this book I had never really read crime, and this got me into it big-time. You see, More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

Amy rated it:

It was decently written, and a compelling story, but I got the feeling I was reading a screenplay. It was as if the author couldn't be bothered to fully flesh-out a scene, so he's just say "and then they all started shooting and people got killed." Seemed sort of lazy.....

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Arthur rated it:

Meh. After all the hype, I was a little disappointed. Martin Cruz Smith does the Russian cop thing much better. The 'bad guys' in the book are impossibly lucky. Come to think of it the 'good guys' are, too.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

La Petite Américaine rated it:

Well, well, well. Now here's a thriller with a nice twist: a serial killer is on the loose in Stalinist Russia. Except that in Stalinist Russia there is no such thing as crime. Well, except for political crimes like reading banned litterature, looking at someone the wrong way, "plotting" against the state by working too close to a Western embassy, making a drunken joke about Stalin, etc. But murder? No, comrade. Not unless Siberia suddenly sounds good to you.

What you end up More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2008

Jen rated it:

In Child 44, Tom Rob Smith has created a dystopian novel akin to Orwell's 1984 or Atwood's Handmaid's tale, except that, unfortunately, The Stalinist Soviet Union is not a fictional vision (well, and Atwood writes better). Smith's novel is seductive and magnetic because its two central concerns, the Draconian and absurd nature of Stalin's policies and the protagonist's search for a macabre serial killer, intersect to form more reversals of fortune and fate than even Britney Spears could dream o More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Set at the end of Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union, Child 44 is one of the most compelling mysteries I've ever read. Other writers should take note: this is the way a good mystery should be written. You're given enough clues, and you even find out later who the killer is, BUT -- you are still riveted and on the edge of your chair because of the atmosphere of suspense that the author has created. I listened to it on an audio CD, but am buying a hard copy for my husband to read and probably More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2009

Bensmomma rated it:

This thriller/mystery set in Stalinist Russia starts out clearly in the "just what makes the serial killer tick" genre, but becomes deeper and more interesting as it goes along up until about the 85% point - the characters develop and become more complex (is Leo good? bad? what about Raisa? what about the General?).

But the crisis and denouement are WAY too tidy, and seem motivated less by what the author really believes might have happened and more by a massive desire t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Brigid rated it:

Ideally, I'd give the book 4.5 stars if Goodreads included that in their rating system. Child 44 was a little slow to begin, and I actually put down the book for about a week. My mistake. It was a very engaging read that laid bare the paranoia and fear associated with Stalinist Russia. If anything, this book gave me a one heck of a history lesson. What was most interesting was the author's ability to mix many genres: I didn't feel like this was only a mystery/suspense novel, but a very inter More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Aia rated it:

Quite predictable and the ending felt a little too Hollywood, but it was a suspenseful chilling read. Tom Rob Smith writes in a way that turns words to images, painting the claustrophobic atmosphere of 1950s Soviet Russia in the colors of paranoia, betrayal, deceit, contrasted with that of faith, trust and love. Built on a curious premise, developed at an irresistible pace and filled with twists that are not quite unexpected but shocking nonetheless, "Child 44" is an absorbing and rewa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

Laura rated it:

I liked it. As much as you can like a novel about a serial child killer in soviet Russia. The setting was bleak but it was engaging and interesting.... reminded me a wee tiny bit of Stieg Larsson's trilogy. Worth a read if you want to be really grateful for your current life/style as well as catch up on a bit of history.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2009

Colin rated it:

Meh. Promotional book I got from Borders. Thriller set in Stalinist (and immediately post-Stalinist) Soviet Union. Not bad, but not great, certainly.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2008

Marsha rated it:

This is a great thriller and an amazing debut novel. All sorts of well-researched historical detail in a rarely written about time -- Stalinist Russia. A serial murderer is ritually killing children but because the Soviet Union is supposed to be paradise on earth, it is treason to admit this is happening. The story has as its inspiration the real serial killer -- Andrei Chikitilo. Love the character development in this one. Leo, an MGB agent who has killed thousands for the state, takes on the c More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Mark rated it:

What a great book! I was totally hooked from page one with this murder esionage thriller set in the 1950's. It actually starts in 1933 to give you some background and then jumps to the 1950's where the actual story starts. It begins a month before Stalin's death when MGB officer Leo Demidov is asked to debunk an obvious child murder and tell the parents that it was an accident. The state doesn't want people to realise that a child murderer is on the loose. The father of the murdered chil More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Jenna added it

Wow. I didnt know starting out on this book that it was based on the Red Ripper. Smith changed the setting to Soviet Russia times where they believed that there was no crime because their system was perfect. He did great research on this book and so many things, even with the change of time, were right on. the way this guy really was. This book was grotesque and shocking. The twist was unexpected. The only thing is that they changed the way Andrei (the Red Ripper) was really found guilty and i d More...

0 comments like

Mar 04, 2011

Deb rated it:

Murder investigations can be hard enough, but imagine trying to investigate a murder in a society where that very action could put you in danger of your life. Such is life in communist Russia, and such is the predicament that Leo Demidov the investigator of thisl novel finds himself in. It takes a good while for this premise to become apparent, and I spent the first CD of this book wondering what all these grim details about life in the soviet union had to do with anything. But as the plotlin More...

0 comments like

Nov 14, 2010

Paolo A. rated it:

URSS, 1953: Leo Stepanovich Demidov, ex eroe di guerra e ora efficientissimo agente della polizia segreta, scopre per caso che in giro per il paese c'è un assassino di bambini. Il problema è che nel paradiso stalinista il crimine ufficialmente non esiste. Così, per il solo fatto di insistere con la sua investigazione, Demidov finisce perseguitato da quello stesso apparato statale che fino al giorno prima ha difeso senza scrupoli. Con le sue sole forze, inseguito da ex subordinati vendicativi e c More...

0 comments like

Feb 28, 2010

Matt rated it:

While I did enjoy this book, it didn't quite live up to the hype in some of the reviews I read. I love stories about life in the old Soviet era and this one didn't falter in that respect. An overall good debut novel, though.

Publisher's Summary

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 More...

0 comments like

Jan 23, 2009

Karen rated it:

Inspired by a real crime spree, this book is set in the Soviet Union during the end of the Stalin era. It is hard for those of us in a democracy to understand an environment where everyone is in danger--because of a casual remark, because someone didn't like the expression on their face, because someone else is tortured and has to falsely name "conspirators" in order to get the torture to stop. It is an environment where thousands of prisoners are transported to their deaths or to pr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Banafsheh rated it:

Once in a while a book comes along and digs its claws into you. Child 44 is such a book. A surprise pick for the Man Booker long list, Child 44 is the type of gripping tale that keeps the reader glued to its pages.

The story is set against the backdrop of Stalinist Russia where the presumption of guilt comes before innocence. In this police state created after the revolution, the Russians live in a state of paranoia, fearful of being denounced over the most innocent offhand remarks. More...

0 comments like

Jan 27, 2012

Marie is currently reading it

I've just started this book last night and the first few pages already has me.

About the Author

The serial killer in Child 44, Tom Rob Smith's first novel, was suggested by the true story of Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered over 50 women and children in Russia during the 1980s. By setting his fiction three decades before Chikatilo's crimes, the author has added powerful elements of political suspense to his page-turning tale. "I moved it to the 1950s," Smith explains More...

0 comments like