"The Secret Speech" is a mostly riveting sequel to "Child 44", about Leo Demidov, a former Soviet secret policeman trying to make amends for his past activities - namely, arresting a lot of innocent people for the "greater good" of the revolution before seeing the light.

The title refers to a speech made by Russian president Nikita Khrushchev three years after the death of Russia's psychotic dictator, Josef Stalin. The speech startled many Russians by denouncing Stalin's excesses, and eventually led to amnesty for many political prisoners and the general loosening of repression. Author Tom Rob Smith uses the speech as a device in the novel to illustrate Leo's continuing evolution from a KGB diehard to a decent cop and loving husband.

In this go-around, a woman who was wrongly arrested by Leo seven years before returns to kidnap Leo's adopted daughter in revenge. She proposes a deal: if Leo goes to Siberia to rescue her husband from a prison camp, she'll let his daughter live. This, of course, gives Leo a chance to directly experience life in the same Gulag to which he once sent a number of wrongly accused Russians. Among the hair-raising sequences that result are the near-sinking of a prison ship, and a revolt by the prisoners at Kolyma, a notorious Gulag in Eastern Siberia.

Smith goes a bit too far this time, in my opinion, with a climax in Budapest, during the 1956 Hungarian uprising that is allowed to go on a little too long. Smith also includes some plot devices that seem a bit too convenient, as he did in "Child 44".

Overall, this is another solid effort from a richly talented author. As before, Smith does a superb job of painting a disturbingly compelling portrait of the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. This one, while not quite as strong as his previous novel, is still well worth a look.