Child 44: Fascinating insight into 1950's Russia

If you have never read anything about this period of the former Soviet Union history, I definitely recommend this book! It is simply frightening to discover how a state has created its own logic: if you are a suspect, you are guilty because the state does not make mistakes and does not suspect those who are not guilty.

The story: It is set in the Soviet Union and in the year 1953; Stalin's reign of terror is at its height, and those who stand up against the might of the state vanish into the labour camps – or vanish altogether.  Tom Rob Smith puts his hero right at the heart of this hideous regime, as an officer in no less than the brutal Ministry State Security.

Leo Demidov is, basically, an instrument of the state - by no means a villain, but one who tries to look not too closely into the repressive work he does. His superiors remind him that there is no crime in Soviet Union, and he is somehow able to maintain its fiction in his mind even as he tracks down and punishes the miscreants. The body of a young boy is found on railway tracks in Moscow, and Demidov is quickly informed that there is nothing to the case. He quickly realises that something unpleasant is being covered over here, but is forced to obey his orders. However, things begin to quickly unravel, and this ex-hero of state suddenly finds himself in disgrace, exiled with his wife Raisa to a town in the Ural Mountains. And things will get worse for him - not only the murder of another child, but even the life and safety of his wife.

The fiction is inspired by a true story: a killer called Andrei Chikatilo murdered over sixty children, girls, boys, over a period of ten years. Reading about the case, Tom Rob Smith realized this wasn’t a criminal mastermind who had evaded capture through devious skill. He had gone on killing for so long because the system refused to admit he even existed. He should have been caught on numerous occasions but the prejudices of the State got in the way and, as a result, tragically, many children died.