Child 44

By: Tom Rob Smith

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Audie Award, Thriller and Suspense, 2009

Thriller Award Winner, Best First Novel, 2009

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 their loyalty and faith to the Soviet State.

Leo Demidov knows this better than most. A rising, prominent officer in the State Security force, Leo is a former war hero whose only ambition is to serve his country. To defend this workers' paradise - and to guarantee a secure life for his parents and for his wife, Raisa - Leo has spent his career guarding against threats to the State. Ideological crimes - crimes of thought, crimes of disloyalty, crimes against the revolution - are forcefully suppressed, without question.

And then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal - a murderer - is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, all but sentenced to death. The only way to salvage what remains of his life is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it's a crime against the state to suggest that a murderer - much less a serial killer - is in their midst.

To save his life and the lives of his family, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the security forces, with only Raisa remaining at his side, to find and stop a criminal that the State won't even admit exists.

©2008 Tom Rob Smith (P)2008 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Child 44 is a remarkable debut novel - inventive, edgy and relentlessly gripping from the first page to the last." (Scott Turow)

Drained my iPod battery

Having broken the 100 mark in my Audible Library, I have to rank this listen in my Top Five. This is a thoroughly engrossing and well written book. Sometimes I complain that authors fail to include any characters that might be deemed likable. Smith did something that is pretty much 180 degrees from that. He gave all of his characters at least a sprinkling of likability. I was late in unraveling this mystery, although Smith provided early clues. If the book had one weakness it was probably the central pretense that cemented the story line. Still I think the listener will let out an Edith Bunker-like expression of understanding when he or she realizes what has been transpiring. I surely did. Download this book. You will not be disappointed.

Slow start, interesting story but weak ending

The story has a slow start and is quite obviously a set up of a character rather than focused on the detective story, which is actually a very interesting account of how a serial killer was almost lost because of the paranoid culture of Stalinist Russia. In fact, this is the first of a trilogy, and I wished I had known that before starting, but it seems obvious now that I see how (IMO) the characters are more important than the plot. It also explains the weak ending, which just kind of fizzles out. Where the book does shine, though, is in the explanation and illustration of the carefully planned and cultivated paranoia of the era.

Loved it!

I loved this book. Very riveting with engaging characters. And I will not give any spoilers, but I TOTALLY DID NOT EXPECT the ending. I am half-Russian though so I will be partial to the setting of the former USSR. I cannot imagine people having to live like that.

Superb - A rare gem of an audiobook.

Great pacing, excellent characters, involved though not too complex of a plot with a few nice twists. Narration was excellent – I have no idea of the accuracy of the Russian pronunciation however it sounded very authentic. I do not know how historically accurate a view of Stalinist Soviet Union it is – however I know enough that it is certainly believable. Kept me guessing right up to the last minutes.

Be warned it is an adult book with some very disturbing imagery – especially if you are a parent. There is also coarse, though relevant language throughout. Also remember it is a thriller so there may be some occasions where you need to let relax your believability criteria!

As an extensive audiobook listener this is one of the best I have heard.

Big Brother is watching you.

This book was as scary as it gets. I would consider this a more intense version of "1984"

Great story...

Life in the USSR under Stalin is the backdrop for this mystery. I really enjoyed the history lesson, story, characters, and narrator. I highly recommend this book and will leave all the accolades to the literary critics. All the positives are right on!!!

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excellent , narration very good. Characters, well defined. I recommend this book.5.Story line good

Excellent story

The story at was a little confusing, with lots of characters but it all comes together. It was very descriptive and realistic for the the period in which it was written. The reader was excellent and I will definitely lister from this author

Decent but flawed

Child 44 is a decent thriller that gets bogged down by heavy handed cold war rhetoric and anti-communistic propaganda. The core of the plot is compelling, if not predictable, but the author lays down the anti-soviet dressing very, very thickly and never stops throughout the book.

At first I didn't mind at all because this is a work of fiction, not a historical text (though from reading some of the reviews many people were not aware of this), and his vision of Soviet Russia adds to the drama and creates more tension within the story. He can hardly be blamed for doing this because it's not like the USSR wasn't a pretty terrible place in many ways during parts of its rein, Stalin's hands are certainly bloody ones. Also because the big, bad, scary CCCP, as it existed within the imagination of the Western world, is an absolutely classic bad guy character that has always been a big hit in western media. Some of the stuff he came up with though..... I have no idea what kind of research he did. Off to the Gulag with EVERYBODY!!!!

However, the author seems much more interested in forwarding an extremely exaggerated cold war narrative than he is developing his characters and forwarding the plot. He certainly devoted many more words to the former. Even if you do believe Soviet Russia was an evil hell worse than Nazi Germany it gets very old listening to the author pound the point home page after page after page while you're just waiting for the plot to move forward.

An exceptional story, well told!

This was a masterfully told story that I couldn't stop listening to, and although I wanted to know how it was going to end, I just didn't want it to. What a great ride! This one is the one to get!