A review by jgraydee
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

5.0

Set in Russia in 1953, the story focuses on main character Leo Demidov who discovers and subsequently searches for a violent serial killer. Leo's investigation is aggravated by high ranking State officials who oppose him for their own self-preservation and by the State's insistence that crime cannot -- would not -- exist in its utopian midst. This is Stalin's Russia, and every decision is calculated. Every action is suspect. The book is well paced throughout, but it finds its own when Leo and his wife Raisa are exiled from Moscow. At this point, they agree they have nothing to lose, and they turn all their efforts toward finding and killing the serial killer.

Note: Child 44 is the first book of a trilogy by Tom Rob Smith; Child 44 is based on the crimes of a Ukrainian serial killer, known as the Rostov Ripper, who was convicted of and executed for 52 murders in the Soviet Union.