Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Secret Speech, 18 May 2009
Tom Rob Smith reminds me of another lesser known aurthor,Stuart Macbride.
They both write about detectives. Stuarts hero lives in Aberdeen.
Tom Rob Smith brings out the struggle that all Russians had during this period in their history. His hero battles a system which is corrupt and full of secrecy. Leo Demidov fights his way through this system to raise his family and catch the bad and evil.
His writing is rich and full of discription, you really cant put the book down. If like me you read to the end of a chapter then your next working day is consumed with what you might read when you get home.
In order to really get to grips with Leo you MUST read his first book, Child 44. Its stunning and has a nasty twist at the end.
Enjoy this book, its great.
Craig, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. UK.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Child 44 but still no better than OK, 13 April 2009
Set 3 years after CHILD 44, Leo now heads a secret homicide department with his friend, Timur Nesterov. Although he and Raisa live in a smart apartment with Elena and Zoya, their adopted daughters, Zoya cannot forgive Leo for his part in the death of her parents and her hatred is poisoning the family.
When the new premier, Kruschev, orders the publication of a speech that he made criticising the actions of the government under Stalin, it triggers a series of murders - the victims all people who participated in Stalin's repression of the innocent. The deaths force Leo to confront his first arrest as an MGB agent, where he infiltrated and betrayed an Orthodox priest, Lazar. Soon Leo's past will put him and his family in danger as a figure from Leo's past seeks revenge, sending him on a daring mission to a Siberian gulag and then onto Hungary, where an uprising is brewing.
Whether you enjoy this book depends on whether you can ignore the way Smith plays fast and loose with historical facts and make some rather ludicrous plot jumps. The set pieces are slick if improbable and Smith keeps the action coming.
As with CHILD 44, the problem lies with Leo who never convinces as having once been a ruthless MGB officer given his naivety and the ease with which he is manipulated by others. His need for redemption is slightly more satisfying, particularly his desperation to receive some kind of forgiveness from Zoya. Raisa gets less time on the page and as a result, her relationship with Zoya, which is so pivotal to the plot, fails to fully engage. Zoya herself is something of a stock character and although her hatred and rage is well portrayed, the motivation for some of her actions is superficial - particularly her relationship with Malysh and the ease with which she leaves Elena. Thankfully Leo's nemesis, Fraera, is dynamic, cunning and ruthless, utterly devoted to their cause and the leader of a criminal (vory) gang - Fraera's presence lends the novel a much-needed spark.
Smith's ambitious in trying to weave political machinations into a historical context, but the complexity prevents it from being convincing and the ending, while leaving the way open for a continuation, feels a little half-hearted. This isn't a bad book, but it's not great either. The best that can be said is that it's an okay read.
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7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting thriller that stretches crebility but makes a serious point about state control., 4 Mar 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Atoning for past misdemeanours is the basic premise of The Secret Speech ,though there is undoubtedly more to it than that and misdemeanours isn't really a strong enough word for what has happened in the past in Tom Rob Smiths compulsive book. The Secret Speech is a thriller but it is one set in a time and more pertinently a place far removed from the normal plot elements of contemporary thrillers.
Set in the Soviet Union 1956,post Stalin, many of the men who ensured that the State remained absolute are now living under a veil of fear themselves. Former MGB agent Leo Demidov has extricated himself from the environs of his past and is now working as a detective . But his adopted daughters, victims of one his earliest covert missions, cannot forgive him and his internecine past is rushing full pelt to catch up with him .New Soviet leader Khrushchev has made a secret speech( although it,s not much of a secret since everybody seems to know about it) denouncing the methods of the past putting further pressure on those involved implicitly with the Stalin regime.
This is a story full of brutality and pain ,mental as well as physical, and anyone expecting dry political discourse is likely to be disappointed . Those who want an exciting visceral thriller should find The Secret Speech most rewarding . Sure it's far fetched with unlikely plot twists at times and several coincidences that stretch credibility but then most thrillers are. They wouldn't be very thrilling otherwise.
Yet there is also more to this book than that. The book touches explicitly on issues of state control ,loyalty, the strength of family bonds , revenge and redemption .It also ties in the actions of individuals with those of the men in power and it tells us ,once again, that without the compliance of individuals any Government cannot enforce it's rule...a message we would do well to remember in this country sometimes. I see The Secret Speech as a more Bourne like companion to excellent films like The Lives Of Others [DVD] [2007] and The Wave [DVD] [2008]. It's not in the same class as those two in terms of the power of the overall message but the message is there none the less .
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