- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Books (15 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1847391605
- ISBN-13: 978-1847391605
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3.7 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 21,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Secret Speech
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Tom Rob Smith’s first book, Child 44, enjoyed unprecedented attention and acclaim (as did its youthful author), so it was inevitable that the appetite for that novel’s successor would be keen. Now it’s here, and The Secret Speech, largely speaking, lives up the promise of its Fleming-Dagger-winning predecessor, despite being a very different book: Ex-MGB officer Leo Dormidov returns and becomes involved in a narrative so incident-packed it makes the earlier book seem positively sedate.
The most memorable thing about the first novel, of course, was the moral transformation of the hero, initially a charismatic tool of the brutal state apparatus, enforcing the Stalin-era edicts with grim efficiency until he becomes hunted rather hunter and earns some hard-won humanity. Part of the point of Child 44 was the protagonist’s journey of character – so how to follow this, when Leo has become a human being by the end of the first novel?
The Secret Speech performs this tricky balancing act by taking the reader back to 1949, with Leo the unreformed agent of the state, behaving with the callousness he once possessed before his life was turned upside down. We are then taken to the mid-fifties, after the death of Stalin (as cracks begin to show in the totalitarian Soviet State). Khrushchev’s famous denunciation of the Stalin era ushers in significant changes, and Leo Dormidov (along with his wife Raisa and their daughters) are in danger, as the power of the police is undercut – and, in fact, the police are now identified as enemies of the state. This is only one of the dangers that Leo faces: there is now a ruthless enemy on his trail – as ruthless as Leo was himself in the days of his authority and acclaim.
There is no denying that the bracing innovation of the first book (in what is to be a trilogy) burns at a lower wattage here – that’s inevitable – but Smith is too adroit a writer not to keep us comprehensively gripped (breathless, even, as climax after climax is piled into a crowded narrative). --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'As a study of betrayal at every level, The Secret Speech is masterly. It brilliantly portrays a society stripped of every element of love, trust and respect; compassion is a weakness to be exploited and denunciation is accepted with resignation... Smith's vision of the past skilfully enables the reader to imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever, and the fact that the boot is worn by the victim's children opens up a fresh hell unimagined by Orwell. Stalin's stock seems to be rising in Russia again. Read this and shiver.'
--Sunday Telegraph, March 29 2009 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Sunday Telegraph, March 29 2009 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved Child 44. Smith (or should it Rob Smith? Perhaps it should; calling someone "Tom Rob" makes them sound like they're straight out of Deliverance) created both a taut thriller as well as a utterly believeable recreation of Stalin's Soviet Union - the fear and suspicion of life in those terrible times. So I was really looking forward to the follow up.
Stalin has died, and Kruschev taken over. Kruschev makes the secret speech - denouncing the crimes of Stalin and tentatively signalling a freer era. And Leo Demidov, our hero from Child 44 returns. He is investigating the murders of former secret police personnel, when he gets drawn into a web of intrigues, conspiracy and, well, action.
The atmosphere is as good as in the first book, but the action is perhaps the issue. There's a bit in Moscow, and then they move several thousand miles east and more happens and then they go somewhere else entirely and more happens. And the travelling almost makes it feel like different things thrown together. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it doesn't quite work. Maybe all of the jet setting makes it feel like a 50s James Bond on a lower budget. It's all highly readable, and very enjoyable, but it's just not as good as child 44.
Stalin has died, and Kruschev taken over. Kruschev makes the secret speech - denouncing the crimes of Stalin and tentatively signalling a freer era. And Leo Demidov, our hero from Child 44 returns. He is investigating the murders of former secret police personnel, when he gets drawn into a web of intrigues, conspiracy and, well, action.
The atmosphere is as good as in the first book, but the action is perhaps the issue. There's a bit in Moscow, and then they move several thousand miles east and more happens and then they go somewhere else entirely and more happens. And the travelling almost makes it feel like different things thrown together. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it doesn't quite work. Maybe all of the jet setting makes it feel like a 50s James Bond on a lower budget. It's all highly readable, and very enjoyable, but it's just not as good as child 44.
39 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I adored Child 44 and as soon as I'd finished it immediately ordered this follow-up in hardback. It had only been out a matter of weeks but by the time it arrived it was already in its 5th printing. Which just goes to show . . . what exactly?
Because bluntly, in comparison with Child 44 this book is dreadful. The only weak point in Child 44 was a contrived 'action' sequence on a train. Now I can almost imagine the conversation between Smith and his dumbed-down, know-nothing publishers as, flushed with the success of a first novel they exhorted him to write another 400 pages of the same kind of action, certain that this - as opposed to any kind of literary merit - was the winning formula. To see all Smith's undoubted writing potential thrown away like this is as heartbreaking as this book is unreadable. And to think that this is the same writer who was actually nominated for the Booker prize!
In the end this isn't so much of a novel as a comic without the pictures: the narrative is rushed, the characters implausible and the dialogue, far from giving us insight into character, creaks instead with often undigested dollops of history so obviously lifted from the research material.
I couldn't wait to finish this book. Tom Rob Smith is capable of so much more and if I were him I'd be making it my new year's resolution to stop hanging around with the wrong crowd and get in with a new set of literary people who can instead nurture and promote this writer's obvious talent and ability. If he does (and only if he does) will I be the first in line to buy his third novel.
Because bluntly, in comparison with Child 44 this book is dreadful. The only weak point in Child 44 was a contrived 'action' sequence on a train. Now I can almost imagine the conversation between Smith and his dumbed-down, know-nothing publishers as, flushed with the success of a first novel they exhorted him to write another 400 pages of the same kind of action, certain that this - as opposed to any kind of literary merit - was the winning formula. To see all Smith's undoubted writing potential thrown away like this is as heartbreaking as this book is unreadable. And to think that this is the same writer who was actually nominated for the Booker prize!
In the end this isn't so much of a novel as a comic without the pictures: the narrative is rushed, the characters implausible and the dialogue, far from giving us insight into character, creaks instead with often undigested dollops of history so obviously lifted from the research material.
I couldn't wait to finish this book. Tom Rob Smith is capable of so much more and if I were him I'd be making it my new year's resolution to stop hanging around with the wrong crowd and get in with a new set of literary people who can instead nurture and promote this writer's obvious talent and ability. If he does (and only if he does) will I be the first in line to buy his third novel.
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Bitterly disappointing sequel to the fantastic Child 44.
This book is awful. Simple as that. What Tom Rob Smith achieved with Child 44 has been wiped out by this poor follow up. Whilst there are interesting ideas in the book, it's a mish-mash of scenes and doesn't flow particularly well...one wonders if the words 'film rights' have been mentioned to the author and he's thinking movie adaptation.
I truly wanted to love this book as I did Child 44, but alas there is no substance. Will give great consideration to ever reading this author again.
This book is awful. Simple as that. What Tom Rob Smith achieved with Child 44 has been wiped out by this poor follow up. Whilst there are interesting ideas in the book, it's a mish-mash of scenes and doesn't flow particularly well...one wonders if the words 'film rights' have been mentioned to the author and he's thinking movie adaptation.
I truly wanted to love this book as I did Child 44, but alas there is no substance. Will give great consideration to ever reading this author again.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The second in the series is just as good as the other three
The novel takes its time to warm up but warm up it does and this novel explores the complex nature of human nature more than any of the other two in the series. Read more
Published 2 months ago by SACB
Not Much Sympathy for Demidov
This is Tom Rob Smith's second novel and the follow up to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Child 44. I loved that book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by davidscott429
Another excellent book
I do find it fascinating how people's opinions can be so polarised. For me this is another excellent book, with Child 44 being slightly better, but that is very very difficult to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dangerscouse
Excellent Description
I have read Child 44 and thought it truly was a great fast paced read. I have been looking forward to reading this book for sometime and finally got round to it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by S.Duncan
Unbelievable nonsense
After devouring Child 44 in a matter of days, I had moved immediately onto this book hoping for more of the same believable storytelling set in the day-to-day life of Stalin's... Read more
Published 3 months ago by C. G. Maclean
A disappointed reader
Like many other reviewers, I read Child 44 and felt it was well researched and plausible and looked forward to a sequel. What a let down. Read more
Published 4 months ago by pj
Enjoyable sequel to Child 44
I nearly didn't buy this book due to the bad reviews here, but the first one was good enough to give it a go. I'm glad I did! Read more
Published 5 months ago by T. Bradshaw
very disappointing
Child 44 was an entertaining read and made accessible some of the more intense books of the period he writes about. It was a good read and made me want to pick up his next book. Read more
Published 6 months ago by tuppencewrth
Great read!!
Really good read. I could not put this book down. The book was informative also to how it was in Russia when Stalin ruled.
Published 7 months ago by Mrs. E. M. Robinson
Another super thriller and a great sequel to "Child 44"
I was particularly excited to learn of the sequel to "Child 44", a book which I thought was brilliant, and gripping from the first page! Read more
Published 9 months ago by Louise Roberts
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