Leo Demidov has more issues than the average literary homicide detective. Not just a drinking problem, an ex-wife and a passion for obscure music; Leo has done some Very Bad Things.
When we first met him at the beginning of Child 44, he was a loyal member of the Soviet secret police, both a true believer in the cause and naïve enough to be blind to the problems. At the start of this sequel, we get a flash back to those days - indeed, to his first infiltration mission, when he had befriended and betrayed a Russian Orthodox priest and his wife.
Since then, after the five years he spent in the forerunner of the KGB, he is a reformed man. Heading up a secret homicide bureau in Moscow (secret because the authorities would never publicly acknowledge that such an act occurs under the leadership of their perfect State), trying to atone for his former evils by bringing to justice murderers and protecting his fellow citizens.
Until events set in motion by that first betrayal come back to haunt him.
Unfortunately, this isn't a patch on the previous novel - although, to be perfectly fair, that would be pretty damned difficult; Child 44 was a borderline masterpiece, an incredibly taut thriller with interesting things to say and writing so good that the book was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Here, for whatever reason, the writing wasn't quite up to that standard, and the parts of the novel didn't fit together entirely seamlessly - in particular, the third act seemed rather disjointed from the earlier parts of the story. I suspect the issue is the author wanting to involve the characters as major players in the real-life events of the post-Stalinist USSR.
Still, this was a gripping read, with excellent characters, some intriguing morality, and a good examination of some of the horrors of a society unwilling to face up to its crimes, or even that it can possibly be in the wrong. I'll definitely be reading the next instalments.
No comments:
Post a Comment