Book Alert / Child 44

Child 44 -- A Novel by Tom Rob Smith, Grand Central Publishing '08, $24.99, 438 pages, ISBN #0446402389.

In his first novel, British author Tom Rob Smith looks back to a time before he was born but well within the lifespan of many living today -- the early 1950s and what The New York Times calls "a Stalinist-Orwellian nightmare." Decades before its utopian ideal crumbled, the Soviet Union made a pact with its citizens: in return for hard work and loyalty to the regime, the state would provide them food, clothing, shelter and safety.

Leo Demidov, Smith's protagonist, is a former war hero and has bought into the system. But when he learns that the state denies that a serial killer of children is on the loose because violent crime is an emblem of Western decadence, his faith founders. His faith in the principle that the only crimes possible are crimes of political thought comes under question for the first time.

Before long, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced, alone except for his wife, Raisa, whom the state had called upon Leo to spy on. His life and value system turned topsy-turvy, Leo sets out to find the serial killer "and stop a criminal that the state won't admit even exists." Fans of the TV show The Wire will be interested to know that its writer, novelist Richard Price, is reportedly writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Smith's book.