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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
4 1/2 Stars -- A Very Strong Follow-Up To Child 44!, May 19, 2009
This review is from: The Secret Speech (Hardcover)
Let me start off by saying that The Secret Speech is not quite as good as Child 44 -- BUT it is a very good historical thriller and definitely well worth reading. Tom Rob Smith's second novel takes places in 1956, post-Stalin Soviet Union. During this time a violent regime is beginning to come apart, resulting in a society where the police are the criminals and the criminals are the innocent. The "firecracker" during this period is when a secret document based on a speech by Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, is distributed throughout the nation. The basic theme of Khrushchev's message is that Stalin was a murderer and a tyrant, and that life in the Soviet Union will improve. The plot of The Secret Speech moves from the streets of Moscow during its political upheaval, to the Siberian gulags and to the heart of the Hungarian uprising in Budapest. Central to the plot is former state security officer, Leo Demidov, the hero of Smith's Child 44. Demidov is now the head of Moscow's homicide department, and while striving to see justice done, his life is in turmoil due to trying to build a life with his wife, Raisa, and their adopted daughters who have yet to forgive him for his role in the death of their parents. On top of this personal turmoil, Demidov and his family are in serious danger from someone with a grudge against him. The Secret Speech is an exciting, visceral, well-written page-turner from beginning to end that paints a vivid picture of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union at its onset. Further, as was also true in Child 44, Smith's characters are richly developed and are ones that this reader felt he got to know well. I should point out that The Secret Speech isn't flawless, although none of these flaws are major. Perhaps, the biggest of these minor flaws is that some of the plot developments are somewhat too coincidental and a bit far-fetched. But this book is fiction, after all, and these minor flaws do help to contribute to the book's excitement. In addition, I should point out that potential readers of The Secret Speech would highly benefit from reading Child 44 first. Enjoy!
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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite as silly as some other best sellers..., March 9, 2009
Tom Rob Smith's second novel, "The Secret Speech", is an action-packed thriller set in the Soviet Bloc at the start of its post-Stalinist era. Rather than provide a run-of-the-mill East-versus-West spy story, however, Smith has chosen to use the de-Stalinisation programme of the early Khrushchev years and the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 as a setting for an exciting and engaging action drama. The main protagonist, Leo Demidov, is a former MGB (secret police) agent who, while attempting to atone for his earlier life and his role in the Stalinist purges, and also to provide a normal family home for his wife and two adopted daughters -- children orphaned as a result of his own earlier denunciation of their parents -- suddenly finds himself at the centre of a brutal and far-reaching back-lash against former Stalinist supporters.
The action flows across the pages in a fast and furious fashion with never a dull moment, as Leo battles against both the odds and the system -- reminiscent sometimes of a Russian Jack Bauer -- to preserve the State and to protect both himself and his family from the villains of the piece. As a lively and engaging read, Smith cannot really be faulted, unless it is perhaps that he packs in rather too much action and adversity for the hero to face, with there being altogether too many close calls than are necessary to make a good story. After a while, the rhythm of crisis/progress/setback/success becomes so endlessly sustained as to become somewhat predictable, with many a cliché along the way. Hollywood will love it.
For me, the book's biggest failings are Smith's complete inability to present a credible picture of the austerity of Soviet life of those times, or to evoke any of the atmosphere of fear and paranoia which permeated all lives behind the Iron Curtain throughout the Cold War -- factors which would have rendered both the premise and the details of this story entirely implausible. Smith's USSR bears more resemblance to a Soviet Union under Gorbachev's Perestroika than that under Khrushchev. Try Gillian Slovo's " Ice Road" if you want to see how much better this could have been handled.
In addition, Smith's plot line is often unnecessarily wayward and feels to be unnaturally contorted by a design intended to string together certain set dramatic scenes, more than to serve any greater over-riding story arc, coupled with a lack of focus as to where the human drama really lies. The closing chapters depicting events in Budapest in October and November 1956, for instance, read like dramatised re-tellings of old newsreel footage; as if such were the inspiration for the story as a whole, with the back-story being bolted on simply to get us to this concluding set of scenes.
For those who care not one jot about the historical accuracy of their novels and who like the action to be thick and furious, this book is sufficiently well written to keep one entertained over a long-haul flight, or engrossed through several long evenings with nothing better to do. Lots of the book is somewhat silly, but no more so than, say, " The Da Vinci Code". The author does need a lesson or two about the physics of aircraft and flying, though, and could really do to learn to rein back his need for a new crisis every ten minutes but apart from these lapses, he sure can write a good read!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"To know how to wait is the great secret of success." Joseph De Maistre, April 23, 2010
With Stalin's death in the mid '50s, the iron fisted regime in the Soviet Union was beginning to breakup. The ruthless KGB were now thought to be extremists and criminals while former criminals were currently considered oppressed and innocent. During this time, Stalin's successor, Khrushchev, distributes a secret speech claiming that Stalin was a tryant and Russia was going to change.
Before that change took place, Leo Demidov, pretended to be a follower of a man named Lazar and was also the lover of Lazar's wife, Anisya. When the time came, Leo betrayed Lazar and Anisya, forcing them to inform on many of their followers. Lazar and Anisya were sent to prison.
With the lessening of the harsh treatment of dissidents, Anisya is released. She has become a hardened criminal and takes on the gang name, Fraera. Her one mission in life is to gain revenge on Leo not only for his betrayal of her husband but for his dishonesty about loving her. Her gang kidnaps Leo's adopted daughter and she tells Leo that unless he can free her husband, she will kill Leo's daughter, Zoya.
The story moves to the Gulag where prisoners are still treated harshly and we read of Leo's plan to free Lazar. The description of how this is carried out is a scene that will remain in the reader's mind.
With an excellent sense of history and drama, the story unfolds, providing the reader with an enlightened view of the intrigue and deception in Russia and in Hungary in the mid 1950's.
Although, not quite up to the excellence of the author's first novel, "Child 44," this is still an excellent historical mystery. Leo Demidov is a well portrayed character who wins the reader's heart with his love of family and sense of justice.
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