Book Review for

The Secret Speech
by Tom Rob Smith
 

This 2nd thriller by Tom Rob Smith takes place in 1956, post-Stalin
Soviet Union. A secret document based on a speech by Stalin's successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, is distributed throughout the nation. Khrushchev's
message is that Stalin was a murderer and a tyrant, and that life in the
Soviet Union will improve.

 Leo Demidov, the hero of Smith's Child 44, is now the head of Moscow's
homicide department, and while striving to see justice done, he and his wife,
Raisa, are in turmoil because their adopted daughters have yet to forgive him
for his role in the death of their parents. Also, Demidov and his family are in
serious danger from a woman who bears a grudge against him. This woman
is cold-hearted and brutal, kidnapping Demidov's oldest daughter and trying
to convert her into a cold-bloodedkiller. To get his daughter back, Leo must
travel to the Siberian gulags and free the kidnapper's husband.

 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. It is a thrilling page-turner from start to finish.
A superb book.


 
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