The Secret Speech

March 2, 2009
Set in 1956, bestseller Smith’s edgy second thriller to feature Leo Demidov (after Child 44
) depicts the paranoia and instability of the Soviet Union after the newly installed Khrushchev regime leaks a “secret speech” laying out Stalin’s brutal abuses. Now working as a homicide detective, Leo has long since repudiated his days as an MGB officer, but his former colleagues, fearful of reprisals from their victims, have begun taking their own lives. Leo himself becomes the target of Fraera, the wife of a priest he imprisoned. Now the leader of a violent criminal gang, Fraera kidnaps Leo’s daughter, Zoya, and threatens to kill Zoya if Leo doesn’t liberate her husband from his gulag prison. Shifting from Moscow to Siberia and to a Hungary convulsed by revolution, this fast-paced novel is packed with too many incidents for Smith to dwell on any in great depth. Though its drama often lacks emotional resonance, this story paints a memorable portrait of post-Stalinist Russia at its dawn.

Smith's first novel, CHILD 44 (2008), was long-listed for the Booker Prize. This second novel in his planned trilogy continues the chilling drama of life in the Soviet Union just after Khrushchev's purge of Stalin in 1956. Protagonist Leo Demidov is an ex-security officer during a time when it is dangerous to have been one of Stalin's minions. Now working as a homicide detective, Demidov is being threatened by the wife of a Russian Orthodox priest, whom he was responsible for imprisoning in the old days. Now the priest's wife has every intention of killing Demidov's daughter if he does not get her husband released from the gulag. Dennis Boutsikaris's Russian accents are superb. He brings even minor characters to life and portrays sex and age differences credibly. M.C. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine