Child Thief

April 1, 2013
Set in 1930, a former soldier must leave his quiet farm life in the outskirts of Soviet-controlled Ukraine to find his kidnapped niece. British author Smith's (Dark Horizons, 2011, etc.) latest thriller begins with Luka, a veteran of World War I and the Russian Civil War, discovering a mysterious stranger who is barely conscious and pulling a sled loaded with two dead children. When his neighbors in the small Ukrainian farming village learn of the children, Luka is unable to prevent the hastily formed mob from lynching the stranger. Luka's inner turmoil increases when his brother-in-law (and the leader of the hanging party) realizes that his daughter is missing and it becomes clear that Luka is the one person who has the skill set to recover the missing girl. With the potential threat of an encroaching Soviet police force sweeping the countryside, Luka leaves his wife and daughter behind and sets out with his twin sons into the harsh Ukrainian wilderness. The stakes are raised when Luka realizes that the kidnapper is using the young girl as bait to lure Luka and his sons into a dangerous labyrinth where their own lives are continually threatened. The tension steadily increases as Luka uses his military training in a battle of wits with the unknown kidnapper, and the division between the hunter and the hunted becomes more and more blurry. In a style that methodically builds suspense, Smith delivers the story of a hero able to rise to the challenge in the face of escalating troubles.

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May 15, 2013

In 1930, Soviet leader Stalin's cadres crushed Ukrainian villages to collectivize their farms and exile the kulaks (well-to-do peasant farmers) to Siberia, resulting in a great famine. So far the village of Vryiv has remained hidden from the authorities. But when villager Luka, a war vet and devoted family head, encounters a dying stranger pulling a sled with the butchered corpses of two children and brings him to the village, the villagers' fears turn into violence. In the midst of the chaos, Luka's niece vanishes, and Luka and his twin sons vow to save her. As a military tracker and sharpshooter, Luka has unusual skills, but his prey is wily and pitiless. Even worse misery befalls Luka when he is snared by soldiers enforcing the new farm policy. VERDICT Though in the gruesome vein of Tom Rob Smith's Child 44, Smith's (Dark Horizons) fourth adult novel laments "for the darkness that had come into this life and for the light that had gone out of it." Luka's inner dialogs show a core of moral strength and integrity that will keep readers on the edge of the chair rooting for him and his kin. Marked by clear writing and laser-portrait characterizations, the book builds a deftly-nuanced plot. The evocation of the frozen steppes will chill your beach-warmed bones.--Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Luka is a soldier turned reluctant farmer, living a hand-to-mouth existence in a small Soviet village with his wife and children. While hunting, he finds a strange, sick man pulling a sled holding the bodies of two young children. Everyone in this small village lives in fear of the Communists taking their homes and putting them on work farms, so a stranger in their midst causes a panic. The townspeople turn on Luka and hang the unconscious man, scaring Luka's young niece and prompting her to flee. Or was she abducted? Luka sets off through the frozen wasteland with his twin teenage sons and the girl's father to find the girl and the man who took her. The terrain is barely passable and the weather is brutal, but Luka soldiers on, killing when he has to but determined to bring the girl home. The tone in this tightly written story is dark and disturbing, with tension mounting steadily until the unexpected ending. Sure to appeal to fans of David Benioff and Tom Rob Smith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)