Airport purchase from past travels. Tom Rob Smith has since published also more books, but I will start from this one. This sounds like a page-turner, I am hoping it will prove to be one.

A paperback by Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2009, 484 pages.

Synopsis:

"In Stalin's Soviet Union, crime does not exist. But still millions live in fear. The mere suspicion of disloyalty to the State, the wrong word at the wrong time, can send an innocent person to his execution.

Officer Leo Demidov, an idealistic war hero, believes he's building a perfect society. But after witnessing the interrogation of an innocent man, his loyalty begins to waver, and when ordered to investigate his own wife, Raisa, Leo is forced to choose where his heart truly lies.

Then the impossible happens. A murderer is on the loose, killing at will, and every belief Leo has ever held is shattered. Denounced by his enemies and exiled from home, with only Raisa by his side, he must risk everything to find a criminal that the State won't admit even exists. On the run, Leo soon discovers the danger isn't from the killer he is trying to catch, but from the country he is trying to protect."

EDIT Sep 8, 2012 Reserved as a wishlist tag for sakirmo.
EDIT Oct 8, 2012 Reserved for Sanatarkkaan 2 challenge.

Tom Rob Smith, what a find! Very skillfully written unique thriller unlike any others I have read before. Huge amount of background work has been needed for these crystalclear descriptions of MGB office policies and the awful horros of the Stalinist era. The fear and the growing paranoia in the society is gripped on every single page of this book. Remarkably tense plot with raw and torn but still powerful characters. Grim atmosphere is really overpowering, quite an achievement to create such tension.

Tässä Hippa-lukemista toivelistalta sakirmolle, ole hyvä!

Sanatarkkaan 2 -haaste

Numerohaaste

Got the book today, thanks Bookgeo!! Sounds like a really interesting & thought-provoking read.

It says on the cover that it's a "gripping Cold War thriller", and yes, it's gripping alright, most of the time I found it really hard to put the book down even for a minute! But I have to say I enjoyed the first 2/3 a lot more than the last 1/3, as it gradually started to feel a bit like an exhausting & slightly cheesy Hollywood movie (*). So don't expect any surprises at the end about who will survive and who won't and who will get all the praise and glory and live happily ever after... but do expect an interesting read about the 1950s Stalinist Russia, based on a serial killer who really did exist back then.

(* haha, just found out there WILL be a Hollywood movie about this in 2014. No surprises there, either :D)

Will leave this at Little Britannia's BC shelf

**

Osallistun tällä myös 52 viikkoa -vapautushaasteeseen, pienellä numeroleikillä: 44 kääntyy mukavasti tämän päivän päivämääräksi 4.4. Lisäksi on viikko numero 14, ja etsiessäni tietoa sarjamurhaaja Chikatilosta (johon kirjan tarina ilmeisesti perustuu), kävi ilmi että hänen tuomionsa julistettiin huhtikuun 14. päivänä (vuonna -92).