A famous book and film ... starting in the depths of Stalinist Ukraine ... something I was bound to get to eventually!

(22/07/20) Even saying there is a spoiler is a sort of spoiler! Suffice to say the last 100 pages becomes a very different book to the earlier, somewhat ambulatory, history of Stalin-era brutality, state control, and harsh existence. We follow highly decorated MGB police officer Leo and his dramatic fall from grace under the oppressive Kafkaesque regime, forced to implicate or defend his wife on very thin suspicious grounds, he takes the moral and career-suicidal option. The system he has defended and underpinned, and she lied-to-survive, crashes around their ears, until eventually they turn into fugitive vigilantes hunting for the killer of 'Child 44'. As I say, the twist, which is almost secondary and not very believable, allows the plot to complete, more or less satisfactorily. The redeemed Leo and Raisa live on to star in 2 sequels, but have they created other monsters to battle in the future?

ps. the book of the film also struggles to make a single cogent story out of the parts outlined above, too much context is ignored, subverted or muddled. Even the normally peerless Tom Hardy (as Leo) seems confused, settling for a brooding scowling redemptive anti-hero.

This is being delivered as part of a post-pandemic box; I hope it gets into the shop and can continue its journey!