The Secret Speech
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4.4 • 123 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Soviet Union, 1956: Stalin is dead. With his passing, a violent regime is beginning to fracture - leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. The catalyst comes when a secret manifesto composed by Stalin's successor Khrushchev is distributed to the entire nation. Its message: Stalin was a tyrant and a murderer. Its promise: The Soviet Union will transform. But there are forces at work that are unable to forgive or forget Stalin's tyranny so easily, that demand revenge of the most appalling nature.
Meanwhile, former MGB officer Leo Demidov is facing his own turmoil. The two young girls he and his wife Raisa adopted have yet to forgive him for his involvement in the murder of their parents. They are not alone. Now that the truth is out, Leo, Raisa and their family are in grave danger from someone with a grudge against Leo. Someone transformed beyond recognition into the perfect model of vengeance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
This is the second book in the series and is a really good read. The book covers a lot of ground and whilst it gets a little bit far fetched towards the end the plot is well paced and links in well to history.
All 3 books are well worth reading and this one is much less gruesome than Child 44.
Viscerally moving
I enjoyed this more, in some ways, than the first volume in Leo and Raisa's adventures. This story didn't have the straightforward whodunit plot driving development and characters in a particular way, and this seems to have allowed for a more expansive and richly meandering plot.
Nevertheless, it's one which grips from start to finish, and delivers some brave decisions about the treatment of characters which demonstrates, I think, great assurance. I'm looking forward to the next installment!
Once again
....I applause read the farm to which it directed me to the 1st n now this the 2nd of the trilogy can't wait to read the 3rd and final, hope the wait ain't to long before another release of this author 10/10