Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2010.

February 2009 Book of the Month.

Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2008.

Winner of the Galaxy New Writer of the Year 2009.

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2008.Costa Book Awards 2008 Judges' comment: "This gripping, unputdownable thriller is an exciting new addition to the genre."

Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 5 March 2009.

Controversially, and in my opinion inappropriately, long-listed for the Man Booker and appropriately short-listed for the Costa 1^st Novel award (used to be the Whitbread), the Desmond Elliot prize and winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming award, this is a cracking good serial killer tale set in Stalin’s 1950’s Russia. It is certainly one of the best intelligent new thrillers I have read in a long time. Atmospheric, dark, evocative of the period and era, the gradual change in our hero is beautifully handled, as is the slow build in an intriguing plot. You must read it. We also have an exclusive pre-publication extract from his new book The Secret Speech, so be one of the first to read a chapter before it's published.

Comparison: Martin Cruz Smith, Robert Harris, John Le Carré.

Synopsis

When fear silences a nation, one man must speak the truth.

The Soviet Union, 1953.

Stalin's iron grip is at its tightest, enforced by the Ministry of State Security - a secret police force whose brutality is no secret at all. Under its regime, the people are commanded to believe that crime simply does not exist.

But when the body of a young boy is discovered on train tracks in Moscow, Officer Leo Demidov - a war hero, utterly dedicated to the ministry - is surprised to hear that the boy's family are convinced it was murder. Leo's superiors order him to ignore this and he is obliged to obey. But something in him knows there is more.

Sensing his doubts, the Ministry threatens Leo, giving him no choice but to turn his back on his once-beloved Party. Disgraced, exiled with his wife Raisa to a town deep in the Ural Mountains, Leo realises that the crime he helped cover up in the capital has happened here too.

The murder of another child.

Risking everything, Leo and Raisa will pursue a horrifying killer - even if doing so makes them enemies of the State...

About the Author

Tom Rob Smith was born in 1979 to a Swedish mother and an English father and was brought up in London where he still lives. He graduated from Cambridge in 2001 and spent a year in Italy on a creative writing scholarship. Tom has worked as a screenwriter for the past five years.   Author photo © Bildschön/Mark Bassett More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation