The Secret Speech

This is the 2nd in the Leo Demidov trilogy. I read them in the order 1, 3, 2 which didn't really spoil any of the over-arc for me as purely by the existence of the 3rd book, I knew Leo would live through this one! Secret Speech refers to a speech made by Krushchev denouncing Stalin's regime which led to the beginnings of change in Soviet Russia. Much of the novel focuses on how this affected those who had been involved at 'ground level', at one point a character states that more Russians were guilty than innocent. An interesting look at this period of Soviet history because, although much of the thriller storyline is outlandish, the historical detail of suspicion, gulags and the Hungarian uprising is believable and real.

I had to re-check my Child 44 review before thinking about this one. It's really interesting to see Smith develop as an author. It seems Smith took everything I didn't like about Child 44 and might have gone a little overboard in correcting them in The Secret Speech.

Since the characters were developed, there is next to no character development. There are new characters introduced, but they are only shallowly presented. The pacing for 75% of the novel is great. Big things happen, Leo's story is moved along and what he has to go through is very enjoyable. But about 75% of the way into the book, it seems to go too fast. There are big jumps in time where the reader has to assume 1) they just didn't do much or 2) have to fill in what happened themselves. Big events are no longer well constructed, they feel more summarized. It moves what you might characterize as a "movie pacing" instead of a book, being there's only a couple hours to tell the story.

I'd put it around the same level as Child 44. Not great writing, yet a very compelling story. It sits as a recommended book, but doesn't push it way up the reading list easily. The story itself carries much of the weight and does make me want to read the final installment Agent 6...which is all the author can ask for right...like it enough to get the next book?