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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | Home » The Secret Speech | | | | | | | Description: | | Tom Rob Smith-the author whose debut, Child 44, has been called "brilliant" (Chicago Tribune), "remarkable" (Newsweek) and "sensational" (Entertainment Weekly)-returns with an intense, suspenseful new novel: a story where the sins of the past threaten to destroy the present, where families must overcome unimaginable obstacles to save their loved ones, and where hope for a better tomorrow is found in the most unlikely of circumstances . . .
THE SECRET SPEECH
Soviet Union, 1956. Stalin is dead, and a violent regime is beginning to fracture-leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. A secret speech composed by Stalin's successor Khrushchev is distributed to the entire nation. Its message: Stalin was a tyrant. Its promise: The Soviet Union will change.
Facing his own personal turmoil, former state security officer Leo Demidov is also struggling to change. The two young girls he and his wife Raisa adopted have yet to forgive him for his part in the death of their parents. They are not alone. Now that the truth is out, Leo, Raisa, and their family are in grave danger from someone consumed by the dark legacy of Leo's past career. Someone transformed beyond recognition into the perfect model of vengeance.
From the streets of Moscow in the throes of political upheaval, to the Siberian gulags, and to the center of the Hungarian uprising in Budapest, THE SECRET SPEECH is a breathtaking, epic novel that confirms Tom Rob Smith as one of the most exciting new authors writing today.
| | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780446402408
• Condition: USED - Very Good
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Tom Rob Smith | | Hardcover:
| 416 pages | | Publisher:
| Grand Central Publishing | | Publication Date:
| May 19, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0446402400 | | Product Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.5 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.35 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.4 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.5 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 63 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Interesting! The Secret Speech by Tom Rob SmithAug 05, 2010
THE SECRET SPEECH by Tom Rob Smith is suspense/thriller set in 1949-1956 Moscow, Soviet Union. It is well written with depth and details. The subject has been well researched by this author and it shows in his writing. It is a trilogy. The first was Child 44 and the third will be A New World to be released in Feb,2011. It story has betrayal, sacrifice, spies, crudely, reality, a brutal dictator, atonement, redemption, secrets, revenge, political atmosphere, and corruption. Leo Demidov goes from a patriot spy to questioning his beliefs in his country and God, to trying to protect his family, and a moral man inside while an immoral system is everywhere with betrayal and corruption. This story has many facets to it with many characters involved. Although, I had not read Child 44, this story can be read as a stand alone. I you enjoy thrillers, suspense, in depth information showing clearly atrocities during the Soviet reign you will enjoy this one. This book was received for review and details can be found at Grand Central Publishing and My Book Addiction and More.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 An author loses his way...literallyJul 22, 2010
When the author changes direction into the Hungarian uprising of 1956,he loses his way.
Until that point the story was readable, if not quite up to the first novel.
After entering Buda-Pest, the story becomes so nonfactual and so contrived as be
laughable. Rather than continue on this "one-trick pony" the author needs to find new material.
Even the end, which I wont spoil, is so manipulated, it feels like the end of a TV show which has
to end happily. Characters heal and change their personalities in three pages,in order to wrap up
to have a 400 page book,but no more.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Homo Hominis LupusJul 11, 2010
N.B. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS, BUT THE BOOK WILL STILL SPRING MANY SURPRISES!
The genre is that of a fast-moving crime thriller, vividly written, conspiratorial, full of gruesome and sadistic violence, deceit and unexpected twists, and in the end becoming, as so many books of that kind do, dizzying in its complexity. The book starts in the Soviet Union. A short opening section is dated 1949 and shows the central character, Leo Demidov, at work as an officer of the MGB (Stalin's secret service), entrapping and then brutalizing a priest who then disappears into the Gulags.
The rest of the book is set in 1956. Stalin is dead, the worst of the arbitrary terror is over, Leo and some of his former colleagues, sickened by the work they had had to do, have resigned from the MGB (renamed the KGB in 1954) and try to live more or less normal lives in Moscow, Leo devoting himself to his family: wife and two adopted daughters.
Then Khrushchev made his famous not so Secret Speech, denouncing the criminality that had been committed by state organs in Stalin's time. Some of Stalin's political prisoners were released, but because Khrushchev waged a new campaign against religion, priests were not included among them.
Smith now invents a gang led by a woman out for revenge on those who had had a part in victimizing the priest and others; and they are as sadistically ruthless as the chekists had been. Several of those who had been involved in the opening section are murdered. For Leo she has a special task: she uses his love for his family as blackmail: he is charged with the task of getting the priest out of the gulag.
He manages to get himself into the gulag in the guise of a prisoner. Superb scene setting in the frozen North of Siberia, and more horrific incidents in this long section. You have to suspend your disbelief over the derring-do which gets Leo back to Moscow.
And the link to the next section is likewise unconvincing. Its purpose is to get Leo to Hungary during the 1956 uprising there. Smith takes a huge liberties with history here: Khrushchev's critics are said to have forced him to publish a new version of the Secret Speech which cut out the references to summary executions and torture; and Russian hard-liners are said to have fanned the Hungarian uprising so that it could be mercilessly crushed, and in that process liberalization would be reversed.
In Budapest the plot becomes more and more convoluted; clever, but more and more improbable. Leo has always been indestructible: now, while all around him people die like flies, he and those to whom he is closest have the cat's proverbial nine lives or more.
I was sickened by the book's unrelenting violence, described with what seemed to me a kind of relish. But it is a powerful and graphic story.
Not a mysteryJun 12, 2010
I very much enjoyed Child 44, rated it 5/5 (even if the relationship between the good guy and the bad guy was an unbelievable coincidence). So I was very much looking forward to The Secret Speech.
My main complaint is that it is not a mystery. Perhaps it was not billed as such, and I had faulty expectations given the first book in the series. (Series usually are, of course, in the same genre.)
The story really does strain credulity, and the characters did not have near the kind of depth the author achieved in Child 44.
I thought it was still worth reading, but if you are expecting something like Child 44, you are bound to be disappointed.
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Only if you like Matthew ReillyJun 06, 2010
As mentioned by many...this is a VERY weak follow up to Child 44. Superficial (and stupid) characters, a ridiculous (lack of) plot and stilted writing make me wonder what happened to the author between books. Too many Matthew Reilly books I reckon. I'm only giving 2 stars because there are clearly people out there who will like this tripe.
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