Child 44

Fiction by Tom Robb Smith.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Another book about Russia (see The Sky Unwashed), this is a rather bleak story set (except for a brief flashback) during the latter part of the Stalinist regime. I suppose one can't expect any happy stories from THAT time period, huh? Nobody makes musical comedies about Stalin.

The book has a really good ending, but there is a lot of awfulness to plow through to get there. It's a good novel all told; still, I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel. (It's the beginning of a trilogy.)



(On a side note, it's interesting that I've read two books with numbers in the titles this month--the other one being 44 Scotland Street--, and both are the number 44. What does THAT mean?)