Child 44 is a 2008 thriller novel by British writer Tom Rob Smith. It is the first novel in a trilogy featuring former MGB Agent Leo Demidov, who investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. This novel, the first in a trilogy, takes inspiration from the crimes of Andrei Chikatilo, also known as the Rostov Ripper, the Butcher of Rostov, and the Red Ripper. Chikatilo was convicted of and executed for committing 52 murders in the Soviet Union, though his crimes occurred after the Stalin era. In addition to highlighting the problem of Soviet-era crime in a state where "there is no crime", the novel explores the paranoia of the age, the education system, the secret police apparatus, the Holodomor, orphanages, homosexuality in the USSR and mental hospitals.
Adaptations (1)
Child 44 was adapted into a 2015 film.
Child 442015 · film · 137 min · dir. Daniel Espinosa · IMDb ↗Set in Stalin-era Soviet Union, a disgraced MGB agent is dispatched to investigate a series of child murders -- a case that begins to connect with the very top of party leadership.
