I was excited when I heard that there would be a sequel to Child 44 and have been waiting—somewhat impatiently—for this one to finally be published. The Secret Speech sees the return of Leo Demidov, former MGB man and Moscow homicide investigator. This book takes place three years after the events of Child 44, and is set after Stalin’s death. The speech referred to in the title was given by Nikita Krushchev during a closed meeting of a Party conference. In it, Khrushchev not only states that some of Stalin’s policies—the gulags, the arrests, the tortures—were not only wrong; they were criminal. Many members of the groups that carried out those “investigations” and arrests are, in this book, very nervous. Are they going to be punished for following orders?
In this book, we learn that Leo used his political cachet after solving a series of murders to create a homicide investigative group in Moscow. It’s kept secret because the authorities want people to believe that their society is improving under Communism and that the crime rate is going down. (It isn’t. It’s getting worse.) A pair of suicides and the unofficial publication of Krushchev’s speech leads Leo to a plot hatched by a vengeful member of the vory. The vory are gangs of prisoners from the gulags, made up of violent criminals, not political “criminals. The vory tattoo their life stories onto their skins. If you’ve seen Eastern Promises, you’ve seen the vory. Unusually, though, the head of this gang is female. She was married to a former Orthodox priest that Leo investigated while undercover. The priest was eventually sent to the gulags. Oh, and she was pregnant at the time. Hence the revenge.
As the story goes on, the revenge plot turns into a huge conspiracy. I don’t want to give away too much, but it involves the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Ordinarily, my problem is that books I enjoy end too quickly and I’m left wanting more. The Secret Speech has a last act tacked on to the resolution of the mystery. After the end of the mystery, I was surprised to find that I still had about a quarter of an inch of book left. That never happens to me. I was glad of it though, because that last quarter of an inch was a fantastic read. I was rooted to the couch until I finished the book.
I am already looking forward to the next Tom Rob Smith book.