CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith

'It is unusual for a crime thriller to be longlisted for the Man booker Prize - as this debut was last year - but then Child 44 is no run-of-the-mill piece of genre writing.  Tom Rob Smith's grim, gripping tale of the hunt by a disillusioned state security officer for a  serial killer in Stalin's Russia immerses the reader in a chilling evocation of the period'

Sunday Telegraph 22/2

'This Soviet-era detective thriller, currently being turned into a film by Ridley Scott, was a surprise entry in last year's Man Booker longlist… the historical setting is excellent, and forget the Booker - it's gripping'

Observer 22/2

'This assured first novel is set in the USSR in 1953, the year Stalin died… The novels… moves towards a denouement that neatly links back to its enigmatic prologue in 1930s Ukraine'

Sunday Times 22/2

'Controversially long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, this stylish thriller is a blow for the genre novel that could make "page-turners" respectable… A book to make plot fashionable again'

Independent 20/2

'Tom Rob Smith's debut is two books in one.  The first is an excellently written account of what life was like in Stalinist Russia.  The second book is pure escapism: KGB officer Leo Demidov learns the errors of his ways when he becomes convinced that a serial killer is responsible for the slaughter and mutilation of at least 44 children'

Evening Standard 23/2