Child 44, by Tom Rob SmithRead about another entry on the list.
The revelation of the serial killer’s identity in Smith’s terrific thriller set in Stalinist Russia isn’t much of a spoiler; the focus is the difficulty of investigating a string of murders in a totalitarian state where there is officially no crime at all. The killer is eventually caught because his victims are murdered through the specific hunting techniques he used as a child with his brother—techniques he replicates specifically in hopes that his brother notices and recognizes them, adding an extra layer of dread to a story already suffused with it.
Child 44 is among B&N Reads' twenty top book-to-film adaptations of 2015, Julian Ovenden's six best books, J. Kingston Pierce's top eight former Soviet Union-set crime and thriller novels and Rebecca Armstrong's ten best thrillers.
The Page 69 Test: Child 44.
--Marshal Zeringue
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