Agent 6 - Hardcover

Smith, Tom Rob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847375677 ISBN 13: 9781847375674

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

Former Soviet Secret Service agent Leo Demidov has built himself a new life as a civilian with his wife Raisa, and their two teenage daughters, Elena and Zoya. The Soviet Union is a country trying to reassert itself after the murderous excesses of Stalin and the chaos of the following years, and as the Cold War continues powers inside Russia seek to topple their great enemy, the United States of America. Communist allies within the United States will prove vital players in this game of intrigue and revolution. Raisa and their two daughters travel to the United States on a diplomatic mission, but a horrifying tragedy destroys everything Leo and Raisa have built. Leo must get to the States somehow and find out what happened. Exiled from the Soviet Union and separated from his family, Leo's quest takes him through the stark wilderness of Afghanistan, reawakening all his old instincts and forcing him to confront his demons. But whatever it costs, wherever he must go, he will find Agent 6.

About this title

Review

Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel, Child 44, was a considerable success (the youthful Smith began to collect book award nominations by the bushel, before finally bagging the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for 2008). That book’s successor, The Secret Speech, featured the second appearance of the beleaguered former MGB officer Leo Dormidov. Hopes were high for the final volume in the trilogy – and here is Agent 6, the final outing for Leo. So does it satisfactorily conclude the sequence?

In the last book, the time was 1956; Stalin had died, and it was the time of Nikita Khrushchev’s revisionist pronouncements (such as the ‘secret speech’ of the title, in which the Stalinist regime was – for the first time – roundly denounced). Leo Dormidov, his wife Raisa and their daughters are in mortal danger again, because of the new public view of the police as criminals; Leo’s efforts to save his family plunged him into situations of fear and tension. Both books were novel of striking authority (despite the controversial stylistic notion of putting all speech in italics, so that everything appeared over-emphasised). Agent 6, the third and final outing for the conflicted former MGB officer, brings the trilogy of novels to a resounding climax. Leo’s new civilian life with his wife Raisa and his family has acquired equilibrium, but the USSR and the US are still bitter enemies. A visit to the states by Leo on a diplomatic mission has a tragic outcome, and Leo loses everything. Only the grim plains of Afghanistan offer him a way back – or death. Tom Rob Smith has utilised cinematic technique here (not to mention upping the number of suspenseful set pieces), and some will prefer the more complex character building of the first book (still the finest in the sequence), but for most readers this final Leo Dormidov novel will push all the requisite buttons. --Barry Forshaw

Review

`If you're a crime-fiction addict then you will have heard of, and devoured, Child 44 and The Secret Speech, the first two books in the series. If you haven't, don't let that stop you from picking up the final book, as reformed KGB officer Leo Demidov finds himself coming up against his greatest enemy to date: Mother Russia' --Shortlist, 1 July 2011

`The best thrillers combine narrative tension, first-rate plotting and enough psychological insight to satisfy the human hunger for identification...Smith can do all this' --Guardian, 2 July 2011

`[Agent 6 has] an improvised feel, a terrific, freewheeling energy and pace, to which Rob Smith's non-nonsense prose is perfectly suited' --Daily Telegraph, 18 June 2011

'For those who were engrossed by the first two novels in the trilogy, Agent 6 provides a moving, melancholy conclusion' --Independent, 3 July 2011

`A complex and gripping narrative' --Gay Times

'Smith is superb at evoking day-to-day realities and bitter ironies of the cold war... immaculately researched sections are individually pungent and powerful.' --Andrzej Lukowski, Metro, 7 July 2011

'It's an amazing story full of intrigue and espionage that you won't want to put it down.'
--Kim Metcalf, Essentials August Issue

'Smith remains a brilliant depicter of the past' --Sunday Times, 24 July 2011

'Tense and moving' --Heat Magazine, 23 July 2011

'One of the most anticipated reads this summer, Demidov fans won't be disappointed.' --Attitude, August Issue

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1847375677
• ISBN 13: 9781847375674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560