 | Agent 6 By Tom Rob Smith
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Product Description
THREE DECADES.
TWO MURDERS.
ONE CONSPIRACY.
WHO IS AGENT 6?
Tom Rob Smith's debut, Child 44, was an immediate publishing sensation and marked the arrival of a major new talent in contemporary fiction. Named one of top 100 thrillers of all time by NPR, it hit bestseller lists around the world, won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In this spellbinding new novel, Tom Rob Smith probes the tenuous border between love and obsession as Leo Demidov struggles to untangle the threads of a devastating conspiracy that shatters everything he holds dear. Deftly capturing the claustrophobic intensity of the Cold War-era Soviet Union, it's at once a heart-pounding thriller and a richly atmospheric novel of extraordinary depth....
AGENT 6
Leo Demidov is no longer a member of Moscow's secret police. But when his wife, Raisa, and daughters Zoya and Elena are invited on a "Peace Tour" to New York City, he is immediately suspicious.
Forbidden to travel with his family and trapped on the other side of the world, Leo watches helplessly as events in New York unfold and those closest to his heart are pulled into a web of political conspiracy and betrayal-one that will end in tragedy.
In the horrible aftermath, Leo demands only one thing: to investigate the killer who destroyed his family. His request is summarily denied. Crippled by grief and haunted by the need to find out exactly what happened on that night in New York, Leo takes matters into his own hands. It is a quest that will span decades, and take Leo around the world--from Moscow, to the mountains of Soviet-controlled Afghanistan, to the backstreets of New York--in pursuit of the one man who knows the truth: Agent 6.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3592 in Books
- Published on: 2012-01-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.50" w x 6.50" l, 1.52 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 480 pages
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2012: To solve the murder that splintered his family, ex-KGB officer Leo Demidov escapes the ruins of Stalinist Russia through opium-soaked 1980s Afghanistan to New York's underbelly. Smith secures his place in the pantheon of crime writers with this taut, enthralling conclusion to the trilogy he brilliantly began with Child 44 and The Secret Speech. --Mari Malcolm
Review
"In [the] first two volumes, Smith brilliantly illuminated the horrors of Stalin's Russia and the Gulag. He also gave readers Leo Demidov, duty-bound, introspective, enduring, and ultimately a figure both tragic and heroic...another first-class, must-read crime novel." (Booklist (starred review) )
"A gripping, relentless whodunit plot...Most readers will reach the final page with regret and in awe of Smith's uncompromising vision of the realities of a police state and the toll it takes on those caught in its meshes." (Publisher's Weekly (starred review) )
"An old-fashioned thriller that would do Ludlum and le Carré proud...A big book, in every sense, that's sure to draw attention." (Kirkus (starred review) )
"When a trilogy is as unpredictable and riveting as Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 series, set as it is both in the harsh Russian landscape and the dense thicket of the human soul, expectations quickly evaporate in a page-turning frenzy....Smith, a young British screenwriter turned best-selling novelist, has created in Leo Demidov a Kafkaesque modern hero for our times, a good man trapped in a corrupt, manipulative system, forced to choose between loyalties to family, country and conscience. With a cinematographer's eye for settings and historical detail, Smith uses Leo's journey to examine larger issues, especially the political, social and religious systems that both unite and divide us."
(BookPage )
"Fortified by formidable details of Soviet history, Smith's closing volume of the Leo Demidov trilogy (Child 44; The Secret Speech) knits together iconic characters and elements...Fans of Smith's first two books will avidly seek out the final chapter, though this one stands on its own as well. The Afghan interlude is a searing echo of today's headlines, while the buildup of suspense over several decades is the armchair equivalent of a jaw-jarringly extreme ride at an amusement park." (Library Journal )
"Agent 6 has all the elements that made the first two books in the series hits: relentless action, a flawed but fascinating protagonist and a clear-eyed view of the absolute brutality of an authoritarian government." (Dallas Morning News )
"A new talent who looks set to be entertaining and moving us for many decades to come." (The Scotsman )
About the Author
Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. His previous novels, Child 44 and The Secret Speech, were both instant New York Times and international bestsellers. You can visit his website at www.TomRobSmith.com
Most helpful customer reviews
50 of 59 people found the following review helpful.
Enough with the 1-star reviews that have nothing to do with the book itself!
By M. McGinty
Folks, I understand your outrage/displeasure/whatever over paying more for the e-version of the book than you expected. However, three 1-star reviews that have nothing to do with the quality of the book have dragged down its overall rating, giving everyone who comes to the page a false impression that the book isn't very good - and doing the author, who certainly deserves better, an immense disservice.
Do everyone a favor and keep your reviews on-topic. They are supposed to be about the book [plot, character, structure, style, etc.], not customer service, not Amazon pricing policies, and certainly not your wallet. There are other forums for that. Go post your off-topic rants there.
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful.Exciting, poignant ending to the series
By Kathy Kaiser
Tom Rob Smith's final book in his excellent series went in directions I wasn't expecting. Events unfolded that kept me on the edge of my seat, unprepared for the harrowing, frightening, and ultimately bittersweet denouement of a great story. I closed the book with a sense of deep sadness that I wouldn't be visiting Leo in the future, but satisfied with how Smith concluded Leo's journey. Leo's bravery and honor in the first two books are tested and beaten down in the beginning of Agent 6. Eventually, Leo finds his way back and resolves the issues that almost destroyed him. I'm not being specific in order to prevent spoilers, but let me say that readers of the first two books will stay thoroughly involved in Leo's struggles and search for revenge. Also unexpected, Smith brings a tenderness to the finale that left me in tears. He's done a masterful job with all three books. I'm hoping that he continues to write, imbuing a new series of books with the same insightful, well-researched, character-driven stories as he has done with these three. Bravo Mr. Smith.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
`Dreaming of a better world was not without its dangers.'
By J. Cameron-Smith
Agent 6 is the concluding book in a trilogy featuring Leo Demidov, a former Russian Secret Service agent (the other two books are `Child 44' and `The Secret Speech'). The book opens with a flashback to the younger Leo in 1950: a committed, idealistic, member of the secret police who has discovered the secret diary of a young artist, Polina Peshkova. A single sooty fingerprint led Leo to deduce that the diary may be hidden in the chimney. The consequences of the investigation begin a journey which takes Leo into a different life by 1965, when we meet him and his family in Moscow.
Leo discovers Elena's secret diary, but stops himself from reading it. He will have cause to regret this. Leo's wife, Raisa, and daughters Zoya and Elena, have been chosen to travel to New York as part of a `Peace Tour' meant to foster better relations between the USSR and the USA. Leo is forbidden to travel with them. Leo's paranoia about this proves to be prescient. A tragic crime is committed in New York, and Leo is determined to find the truth.
The action in this novel takes us from the civil rights unrest in the USA in the 1960s, to the USSR's involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Leo is working as an adviser in Kabul, still a long way from solving the central mystery in the novel. The mystery is eventually solved, after a number of interesting but at times frustrating diversions. The plot is complicated, and some of the twists and turns detracted from the overall story. While I kept turning the pages, I found this story less interesting than the earlier novels in the trilogy: Leo Demidov is a less compelling and more deeply flawed anti-hero. I think that, ultimately, the action overwhelmed the story.
I'm glad I read it, but I think that it is by far the weakest link in the trilogy.
`I don't know what he is going to say so I can't predict what I'm going to do.'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/0446550760
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