Agent 6 (The Child 44 Trilogy, 3)

Having read and enjoyed the first two novels in the Leo Demidov trilogy, I am not sure why it took me so long to get around to finishing it up with AGENT 6. But I am glad I did. It is the best of the three.Having given up his position as a member of the secret police, Leo is living the hard, cold life of the average Soviet. When his wife and two daughters get to travel to the land of the archenemy, the United States, he is forced to stay behind, no longer having the privileges of his former profession. When that trip ends in disaster, Leo can do nothing but look on from afar, only dreaming of traveling to America to investigate matters for himself.The book takes a broad scope, from 1950 through the early ‘80s, from Moscow to Manhattan, with side trips through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Author Tom Rob Smith keeps the adventure going, both with the external action as well as with Leo’s internal, depressed, and narcotized state. Even though we suspect that things will take a turn for the better, we are never quite sure. Given how many lives Leo destroyed in service to the murderous Soviet system, we are also a bit unsure whether we want him to have a happy ending anyway.As with CHILD 44 and THE SECRET SPEECH, the best part of the book is not the action but the atmosphere. Smith has always done an excellent job of creating the paranoid and claustrophobic feel of the totalitarian state which is Leo’s horrifying native milieu. It may not be as prominent here given Leo’s changed circumstances, but it still exists as the backdrop against which every action, every decision might be a matter of success or life in the gulag. In all, a worthwhile end to the adventures.

Agent 6 is the final book in the Child 44 trilogy. Similar to its predecessors (Child 44 and The Secret Speech), in Agent 6 Tom Rob Smith's prose is spot on; his narrative is engrossing; the main character, Leo Demidov, continues to be one of the most richly developed and memorable characters in the thriller genre. Also, as I experienced in the first two books, Smith weaves his tale in Agent 6 in such a way that I, as the reader, felt I was right in the middle of the action with the main characters.That being said, while Agent 6 is a worthwhile read -- and is likely to be a "must" read for those who enjoyed Child 44 and The Secret Speech, its plot is inconsistent in terms of being continually riveting. Now, I'll try to explain what I mean.For me, this inconsistency comes about because Smith's 467 page plot in Agent 6 varies in intensity and interest as it spans about a thirty year period and a few continents.The first 200 pages or so are very interesting and create a slow but steady level of excitement during the periods ranging from 1950s Moscow to 1960s America. It is during this time that the plot describes how Leo comes to meet Raisa (who subsequently becomes his wife), how they both come to meet a famous American singer with strong Communist sympathies, and how their association with this singer leads to a series of events many years later in which Leo Demidov's wife and daughters, while part of a "Peace Tour" in New York City -- a trip in which Leo is not permitted to make -- get caught in a web of conspiracy and betrayal that ends in tragedy. When Leo learns of what happened and the impact it has on his life, he swears revenge.However, it is not until 15 years later that Leo's long pursuit of justice will be permitted, and will force him to confront everything he ever thought he knew about his country, his family and himself. This portion of the book encompasses the last 70 or so pages and will have your eyes glued to every word on each of these pages. It is these pages that made me draw the ultimate conclusion that I enjoyed this book very much.The lack of consistency in terms of mystery, excitement and intensity comes about in the middle section of the book, which spans about a 15 year period and almost 200 pages, and has Leo, often under the influence of drugs serving as an advisor to the Soviets in their war in Afghanistan. Although this section is generally interesting, it "reads" slowly and mainly, to me, serves as an overlong distraction to show how Leo's life had steadily deteriorated from the mid 60s until finding a way in 1981 to obtain the answer to the question that has haunted him all these years: What happened in New York? While I would rate the first and last sections of the book between 4 and 5 stars, I would only give 3 stars to this portion of the book.Nonetheless, despite Agent 6's inconsistencies in intensity, it is a very well-written, entertaining book, and hopefully will allow Smith to build on the large fan base he developed with his first two books.

AGENT SIX is the third in Tom Robb Smith's Demidov series, and it's just as good as his acclaimed first novel, CHILD 44. Mainly because it's about more than just chasing and catching the bad guys.This one starts in 1950 and ends in 1981. We see Leo early on as a hypersensitive member of the Russian secret police. He turns an innocuous diary into an affront against the state because a sketch of the Statue of Liberty was drawn and erased. But then he meets his future wife, Raisa, and he can no longer stomach the paranoia of the state police. He resigns, managing a small business, that is until his wife and his adopted daughter, Elena, are invited to join a "peace" mission to sing with American teenagers at the United Nations in New York. But it's all a set-up. Elena, influenced by her lover, a Russian propaganda operative, influences Jesse Austin (think Paul Robeson, whose career was ruined by McCarthyism), a one-time popular American entertainer and avowed Communist, to speak at a demonstration during the performance. He is murdered and shortly afterwards so is Leo's wife Raisa. The media line is that Jesse and Raisa were having an affair and that Anna, Jesse's wife, shot Raisa in a murderous rage.But that's a lie. Leo knows it's a lie and he bides his time to try to get to America and investigate on his own. But that's virtually impossible. He tries and is wounded. His alternatives are to spend years in prison or volunteer for duty in Afghanistan. He can not try to escape or the Soviets will punish his adopted daughters Elena and Zoya who have established their own lives.The plot isn't about how Leo catches Raisa's killer (Leo does that in about eighty pages); it's how he manages to escape Afghanistan and still protect his adopted daughters. Tom Robb Smith painted himself into a corner, yet figures out a way to make it all sound plausible.We also get a look at a CIA officer named Yates who's just as much an ideologue as Leo was at the beginning of the book, willing to ruin somebody's life (Jesse Austin's in this case) in order to further his Cold War fanaticism.The ending is perfect. It's not a cliffhanger or anything, but we know where the next book will begin. We also learn that there are good people as well as bad on both sides of the political divide. If you know your history, and you should, damn it, Perestroika and Glasnost are about to start under Gorbachev, and that gives Leo some options you wouldn't expect, considering where he is at the end of AGENT SIX.

This is the third novel in the author's best-selling trilogy beginning with Child 44, centred around the life of (latterly reformed) KGB man Leo Demidov. This novel actually covers a period of over 30 years, beginning when Leo is a young and still idealistic KGB officer under Stalin in 1950, convinced that spying on citizens who keep a diary is a justified activity for the State he serves. He also acts as escort to a visiting Communist celebrity from the USA, an Afro-American singer Jesse Austin (clearly based on Paul Robeson). 15 years later his wife and daughters get a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit New York as part of a peace delegation and Austin is once again involved. I don't want to give away too many plot details but it involves campaigns of dirty tricks and deceit, assassinations, "ordinary" murders, international cover ups, and a second half of the novel set in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in 1980-81 where Leo is an informal adviser to the regime. A great deal happens throughout this near 500 page novel and there is a wide range of colourful, tragic and ruthless characters, Soviet, Afghan and American. The ethos of the cold war, the desperate ideological issues, the different perceptions of treachery and loyalty involved, come across clearly and with conviction. The ending of the novel is sad, albeit tinged with some happiness, and provides a slightly ambiguous end to Leo's run of luck, but in a way that seems to make it clear there won't be any more novels featuring him, which I slightly regret. An excellent read.

This is a curious book. It is almost as if it is so enamoured of its locations and self-consciously 'epic' sweep that it forgets about plot or character development for large chunks.Leo Demidov's wife and daughters travel from the depths of Cold War Russia to New York, where they are caught up in a diplomatic incident. Leo struggles to come to terms with and ends up in Afghanistan, some years later, as a type of 'Sean Connery in The Rock' grizzled, opium-addled consultant. Don't think it gives too much away to say that he ends up in New York, finding out the truth about events years previously.Smith is a very talented writer, and the subject matter is sufficiently different and well-researched to be interesting (history of communist-sympathising among Afro-Americans, torture by soft-drink bottle), but there are major issues here: A soggy middle section, some two dimensional characters (particularly the Afghans) and a very rushed denouement. As others have pointed out, it takes about 12 pages to unravel the 'central mystery' (for Leo; the reader will need only a fraction of that), which suggests that Smith (or his editor) couldn't quite work out what the focus of the book should be.Some way from being Smith's best work, but if you've shifted a gazillion units of your previous book, I guess you can be allowed the odd dud (or an eye to a TV mini-series with a high location budget).

I read and was really impressed by 'Child 44', slightly bemused by 'Secret Speech' and completely at a loss with 'Agent 6'. The premise of the book was good, however, (Spoiler Alert) after the death of Leo's wife for me the book lost it's way. The pacing was all over the place, there were long unexplained periods in the narrative: i.e. Why wasn't Leo's attempt to cross the border better documented, Leo getting to America then attempting to covertly manage an investigation into his wife's death, as a result the story lost its credibility, which is a shame. As mentioned elsewhere Leo doesn't find out about the existence of 'Agent 6' until you've got as far as the last 60 pages. The reappearance of the supposedly dead party functionary in the last pages of the book didn't ring true either. Oh well, a pity it had to end this way. I'll now sit back and wait for the -ve votes.

The final book in the Child 44 trilogy and an excellent end to an intriguing and complicated story. Child 44 starts with Leo Demidov's employment with the MGB (becomes the KGB later) and explores his conscience and the changes in his life. The series is wonderfully written and the characters well described. His research is first class and only surpassed by his writing. You feel for Leo. He draws you into his world and you understand him. There is not so much violence in this book as in the first two as this is more about Leo and his quest. An absolutely brilliant three books and I would be hard pushed to select one of the three that I liked the best. However this last one ties up all the loose ends and makes it spectacular. Buy all three.

Having just finished this book and therefore the trilogy I have to say that the chronological order matches the qualitative order too. This is all over the place and for no reason other than to provide Leo a chance to get to America and there we finally meet Agent 6 ....who confirms what the reader already knows regarding the identity of Raisa's killer. Hmmm and the ending reads like the author got bored and cops out. Child 44 excellent but the second and third novels are not in the same league as far as historical writing goes. Leo fades away as a character and ultimately this is just a means to an end unless Leo is coming back under Gorbachev....Finally, speech marks please!!!