Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

I am new to Tom Rob Smith's Russian thrillers. The initial subject matter, the murder of children, had put me off but once I got past the opening scenes in Child 44, Smith's opener to this trilogy, I was hooked. The conundrum is how you investigate a crime when officially that crime cannot exist. In Soviet Russia such violence was something that might occur in the uncivilised west but not in the equitable USSR. The hero Leo is initially involved in the cover-up of a child's murder but as events crowd round him he moves on and discovers the unthinkable. His transformation from willing agent of the state to unofficial-detective-on-the-run is philosophically fascinating and without doubt is one of the most exciting books I've read. That was Child 44 but the book I am reviewing here is Agent 6, the last in the trilogy which came out last week.

Agent 6 is set some years after Child 44. Leo and his family live a settled life. Leo has put his morals before his career and as a result his wife, a teacher, is the one whose career has taken off. In the early chapters of the book something terrible happens to Leo that shapes the rest of the book. This is less of a page-turner than Child 44, it is more studied and less driven as we watch Leo almost anaesthetised by the shock. To find peace he must find Agent 6 and to find Agent 6 he will have to get to the USA. How's an ex-secret service officer to do that during the Cold War? Well, it takes him decades. The central section of the book is set during another European attempt to invade Afghanistan. The Russians in the 1980s found the local Afghan population very hard to subdue. Can Leo get out of Afghanistan to the west before the Russians or the Afghans kill him?

This central setting is the strength of the book. Afghanistan in the 1980s is nicely realised. The tensions for the locals between the demands of their religion and those of communism are effectively realised through Leo's side-kick, a junior officer being trained by Leo. In the end Leo must save them both before at last getting Agent 6 in his sights.

Agent 6 is about different kinds of totalitarianism, about fanaticism on all sides, and what the west turns a blind eye to in its dealing with non-democratic regimes. Stylistically it is very different to Child 44 and the style suits the subject. Leo is not the handsome career soldier he once was. He is older, slower, suffering from mental health problems, but experienced in the manoeuvrings of governments and secret service departments like a chess grandmaster. Agent 6 is not so much a thriller (and I think you might be disappointed if you read it as such) as an intricate game, a history lesson, philosophy in action.

Agent 6 is quiet but truly engaging where Child 44 merely excites. It is a more mature work with a more mature hero, and a very brave ending. I loved it.

Comments

[Annabel]

I really enjoyed Child 44, so am looking forward to (eventually) getting to read the follow up.

P.S. Thank you so much for mentioning my blog in your piece on The Thought Fox. Apart from not reading many dead authors (something I should do more of), I couldn't agree more.

[holiday apartments in london]

The book is looking quite interesting and the fact that the main action is in Russia is quite untipical for such a a triller books in my opinion.