Title: The Secret Speech

Author: Tom Rob Smith

Reviewer: Ying-yue Zhao

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

For those in the know, The Secret Speech is the sequel to Tom Rob Smith’s successful 2008 thriller Child 44. I am not usually a fan of historical or political novels, let alone ones about the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. If you had asked me what I think would be a horrible setting for a book, Moscow in 1956 would be right up there (along with a little town called Forks), but I have to concede that this book was so enjoyable that it has made me reconsider the whole historical/political genre again.