Some things have to be done. Children leave home. Sports icons retire.
And fictional characters, however beloved, need to exit when their story is told.
Tom Rob Smith's Leo Demidov, a Russian war hero and secret policeman, debuted in 2008's "Child 44" and came back for a second act in "The Secret Speech." Both novels became best-sellers and earned favorable reviews.
Demidov had the potential of becoming a Russian version of John le Carre's George Smiley or Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne.
But Smith recognized he exhausted the character's possibilities. Thus, the new book "Agent 6" is being billed as the final installment in the series.
"It feels like it was the perfect ending for Leo," Smith says from his home in London. "He couldn't go anywhere else. ... I had a good run with him. Obviously, he's not a real person, but when I came to the end of 'Agent 6,' it was sad."
The book opens in 1950, and Demidov is still a member of the secret police. He is part of a contingent hosting Jesse Austin, a black American folk singer and an avowed communist. The visit ends with a colleague of Demidov's in despair over a young Russian woman who dies when Demidov transfers her case to a high-priority status.
Flash forward 15 years, and Demidov's wife, Raisa, and children fly to New York as part of a cultural exchange featuring Russian and American choirs. Austin, living in poverty after being disgraced, is lured to a concert, shot and killed. Raisa suffers the same fate in the ensuing melee.
Demidov wants to investigate his wife's murder, but logistics make that impossible. He embarks on a 15-year saga that makes the trials of Hercules seem mundane, notably a posting with the Russian military in Afghanistan.
"I was much more interested in how he was going to get to the crime," Smith says. "The journey was the real key to this book."
"Agent 6" starts in Moscow, and jumps between New York and Kabul with a brief foray into Pakistan. Smith relied on history books by Western journalists and Soviet historians, to authenticate the scenes in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. The western reporters, some of whom were embedded with mujahideen fighters, provided vivid accounts of people defending their country. But Smith found valuable background in the opposing accounts when he was fleshing out Leo's story.
"You get a sense of romanticism when you read the reports of the Soviet generals," Smith says. "It was an awful war, and many of the soldiers were very young. They suffered through some terrible conditions."
Smith also captures the essence of the relations between the U.S. and USSR in the second half of the 1960s. The hardline diplomacy practiced by Nikita Kruschev had been replaced with a sense that the two countries needed, on some level, to reach out to each other. A musical event featuring children from both countries might seem superficial now, but a nearly a half-century ago, these ventures were important in thawing the then-frosty U.S.-Soviet relations.
"In some ways (cultural exchanges) were diplomatically vital to the extent it was much harder back then to fix the military problems," Smith says. "The tensions were so high that these cultural exchanges were attempts to create a sense of hope."
Another layer of "Agent 6" comes via Austin, who was modeled after the singer Paul Robeson. The Russians were desperate in their attempts to export their ideology to the United States. They tried to appeal to women, then tried to sell communism as a brand to black Americans.
But nothing worked.
"What to me is so interesting about their attacks on American society was that, fundamentally, it was not the least bit appealing to the population," Smith says. "Their ideals didn't have any roots. The peak of communists in the United States was only 100,000 during the Depression, the worst economic crisis. But no one wanted any parts of it. They were trying to sell an ideology that was unsellable. The FBI was right to see it as a threat, but their reaction was exaggerated. Communism just wasn't appealing to most Americans."
Additional Information:Capsule review
There are many things to admire in Tom Rob Smith's 'Agent 6,' the final book in a series featuring Russian secret policeman Leo Demidov. The action scenes are well-balanced, the dialogue is crisp, and what could have been a problematic plot is handled with aplomb. But, the most indelible feature is Smith's nuanced portrayal of Demidov, shattered by the death of his wife and on the brink of self-destruction. If this is truly Demidov's swan song, it's brilliantly finished.
⢠Rege Behe
