Child 44

This is Tom Rob Smith's first book and hopefully just the first of many terrific books. Incredible! It was a book I couldn't put down. He draws you right in with the first sentence: "Since Maria had decided to die, her cat would have to fend for itself." He describes the loss of food and total loss of hope in the 1933 Soviet Union so vividly. And then brings you to the despair and ruthlessness of the post World War II struggles.
It's a thriller with an original plot: The main character is an officer in the State Security force who only wants to serve his country. He does whatever he's told without any questions. But when a serial killer of children is on the loose, and the paranoid Soviet system refuses to recognize that there is one, he finds himself torn between the search, the truth and his possible death sentence for disloyalty. The filmmaker Ridley Scott ("Alien", "Black Hawk Down") has already bought the rights and plans to direct a film version.