The trilogy (Child 44, The Secret Speech and Agent 6) chronicles the lengthy career of WWII hero Demidov from the Orwellian paranoia of the immediate post-war Stalinist regime to the early 80s as the empire finally starts to fracture thanks to the debacle in Afghanistan. Demidov starts his career as a political detective in a country which officially has no crime. Hunting a serial killer who officially does not exist. He later becomes a KGB agent determined to steer the organization to legitimacy by investigating real crimes, not imagined political ones. Only to be dogged by past victims of the regime hellbent on revenge and to run afoul of hardliners who have no intention of changing anything. And finally, he tackles the most challenging and personal murder investigation of his career, which leads him across the globe.

I just finished the third book last night. Very satisfying.