AGENT 6

AGENT 6 is last in the trilogy of USSR thrillers by Tom Rob Smith (previous novels in the series being CHILD 44 and THE SECRET SPEECH), featuring sometime KGB agent Leo Demidov. The novel contains a terrifying opening sequence, where Demidov, showing the ropes to a younger, more softer hearted agent, demonstrates the most paranoid nuances of Stalinist-era thought crime when considering a personal diary. In those days any such diary would be automatically regarded as suspect, and even diary entries supportive of the regime could be considered subversive if deemed to not display the right level of sentiment, leaving the hapless diarist vulnerable to at best arrest and questioning, and at worst torture, imprisonment and death.