With Agent 6, Tom Rob Smith completes the trilogy that began with the Booker-long listed Child 44.  Agent 6 reprises the tale of Leo Demidov, that most jaded of heroes, a former KGB officer long since dispossessed of his idealism. Having paid a high price for his refusal to work for the secret police, Demidov is reduced to living in Muscovite slums, robbing his family of the relative luxury to which they were once accustomed. In a reversal of the balance of power, his beloved wife Raisa has been successful as a teacher, to the point where she is appointed head of a delegation to New York, a party of Soviet schoolchildren tasked with performing at the United Nations as part of a diplomatic mission. However, Raisa’s idealistic vision for the trip is not shared by the forces of power on either side of the Iron Curtain, and events in New York plunge Leo and his family into their darkest hour of the trilogy.

Where Smith’s sophomore effort, The Secret Speech, was criticised for being too filmic, too obsessed with action, Agent 6 is more psychological, with a keen interest in human drama. Through Demidov’s struggles we have been presented with something emblematic of the horrors of the Communist project. The effect is heartrending for its basis in reality, but also for the passion with which Smith weaves his tale of woe.
While Smith’s earlier books went to great pains to (rightly) demonise Stalin, Agent 6 takes care to examine the iniquities of other regimes. With hindsight, it is easy to see the Cold War as a binary struggle, East/West, right/wrong, good/evil; Smith demands that we think again. The hypocrisy of Capitalism is exposed mercilessly; claiming to promote freedom while leaving the fanatical forces of McCarthyism unchecked, claiming to champion the rights of the individual while demanding all life decisions be made with the state in mind.  Both Soviet Russia and Capitalist America are prepared to crush and ruin individual citizens in order to protect the security of their ideals, summed up superbly with the following quote -

“The purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the change.”

A statement utterly Stalinist in sentiment, but made not by a Communist, but by J. Edgar Hoover himself.

The drawing of similarities is particularly powerful, but Smith knows better than to retreat into “two sides of the same coin” territory. The capitalist model is portrayed as a rat-like scramble for supremacy on the part of individuals, while the Communist model is badly managed but predicated on fairness and equality. It is in the politics of identity where Communism shines brightest; the pernicious racism of American society is examined, and in the later Afghan sequences, the brutal sexism of theocracy is subjected to similar study. Ultimately though, through all three books, Smith has painted Communism as black as it can be, and just as Smith’s cast is devoid of unimpeachable good guys, so is the global politics of Agent 6.

The complexity of the characters is quite stunning. Smith employs a neat technique of comparing and contrasting character traits, and through this, as one character develops, the cast as a whole becomes stronger, blooming as a collective to create something of enormous power.

Which brings us to Leo Demidov. The vast arc of his character is brought to a sorrowful close in Agent 6. In his last appearance he was down on his luck and sought redemption in love and family; here he becomes more complex still. In parts he remains the gifted agent, he can spot dissembling in a heartbeat and has a powerful gift for self preservation. In other sections he is defeated, seeking oblivion, and in still more he is consumed by a flaming hatred. He soars above the clichés of the world-weary agent, and now the trilogy is complete, I for one will miss him dearly.

There are those critics who would seek to make Smith’s Booker nomination a millstone around his neck, and there is certainly material in Agent 6 for them to pick at. In accordance with his aims, Smith’s prose is strictly business; on occasion this leads him to take the easy option when looking for a description; mountains are “snow-capped,” powers are “razor-sharp.” Similarly, Smith takes the occasional flight of fancy; for example an escape route is found out of a hotel guarded by the full weight of the American intelligence services. There are weaknesses there, but Agent 6 is a book far more than the sum of its parts. As the final chapter in the trilogy, it examines the arc not just of a single man or his family, but of the largest political project in history, from the early idealism of the Soviet regime, through to its bloated and discredited death throes. It offers up anguished humanity, wasted lives and talent, cruelty both sadistic and misguided, the courage and foolhardiness of hope. It is a deeply moving piece of work; even information dumps are shot through with emotion. It is the study of the death of a dream, ideologically, psychologically, personally and politically. Just like the opening chapter in this bleak saga, Agent 6 is something far greater than a rank and file thriller.

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