Otto Penzler's favorite thrillers

New York Magazine tasked Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop and editor of the Agents of Treachery, a collection of previously unpublished spy fiction, to name some thrillers under the theme "If You Liked My Book, You’ll Love These."

One title on his list:

Child 44 (2008)
by Tom Rob Smith

Gorky Park meets 1984. The novel, loosely based on a true story, is set in the Russia of Joseph Stalin and follows a government agent investigating a serial killer who is protected by the Communist Party’s official policy: There was no crime in the Soviet Union.

Read about the other books on Penzler's list.

The Page 69 Test: Child 44.

--Marshal Zeringue