Tom Rob Smith — the author of Child 44, a highly regarded thriller — has a new book out. Like its predecessor, The Secret Speech is set in the Soviet Union of the 1950s. My 10-minute podcast interview with Smith is posted here. We discuss whether his novels are anti-Communist entertainment, what books on Soviet history have influenced him (it’s an excellent list), and his unusual way of writing dialog (with dashes and italics, rather than quote marks).