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From Publishers Weekly
Tenacious Senior Investigator Arkady Renko is on another tough case, and this time even the air is dangerous. He is a man of few words and little nonsense, whose vulnerable heart and dogged temerity are his weaknesses. Smith's old-school Soviet detective, introduced in 1981's Gorky Park, isn't one to let a trail go cold. After being called off a suspicious suicide case, he is sent to the "Zone of Exclusion" (the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident) to investigate a tangential case. The Zone, where Renko's dosimeter constantly ticks at the amount of deadly radiation that pollutes everything, is occupied by scientists, eccentrics and old folks who have crept back into the ghost towns to live outside society. McLarty's naturally husky voice is well suited to the surly-yet-soft Renko, and his straightforward reading is fittingly raw for a tale where a shroud of bleakness taints even love affairs. With a voice like a keyed-down Don La Fontaine (the ubiquitous voiceover artist famous for the line, "In a world beyond imagination..."), McLarty's hearty, slightly raspy bass strikes an appropriate tone for the dangerous netherworld of post-Soviet Russia. His subtle variances and accents are practically unnoticeable, which is as it should be. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover. (Forecasts, Sept. 6, 2004). (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* The terminally melancholic Russian investigator Arkady Renko, whose cynicism is perpetually at war with his need to dig a little deeper, was last seen five years ago in Havana, where the rusting idealism of post-Soviet Cuba mirrored the detective's ravaged inner life. Leave it to Cruz Smith to find an even more evocative setting for the battered Renko: the Zone of Exclusion, the dreaded no-man's land around Chernobyl, an officially abandoned, contaminated area where a bizarre assortment of stubborn Ukrainians, crazed entrepreneurs, and determined researchers continue to live in the shadow of Reactor Four, the "sarcophagus," site of the world 's worst nuclear accident. The case that takes Renko to Chernobyl involves the death of Pasha Ivanov, a billionaire businessman, symbol of the New Russia. Why would such a man commit suicide, jumping from the window of his Moscow apartment, and why was his closet floor covered with salt? Renko, the perennial outsider whose career is officially on the skids ("Some men march confidently from one historical era to another; others skid"), is assigned the simple task of sweeping the suicide under the rug, but naturally, he does the opposite, obsessed by the seemingly inexplicable salt and determined, as always, to keep digging no matter how loudly the bureaucrats scream. Perhaps that's why Renko feels oddly comfortable in Chernobyl: the bureaucrats are out of earshot in a surreal shadow world where the dosimeters (to measure radiation) provide the backbeat for a grayed-out version of life just this side of The Twilight Zone. Even more than Havana Bay, this novel demonstrates Cruz Smith's remarkable ability to meld character with landscape, and if Renko seems to find a shred of hope in the end, we know not to turn our dosimeters off quite yet. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Moscow swam in color. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Penetrating Look at the Links between Old and New Russia,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Wolves Eat Dogs (Paperback)
Martin Cruz Smith's work continues to transcend the mystery genre into social commentary on the state of Russia and the Ukraine in this unusual and unexpected story about politics, nuclear science and the rise of the new Russian capitalists. As usual, our "neutral" observer is investigator Arkady Renko who continues on his lonely path seeking truth while others prefer lies.As the book opens, a billionaire, Pasha Ivanov, is found dead at the base of his condo's building. Did he jump . . . or was he pushed? Those are the main choices for Arkady . . . until he's ordered off the case. But Arkady's not satisfied that it's a suicide. Why was Ivanov's closet full of salt? Winning a reprieve for his investigation from an unexpected source, Arkady finds himself in the middle of the "dead" zone near the site of the Chernobyl (spelled as Chornobyl by those in the Ukraine) disaster. You'll feel like your visiting a world imagined by Dante as you follow his slow "investigation." The resolution of the story's plot will leave you shaking your head a bit . . . but you will find the trip to be an intriguing one that's well worth your time. I was especially fascinated by the psychology described for those who lived through the aftermath of the nuclear disaster and continue to live in the vicinity. It's gritty material that will remind you of stories you've read about surviving in tough prisons and concentration camps. The story will unforgettably drive home the message that we'd better take care of the environment.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Baba Yaga Has A Long Blue Nose,
By
This review is from: Wolves Eat Dogs (Paperback)
Martin Cruz Smith is a former journalist and magazine editor. "Red Square" is his fifth novel - a series that began with "Gorky Park" - to feature Arkady Renko and was first published in 2004.Renko, the hero, works as an Investigator with Moscow's militia - more or less the standard police force - and has something of a chequered career. Never a truly 'practising' member of the Party, Renko hasn't always been thought highly of by those in authority. He has always wanted to catch the people responsible for the crimes he's investigating, regardless of the 'political' consequences - as a result of this, he was once dismissed from the Party for a lack of 'political reliability' and sentenced to a life in Siberia. He has been rehabilitated for several years now, though he always remained something of a disappointment to his father - a very famous ex-General. His father has been dead for some time, something Arkady never seemed too bothereed about. However, he hasn't yet entirely gotten over the death of his wife, Irina. Pasha Ivanov was one of the 'new' Russia's most successful businessmen - President of NoviRus and worth an absolute fortune. However, the businessman has - it would appear - jumped to his death through his apartment window. The book opens in the apartment, with Arkady peering through the window towards the corpse on the pavement. Among those also present are Prosecutor Zurin (Arkady's boss), Bobby Hoffman (Ivanov's American assistant) and Lev Timofeyev - an old friend of Ivanov's and a Senior Vice-President at NoviRus. The pair had studied together at the Institute, and were two particular favourites of the noted Academican Gerasimov. Zurin is happy to write it off as suicide, and there is little - other than, possibly, a large pile of salt in the closet - to make Renko think anyone else was involved. At Hoffman's insistence, Arkady keeps looking into it though - something that doesn't make him very popular with neither Zurin, nor Colonel Ozhogin - Head of Security at NoviRus. Naturally, when the pile of salt in Ivanov's closet turns out to be radioactive and Timofeyev turns up murdered in Chernobyl, it's Arkady sent to investigate. I've really enjoyed the Renko books to date - though, after a brief trip to Cuba for "Havana Bay", I'm glad to see the action taking place a little closer to home. The introduction of Zhenya - an eleven year old boy who lives at one of Moscow's shelters - was an interesting one. Arkady occasionally spends a free day with the boy, who seems to have some difficulty relating to people. I'm hoping, though, their relationship will continue in later books.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A return to form,
By
This review is from: Wolves Eat Dogs (Paperback)
This is a solid return of a master. If you thought Cruz faltered in his last outing this will make your nights longer and better. It is a stay-up late noir thriller. The melancholy Russian investigator struggles against an oppressive and corrupt bureaucracy while dealing with the mystery of a suicide perhaps murder in the midst of the living hell that is today's Chernobyl. In the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster where the dead and the dying are seperated by inches and an ever ticking dosimeter measuring radiation the plodding but true Renko doesn't deviate.This is a mystery for today--shocking in that it was written before the murder/assassination in London of a former Russian agant--and a foreshadowing of a bleak world or tomorrow. Worth a good look and a read.
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