Customer Reviews

Gorky Park

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Cruz Smith is a former journalist and magazine editor. "Gorky Park" is his first novel to feature Arkady Renko, was first published in 1981 and is largely set in the Moscow before the collapse of the USSR. Renko, the hero, works as the Chief Homicide Investigator for Moscow's militia - unlike the KGB, who deal with matters if 'State interest', the militia are more or less the standard police force. Renko, therefore, deals with the 'everyday' murders. Displaying one unfortunate trait for a homicide investigator, however, he has a distinct aversion to corpses - though he has a 100% success rate in clearing cases. Unhappily married and somewhat cynical, he's not quite as active a Party member as his wife would like him to be - something that has also had a negative effect on his career. He also appears to be something of a disappointment to his father, a very famous retired General. Renko's boss, Prosecutor Iamskoy, seems to have a certain amount of affection for him though - the Prosecutor actually won an appeal for a worker wrongly convicted of murder thanks to Renko's work.

The book opens in Gorky Park, first park of the Revolution and favoured above all others. Three corpses have been found buried in the snow and, as a result, have been very well preserved. This means that, initially, the time of death can only be estimated as sometime that winter. All three victims - three men and a woman - were all shot through the heart, with the two men also having been shot through the head. The killer, clearly an expert marksman, also has access to a weapon Muscovites cannot typically lay their hands on. No papers could be found on the bodies, which have also been mutilated - the fingerprints and flesh on the faces has been removed, making a quick identification unlikely. One early lead, however, comes from the ice-skates the victims were wearing...

One of the other detectives assigned to the case, Pasha Pavlovich, had worked with Renko previously. Then, three corpses were found at the Kliazma River in remarkably similar circumstances to the Gorky Park killings. The pair immediately suspect the same individual is responsible in this case. However, as the chief suspect at the Kliazma River was a KGB Major called Pribluda, the pair promptly lost that case to the KGB. As Pribluda - who'd actually taken over the Kliazma River case - makes an early appearance at the scene in Gorky Park and interferes with the corpses, Arkady and Pasha expect the KGB to again quickly snatch this case from them. (Pribluda will, of course, be kept right up-to-date : a third detective assigned to the case, Fet, is a known KGB informant). In fact, as the cases progresses, even Renko thinks it looks more and more like a KGB case...though he suspects they would have little desire to 'solve' it.

Overall, a very good book and well worth reading - for me, it would comfortably rest in the top tier of the murder-mystery genre. Renko is a very likeable character and, probably because of his `flaws', is very easy to relate with. Recommended.

Picked up this book at a used book store based on remembering that a movie was made from it.

Loved it and the main character Arkady. Have since read 3 other in the series.

Martin Cruz Smith is a former journalist and magazine editor. "Gorky Park" is his first novel to feature Arkady Renko, was first published in 1981 and is largely set in the Moscow before the collapse of the USSR. Renko, the hero, works as the Chief Homicide Investigator for Moscow's militia - unlike the KGB, who deal with matters if 'State interest', the militia are more or less the standard police force. Renko, therefore, deals with the 'everyday' murders. Displaying one unfortunate trait for a homicide investigator, however, he has a distinct aversion to corpses - though he has a 100% success rate in clearing cases. Unhappily married and somewhat cynical, he's not quite as active a Party member as his wife would like him to be - something that has also had a negative effect on his career. He also appears to be something of a disappointment to his father, a very famous retired General. Renko's boss, Prosecutor Iamskoy, seems to have a certain amount of affection for him though - the Prosecutor actually won an appeal for a worker wrongly convicted of murder thanks to Renko's work.

The book opens in Gorky Park, first park of the Revolution and favoured above all others. Three corpses have been found buried in the snow and, as a result, have been very well preserved. This means that, initially, the time of death can only be estimated as sometime that winter. All three victims - three men and a woman - were all shot through the heart, with the two men also having been shot through the head. The killer, clearly an expert marksman, also has access to a weapon Muscovites cannot typically lay their hands on. No papers could be found on the bodies, which have also been mutilated - the fingerprints and flesh on the faces has been removed, making a quick identification unlikely. One early lead, however, comes from the ice-skates the victims were wearing...

One of the other detectives assigned to the case, Pasha Pavlovich, had worked with Renko previously. Then, three corpses were found at the Kliazma River in remarkably similar circumstances to the Gorky Park killings. The pair immediately suspect the same individual is responsible in this case. However, as the chief suspect at the Kliazma River was a KGB Major called Pribluda, the pair promptly lost that case to the KGB. As Pribluda - who'd actually taken over the Kliazma River case - makes an early appearance at the scene in Gorky Park and interferes with the corpses, Arkady and Pasha expect the KGB to again quickly snatch this case from them. (Pribluda will, of course, be kept right up-to-date : a third detective assigned to the case, Fet, is a known KGB informant). In fact, as the cases progresses, even Renko thinks it looks more and more like a KGB case...though he suspects they would have little desire to 'solve' it.

Overall, a very good book and well worth reading - for me, it would comfortably rest in the top tier of the murder-mystery genre. Renko is a very likeable character and, probably because of his 'flaws', is very easy to relate with. Recommended.

It was unfortunate I saw the Hollywood version of "Gorky Park" before reading the novel. The film does not do justice to the main character or the storyline. It cannot compare to the book! After reading "Polar Star" and Red Square", the second and third installments of the series, I picked up the original and loved it. More recently, "Havana Bay" was published, and later this year a long-awaited fifth novel, "Wolves Eat Dogs", will be released. Arkady Renko, the protagonist of the series, is an honest, dedicated, hard-working Ukrainian cop. When he was Chief Homicide Inspector for the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, he took charge of a grisly murder case involving the international fur trade. Very quickly, he fell afoul of the KGB. That's how his troubles began, which pursue him throughout all four novels. I recommend this series highly. The settings are supurbly drawn -- from snowbound Moscow to an Arctic Sea fish processing ship, from a steam-filled banya to the steamy port of Havana. Wherever he goes, Arkady brings his cynical love-hate relationship with the Soviet system which often impedes his work. Like Columbo, he outsmarts the sly evil-doers while seemingly fumbling his way along the investigation. And he has more lives than the proverbial cat as his sleuthing lands him in the most lethal stews! Author Martin Cruz Smith has created one of the most likable protagonists in police fiction. Cleverly writing the character as just "Arkady" -- intimately using his first name -- helps endear him to the reader. We care for Arkady because of his moral strengths, his humility and compassion, and despite his weaknesses. Along the way, Arkady has fallen obsessively in love with the most unsuitable woman imaginable: an obnoxious, abrasive dissident who not only treats him like dirt and breaks his heart, but is the cause of his political woes. It is hard to lament in the least her later demise! But we sympathize with our hero's suffering and rejoice in his small rewards. Reward yourself by reading this exceptional series, beginning with "Gorky Park"!

"Gorky Park" came out in 1981, so some of the Cold War references to the KGB and the bad old days are dated, but it remains a top-notch thriller. Arkady Renko is a Soviet cop called in to solve a triple murder, with the bodies left under the snow in a Moscow park. As he probes deeper, he bumps into the KGB, a wealthy American fur trader, and a high-level conspiracy dating back to World War II. Cruz Smith spent eight years writing the text, and it shows. The eye for detail, the Moscow street scenes, the historical research and the multi-layered characters all feel first-hand and urgent. That "Gorky Park" is a cut above other espionage/thriller novels made it a best-seller when it came out and a decent film with William Hurt.

Many writers today find a successful formula and stick to it... over and over. The only thing the same from Martin Cruz Smith's works are their high level of excitement, interesting characters and plot development. Gorky Park is Smith's BEST work to date. What he does best is gives the reader an insiders' view of a society totally different than what the audience is used to. And introduces his characters to his readers as if we had been their friends (or enemies) for years.
Whether it be Los Alamos during the development of Man's deadliest weapon in Stallion Gate, Cuba in Havana Bay, Japan in December 4th: A Novel, or Moscow in Gorky Park, with his characters on the verge of an exciting adventure for the reader to be a part of.
I enjoy Smith's books. Gorky Park is THE mystery novel I judge all other mysteries and mystery writers by. Some mysteries I consume like potato chips or pretzels. Very, VERY few do I savor each page as I did Gorky Park!

John Row

Gorky Park is a wonderful and perfectly-executed attempt to portray a Russian protagonist in a Russian environment challenged by an American killer.
The writing is moody and absolutely beautiful, the story is very human, and more than once the characters (especially Renko) will bring you a warm compassianate smile. Even though there are some minor factual faults present, Gorky Park is an extremely satisfying piece of crime fiction, and Martin Cruz Smith is probably the only author who gives Russian cops some credit!

Near the end of Chapter 11, Renko experiences a sharp pang of discomfort as the girl he has entangled in his investigation of three murders puts a cigarette out against the bark of a birch tree, "as if the warm stab were being pressed into his heart. He believed her. The truth had gone from her into the tree and into him." This is the quality of writing that we get from Martin Cruz Smith. His facility with language balances with his storycraft to produce a compelling, dramatic espionage thriller that stands against the best work of Le Carre or Fredrick Forsyth.

Near the end of Chapter 11, Renko experiences a sharp pang of discomfort as the girl he has entangled in his investigation of three murders puts a cigarette out against the bark of a birch tree, "as if the warm stab were being pressed into his heart. He believed her. The truth had gone from her into the tree and into him." This is the quality of writing that we get from Martin Cruz Smith. His facility with language balances with his storycraft to produce a compelling, dramatic espionage thriller that stands against the best work of Le Carre or Fredrick Forsyth.

I've always been a great fan of detective, spy and Cold War novels. This book brings out the best of all 3 worlds, but unlike so many American Cold War novels, Smith looks at the three dead bodies in Gorky Park and beyond (and out of Moscow to New York City) through the eyes of the main character--detective Arkardy Renko, a cynical Ukrainian who works hard at his job with honesty and with conviction in Moscow--and not some unkillable CIA hero. The story is filled with intrigue, cunning plot twists and wonderfully-crafted characters.