This series follows the life and work of Arkady Renko, a chief homicide inspector in Moscow. It paints a gritty picture of post-Soviet Russia through compelling crime plots. Readers are drawn into intricate cases and political machinations that shape the characters' lives and the nation's destiny. This is immersive reading for fans of detective fiction and Russian literature.
"Brilliant...One of the best books of the season." ASSOCIATED PRESS A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it.
He made too many enemies. He lost his party membership. Once Moscow’s top criminal investigator, Arkady Renko now toils in obscurity on a Russian factory ship working with American trawlers in the middle of the Bering Sea. But when an adventurous female crew member is picked up dead with the day’s catch, Renko is ordered by his captain to investigate an accident that has all the marks of murder. Up against the celebrated Soviet bureaucracy once more, Renko must again become the obsessed, dedicated cop he was in Gorky Park and solve a chilling mystery fraught with international complications. Praise for Polar Star “Stunning.”—The New York Times Book Review “Impossible to put down . . . a book of heart-stopping suspense and intricate plotting, but also a meticulously researched, ambitious literary work of great distinction.”—The Detroit News “Martin Cruz Smith writes the most inventive thrillers of anyone in the first rank of thriller writers.”—The Washington Post Book World “Gripping . . . absorbing.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
In the summer of 1991, Arkady Renko has returned from exile and is back on the homicide squad in a newly democratic Moscow. When Arkady’s informant, Rudy Rosen, and his underworld bank-on-wheels are consumed in a ball of fire, Arkady finds himself in an investigation that points to the heart of Russia’s decaying infrastructure.
The body, what remained of it, was drifting in Havana Bay when Arkady arrived from Moscow, prompted by an urgent message from the Russian embassy about his missing friend Pribluda. The Cubans claimed the corpse in an inner tube was Pribluda, but Arkady had doubts. He confronts Ofelia Osorio, a detective in the Policia Nacional de la Revolucion, questioning the lack of investigations into assaults and murders, wondering if it’s open season on Russians in Havana.
The Cold War comrades have turned bitter, and the once-frequent Russians in Havana are now rare and despised, even more than Americans. The city is vibrant with color and music, yet steeped in suspicion. The Revolution’s heroes have lost their idealism, and Cuba has become a mere stop for sex tourism. Amidst empty stores and a mix of ideologies, an American radical promotes investments while a Wall Street developer on the run from the FBI flies a pirate flag.
Despite the dangers, including the murders of a Cuban boxer and a prostitute, Arkady is undeterred. He struggles with the language, is a pariah as a Russian, yet feels drawn to the city’s beauty and rhythm, especially Ofelia. The narrative explores the depths of the human heart, showcasing the careful writing that distinguishes the series.
Why is Pasha Ivanov - one of Russia's richest oligarchs - lying dead on the pavement outside his luxury high-rise apartment, his death an apparent open-and-shut suicide? Senior Investigator Arkady Renko has never been one to take evidence at face value and his investigations take him to the area around Chernobyl, deserted and forgotten.
Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating. Decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko's quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.
A blistering new Arkady Renko novel whose heroine - the courageous, enigmatic journalist Tatiana - is based on real-life journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Czy Tatiana Pietrowna, słynna i niewygodna dla Kremla dziennikarka śledcza,
sama wypadła z balonu swojego moskiewskiego mieszkania, czy ktoś jej w tym
pomógł? I jak to się ma do zaszyfrowanego notesu tłumacza uczestniczącego w
tajnych rozmowach handlowych? Arkadij Renko, moskiewski śledczy, uważa, że
Tatianę zamordowano. Wbrew przełożonemu na własną rękę prowadzi dochodzenie.
Pomaga mu zapijaczony, ale nieoceniony detektyw Wiktor Orłow oraz przybrany
syn Żenia. Ślady prowadzą do rosyjskiej stolicy zbrodni Kaliningradu.
Arkdij trafia tam w sam środek afery, w którą zamieszani są zarówno najwięksi
rosyjscy gangsterzy, jak i ludzie z najwyższych kręgów władzy.
