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.
They lay peacefully under their thawing crust of ice. Pribluda shouldered Arkady aside. When I am satisfied questions of state security are not involved, then you begin. It did indeed become a triple murder investigation for Chief Investigator Arkady Renko. Three corpses had been found in Moscow. But why the horrific mutilations?
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
"Sharply, evocatively written and elaborately plotted...It should find as many friends as did GORKY PARK." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Back from exile, Arkady Reko returns to find that his country, his Moscow, even his job, are nearly dead. Not so his enemies. Hounded by the Russian mafia, chased by ruthless minions of the newly rich and powerful, and tempted by his great love, Arkady can only hope for escape. Fate, however, has other ideas.... A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A LITERARY GUILD MAIN SELECTION
When the corpse of a Russian is hauled from the oily waters of Havana Bay, Arkady Renko comes to Cuba to identify the body. Looking for the killer, he discovers a city of faded loneliness, unexpected danger, and bewildering contradictions. His investigation introduces him to a beautiful Cuban policewoman; to the rituals of Santeria; to an American fugitive and a group of ruthless mercenaries. In this place where all things Russian are despised, where Hemingway fished and the KGB flourished, where the hint of music is always in the air, Arkady finds a trail of deceit that reaches halfway around the world–and a reason to relish his own life again.
Masterfully crafted and told with extraordinary insight and imaginative breadth, the bestselling author of GORKY PARK brings us Renko's most beguiling and unusual adventure to date.
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.
In Three Stations, Renko's skills are put to their most severe test. Though he has been technically suspended from the prosecutor's office for once again turning up unpleasant truths, he strives to solve a last case: the death of an elegant young woman whose body is found in a construction trailer on the perimeter of Moscow's main rail hub. It looks like a simple drug overdose to everyone -- except to Renko, whose examination of the crime scene turns up some inexplicable clues, most notably an invitation to Russia's premier charity ball, the billionaires' Nijinksy Fair. Thus a sordid death becomes interwoven with the lifestyles of Moscow's rich and famous, many of whom are clinging to their cash in the face of Putin's crackdown on the very oligarchs who placed him in power. Renko uncovers a web of death, money, madness and a kidnapping that threatens the woman he is coming to love and the lives of children he is desperate to protect. In Three Stations, Smith produces a complex and hauting vision of an emergent Russia's secret underclass of street urchins, greedy thugs and a bureaucracy still paralyzed by power and fear.
A blistering new Arkady Renko novel whose heroine - the courageous, enigmatic journalist Tatiana - is based on real-life journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
From the award-winning author of Gorky Park comes a breathtaking novel featuring investigator Arkady Renko, who travels deep into Siberia to find missing journalist Tatiana Petrovna. Renko, Tatiana’s part-time lover, hasn’t seen her since she left for an assignment over a month ago. When she fails to arrive on her scheduled train, he becomes convinced something is wrong. While others dismiss his concerns, knowing Tatiana’s tendency to disappear during assignments, Renko is acutely aware of her enemies and their willingness to silence her. His quest takes him from Lake Baikal to Chita, where he discovers Tatiana has been profiling political dissident Mikhail Kuznetsov, a rising star in the oil industry and a serious threat to Putin’s regime. However, Kuznetsov's image becomes tarnished when he is linked to the murder of his business partner, Boris Benz. In a harsh landscape filled with shamans, wealthy oligarchs, and legends of sea monsters, Renko must rely on his instincts to rescue Tatiana. This latest installment in the series offers a gripping exploration of contemporary Russia, revealing the intricate world of political intrigue and corruption, all delivered with the author’s signature wit and insight.
