The last couple weeks reading - The Arkady Renko trilogy by Martin Cruz Smith:
Gorky Park
Arkady Renko is Chief Investigator of Homicide for the Moscow Prosecutor's Office. When a trio of bodies are found, without faces or fingertips, in Gorky Park, he finds himself trapped in an investigation with foreign entanglements and KGB implications.
This came out in 1981. I'm pretty sure the idea of centering a hero around a Soviet police officer was pretty groundbreaking at the time. The story was originally written around an American detective and I believe he is still the basis for a key supporting character. You can see the plot in your head if it had gone that way. When Smith flipped the focus character, his publisher refused to move forward and it took years to buy the book back and shift to another publisher. Overall taut and suspenseful with a very different feel due to the culture portrayed (though I'm not sure Smith always gets the details right). Overall a good read and with a particularly strong ending. Call it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Better than expected since I remember the movie as being meh at best.
Polar Star
Stripped of his position and party membership, and hounded by the KGB, Arkady Renko finds himself working the processing line of a fish factory trawler in the Arctic. When a crew woman is found dead, with his detective background, Renko is tapped by the ship's Captain to assist the investigation.
This was my favorite of the three books. A sense of the absurd pervades and humor is laugh at loud at points. Despite this it is still a suspenseful mystery and edge of your seats in turns. 4 out of 5 stars.
Red Square
Reinstated to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office as a Special Investigator, Renko finds himself investigating another murder when an informant is killed in spectacular fashion. As Renko works his way through a case entangled with Chechen mafia, smugglers, and money launderers, the Soviet Union teeters on collapse.
The weakest of the three. It feels like Smith is trying to recapture the formula of Gorky Park but we've seen it before and it's not as successful. The final scene though where Renko, reunited with his lost love, awaits the anticipated Soviet attack on the dissidents at the White House (the legislative building in Russia) reclaims the story to an extent. 3 out of 5 stars. Though reading all three in a row may have left me jaded a bit too.
Started into these from a book box, bought at a yard sale, that's been sitting in our garage awhile. Not liking the movie I doubt I would have bought them if they hadn't been part of a box of other books I wanted. Glad to have read them now. After the original trilogy there have been another six books. I will probably order them at some point.
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Originally Posted by Coyotesfan97
