Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels

Ever since being riveted by Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park when it first was published in the early 80’s I’ve been a fan of Smith and his protagonist, gloomy, brilliant, incorruptible Moscow based detective Arkady Renko and have read every subsequent chronicle of Renko and his investigations. While reading the last book in the series, Stalin’s Ghost, which was published in 2007 and set about then, it occurred to me that Renko has must be getting on in years and has suffered an enormous amount of physical abuse in his time. So, in an attempt to fix Renko’s age and ascertain exactly how much punishment he had received, not to mention revisit some old pleasures, I decided to reread all the books in the series. Note: apparently considering it foolish to mess with success, Smith has never deviated from the basic Gorky Park formula:

The central investigation is a no-win endeavor, more than just a simple murder case which his superiors, who despise Renko, respecting his abilities but disdaining his principles, assign Renko to for reasons that have nothing to do with actually solving the crime. While the power’s that be at best do little to help Renko solve the case, he usually has a loyal assistant who doesn’t’ survive the book.

There is a love interest who initially has contempt for Renko but eventually fall for him in a flash, swayed by the fact that he seems to be the only competent, morally upright man around.

Renko is haunted by interactions with or memories of his father, a bitter brutalist better known as “Stalin’s favorite general".

Exotic aspects of the Soviet Union or Russia and life therein are explored, mainly through Renko’s attempts to understand and survive in that ever-changing milieu.

Especially compared to other books in the detective/thriller genre, the books are quite well written.



Gorky Park 1981 365pp 4*
Started January 18 2008, Finished January 19 2008

Along with Presumed Innocent, Gorky Park is the favorite of my (limited) readings in the detective genre. Informative, literary and supremely suspenseful, this first and best of the Renko books, kept me fully engrossed – awake late into the night -- during the rereading. All elements of the formula are used to strong advantage here.

(By way of establishing the indestructible Renko’s age, a friend from college is in her mid 30’s and the book is set in 1977.)

Renko Abuse:
beat up in Gorky Park (p 64)
clubbed with sap, kicked in stomach (p 181)
knifed deep in abdomen, p254 “penetrated colon, stomach and diaphragm … knicked liver” (p 265)
knocked to ground with rifle butt (p 287)
shot in upper body and through thigh (pp360-4)

Polar Star 1989 386pp 2.5*
Started January 20 2008, Finished January 21 2008

As a general rule, the odd numbered books are much the better of the series, Polar Star being no exception to this rule. The central mystery is only mildly engaging; the plot is marred by several ridiculous coincidences; Renko’s status in the world, normally marginal, is pathetically, even absurdly lowly; it understates the case to say the love interest is tacked on; finally, the exotic milieu, a giant fishing trawler cruising the Bering Sea, is to confined and particular to be of much interest and not really of a piece with the rest of the series.

Renko Abuse:
hit in stomach, bound & gagged w/ gas soaked rag (p 151)
locked in deep freeze (p 157)
beaten with rifle, kicked in stomach, generally pummeled, trapped in bunker of fire (p 238)
wrist is whacked by dull edge of axe (p 359)
ice pick in chest (p 371)
beat up

Red Square 1992 418pp 3.5*
Started January 29 2008, Finished January 31 2008
Red Square did not make too much of an impression upon me when I first read it some years ago. On rereading, however, I found it was faithful reprise of the winning Gorky Park formula. On the down side, the villains are much less vivid than GP’s and the incidence of blatant plot contrivance is considerably higher but on the favorable side of the ledger the prose itself may be Smith’s best, both the love interest and Renko’s dealings with and memories of his father have the most resonance of any of these books and I found the to-the-barricades finale quite stirring.
The book is set during the final death throes of the Soviet Union, when the never very functional Soviet consumer economy has completely collapsed and nearly all goods are unavailable through normal distribution channels. Smith’s research and sense of detail reward the reader with many illuminating nuggets:
Thrift stores sold burned out light bulbs for three kopeks, the intended usage being to replace the one in your office which you then took home for use there since the state economy no longer provided bulbs.
Even police cars have guard dogs leashed to their bumpers to prevent gas siphoning

“… the bureaucratic mind saved everything. Why? Because we might need it, you know. In case there was no future, there was always the past.” 48``
Arkady knew from experience that there were two types of investigation: one that uncovered information and the more traditional type that covered it up.” 140

Renko Abuse:
Narrowly avoids being blown up when informer’s car explodes moments after AR leaves it.
Barely avoids stepping on landmine left inside flaming toy box by fleeing suspect.
Just avoids being run over by limousine
Gun pressed to head.
Jumps in pit of lime
Soccer ball kicked in stomach
Sucker punched and stabbed
Kicked to floor, shot at.

Havana Bay 1999 329pp 2*
Started February 1 2008, Finished February 5 2008

The least of the Renko books primarily due to its confusing plot; maybe I wasn’t paying close attention, but it was never clear to me why so many people had it in for Renko. The only part of the formula that really works is the depiction of how people get by in a disastrously managed communist economy, in this case Cuba’s. (Renko dating: in this book, set roughly 20 years after Gorky Park, Renko is said to be in his 40's – time appears to be compressing on him.)

Renko Abuse:
Fends off knife blade attack, inadvertently killing attacker. (p32)
Smashed in leg, hit in head with baseball bat. (p 78)
Spear gun arrow through forearm (p 324)


Wolves Eat Dogs 2004 336pp 3.5*
Started March 10 2008, Finished March 15 2008

Probably the second best of the Renko books, primarily due to its exploration of the “exclusion zone” around the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear plants, an area where human habitation is forbidden and ghost towns abound, but which has become because of this perhaps the most thriving nature reserve in Europe -- “normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history” (p137)

Renko abuse:Repeatedly exposed to high doses of radiation, attacked by men with hockey sticks, endures several low speed motorcycle crashes, jumps through window, beat up by two hockey players, gunwhipped.

Stalin’s Ghost 2007 332pp 2.5*
Started June 21 2008, Finished June 25 2008

With its Dickensian reliance on coincidence, unremarkable setting, rote antagonisms between Renko and his boss, a vague villain who never really engages our animosities – his sidekicks must do so, an unconvincing romantic plotline and the increasingly implausible powers of recuperation bestowed upon the ever more time defying and indestructible Renko, who according to the timeline established in Gorky Park, must be in his 60’s, this should be the worst of the Renko books. However, despite all these flaws, at this point in the series, the dedicated reader is glad just to have Arkady around and the book goes down much more easily than it should. The highlight is probably the fleshing out of AR’s relationship with his father which helps explain Renko’s resilience and calm in extreme situations.


Renko abuse:
By page three, AR has already gone 36 hours without sleep and won’t sleep for another 12. Garroted with harp wire, stabbed in neck (134). Shot in head (162). Hit in face with shovel, buried alive (309-10). Grabs double edged knife, slices hand. (323)