Appearance
Gorky Park
This rather well-known novel is a detective whodunnit set in the old Soviet Union during the late cold war, and therein lies its fascination. The author really does his homework, and we get a glimpse of that society with many or most of its warts on full display. Here we see the old Soviet Union as what it was; a deeply flawed system under the control of a corrupt bureaucracy made up of, yes, corruptible human beings. We also get a glimpse of how Soviet citizens tended to perceive Americans and Westerners. This achievement is not a negligible one. Incidentally, in this novel Westerners are not portrayed in a particularly favorable light. In fact, the overall theme of this novel could reasonably be said to follow the old aphorism: "The problem with Communism is Communism. The problem with Capitalism is Capitalists."As a whodunnit, this one is not bad. Detective Arkady Renko is a sympathetic character. The author's writing style is somewhat murky, but he overcomes this with a wry sense of humor and a gritty realism. If you are interested in the old Soviet Union, or just like an off-beat detective novel, do not pass this one up.
Gorky Park
This is, quite simply, the greatest novel of the last century. Not only is this a work of literary genius, the recorded reading by Henry Strozier is exceedingly well done.Buy this, read it, read it once a year till you die.Jon
Gorky Park
The author introduces the reader to crime fighting in the USSR. In a land of subversion, and deceit, our hero is an earnest, truthful, and non malleable cop. The book captures the nuances of Soviet, and Russian humor. I was literally laughing out loud in the middle of a crime novel. It was fantastic. The characters are richly drawn, and tell the tales of living in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. I will certainly add him amongst my must reads: Harry Bosch, Lucas Davenport, Elvis Cole, and Jack Reacher.
Gorky Park
The first of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series of novels. Renko is a detective in Moscow, and comes across what appears to be a serial killer. This killler removes the faces and hands of victims to prevent identification.This leads to a gripping hunt for the maniac, and Arkady uses the services of a forensic anthropologist to reconstruct a face to help him track down the killer.
Gorky Park
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.
Gorky Park
Arkydy Renko, an honest hard working, conscientious, public investigator, fights his way through a maze of evil and hostile characters, the cunning, ruthless American entrepreneur, Osborne, his own corrupt boss, Yamskoi and major Preblida, the KGB man. He is after the ruthless killer of three young people, found in frozen Gorky Park, shot at point- blank- range, their faces and fingertips obliterated.. He is helped along the way by the brother of one of the slain men, a young American idealist. Curwell, a New York detective, fluent in Russian, joins hands reluctantly with Arkydy to revenge his brother's murder.Arkydy, by brilliant reasoning and with help from his love, Arina Ossinova, entangles the Sable fur trade, the labyrinth of KGB, and bureaucracy of FBI, tracks down the killer all the way to New York City. Here detective Curwell teams up with him to go after Osborne. But Osborne knows the score and book ends with an unforgettable scene where Arkydy fulfilling his task, limps back to Moscow. He tells Arina, his accomplice and love,who sells her very soul to come to America, to go disappear in America, where she belongs.The book sheds light on dark, Byzantine, bad old days of Soviet Union where every body spied on every body and KGB ruled supreme. I guess peoplelike Arkydy, the optimistic, very human chief investigator, turned the Soviet régime around and created another revolution seventy years after the brutal first, paving the way for democracy.