What do you think?
Rate this book
Arkady Renko #11
Hotel Ukraine: The brand new Arkady Renko political thriller, from one of the undisputed masters of the genre
Detective Arkady Renko—“one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction” (
USA TODAY
)—returns in this tense thriller set amid the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the latest installment of Martin Cruz Smith’s celebrated Arkady Renko series, the legendary Moscow investigator seeks to solve the murder of a diplomat as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wears on and the effects of Renko’s Parkinson’s Disease worsen. Helped by his lover, journalist Tatiana Petrovna, Renko traces the murder to a Russian paramilitary group aided by a government official who also used to be a romantic partner of Renko. Before long, those responsible for the killing look to similarly dispatch Arkady and Tatiana—all of it leading to a thrilling and action-packed climax. Hotel Ukraine upholds Martin Cruz Smith’s reputation as a master of modern detective fiction and Arkady Renko’s standing as one of the genre’s most complex protagonists.
In the latest installment of Martin Cruz Smith’s celebrated Arkady Renko series, the legendary Moscow investigator seeks to solve the murder of a diplomat as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wears on and the effects of Renko’s Parkinson’s Disease worsen. Helped by his lover, journalist Tatiana Petrovna, Renko traces the murder to a Russian paramilitary group aided by a government official who also used to be a romantic partner of Renko. Before long, those responsible for the killing look to similarly dispatch Arkady and Tatiana—all of it leading to a thrilling and action-packed climax. Hotel Ukraine upholds Martin Cruz Smith’s reputation as a master of modern detective fiction and Arkady Renko’s standing as one of the genre’s most complex protagonists.
384 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2025
473 people are currently reading
717 people want to read
About the author
Martin Cruz Smith
53 books1,270 followersMartin Cruz Smith (AKA Simon Quinn, Nick Carter, Jake Logan, and Martin Quinn) was an American writer of mystery and suspense fiction, mostly in an international or historical setting. He was best known for his 11-book series featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko, who was introduced in 1981 with Gorky Park and appeared in Independence Square (2023) and Hotel Ukraine (2025). [Wikipedia]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
September 2, 2025
Our favorite Moscow investigator has followed his adopted son, Zhenya, to a Moscow protest of the just announced Russian “special military operation” against Ukraine.
“Fuck you!” Zhenya yelled. “Fuck you and your filthy war!” They threw him into the back of a police van and Arkady rushed in after him before the doors closed.
Denis looked Zhenya up and down. “You are charged with the use of illegal language.” “ ‘Illegal language’?” He made a show of reading the arresting officer report. “Which bit of this is illegal?” “The final word.” “I’m not allowed to use the word ‘war’?” “Exactly.” “What about the chants?” “I wasn’t there. I didn’t hear them.”
Later, Renko, has a meeting with his boss, Zurin (Victor is his fellow investigator).
“…I have to say, Investigator Renko, it’s not an especially good look.”
“What’s not?” “For you to be attending that demonstration.” “It’s a free country.”
Victor snorted a laugh into his can of Fanta. Zurin again seemed impervious to the humor. “Officers of law enforcement must remain politically neutral at all times.”
“And if it had been a demonstration in favor of the war?” “ ‘Special military operation,’ please.” “But would you have approved of my attendance there?”
“Of course.”
“That wouldn’t be politically neutral.”
“It would.”
“How is it neutral?” “The special military operation is the correct course of action, politically, militarily, morally. Support for it is therefore a given for all right-thinking people and as such is neutral. It’s like breathing. You shouldn’t have to think about it, merely accept it. Anyway, we’re not here to debate semantics. I have a case for you.”
“…Zurin tended to push three kinds of cases Arkady’s way these days. There were minor ones that a trainee traffic cop could have solved, there were ones that involved Arkady traveling to far-flung parts of the Russian Federation and therefore absolving Zurin from having to deal with him, and there were politically sensitive ones that required at least the appearance of Arkady’s experience and dogged investigative skills. These were respectively designed to humiliate, remove, or neutralize Arkady, and even if they never worked, Zurin continued trying.”
A deputy Defense Minister Kazasky has been murdered in one of Moscow’s finest hotels, Hotel Ukraine. Getting to the scene of the crime, Renko, meets with the hotel’s manager and Smith gives us a typical Renko assessment of the man.
“Arkady recognized him as the kind of man who knew instantly where everyone he met fit into his own personal ecosystem: those who needed to be flattered and those who didn’t, those to whom he needed to pay heed and those to whom he didn’t, those who could make his life difficult and those whose lives he could make difficult. Just about the only people who didn’t fit neatly in any category were investigators who had come to find out why an important guest (Kazasky) had been murdered in one of the hotel’s suites.”
Almost immediately Renko is interrupted by the arrival of a former lover, FSB (the Russian CIA or MI5) investigator Makarova.
“Arkady!” Marina Makarova stepped out from the elevator. “Have we been paired together again? I’m surprised.”
The word “surprised” covered many things, Arkady thought—most of all, the unpleasantness of that surprise. Was it possible she knew he had Parkinson’s and was there to make sure he could do the job? “Oh, don’t look so shocked,” she said, “you must have known the FSB would be involved in this investigation.”
“Of course.” He was relieved; she didn’t seem to know. A senior politician in the defense ministry had been found murdered when a war was only a few hours old. The only surprise was that the FSB deigned to breathe the same air as the prosecutor’s office on this one rather than take the whole thing over from the start. “I just hadn’t expected it to be you.” They had been lovers once, first when working a case concerning Chechen organized crime and terrorism in the early years of Putin’s reign, and then on and off for several years afterward until he met an investigative reporter named Tatiana. It had been Tatiana who had shown Arkady perhaps the single most fundamental truth about love: that it meant wanting what was best for the other person rather than yourself, and sometimes that meant letting go, trusting that the pieces would land in the right place.”
“…There was a certain comfort in always knowing exactly where he stood with her. “All the better that it is me, then,” she replied. “We can use our personal connection to ensure an optimum working relationship, conclude the investigation swiftly, and provide an example of what interagency cooperation should look like.”
“Very impressive.”
“My aims?”
“No. The fact you kept a straight face while saying all that.”
Their “arrangement doesn’t work well, in part because FSB doesn’t really want any input or involvement from the Moscow police.
From his beginnings in Gorky Park and Polar Star it was clear that Smith had a deft touch with crime thrillers. There are threats explicit and implied for Renko, as he sees this death as part of a larger drama playing out in Moscow and Ukraine. Arkady and Tatiana are both investigators but with different approaches and different goals. Their determination to face this challenge together is what holds much of the plot together.
“The doctors had warned Arkady that he would be far from normal for a while.
‘Parkinson’s will exacerbate your ability to walk in the beginning,’ they said, ‘and you won’t be able to go up or down steps unless there’s a rail for you to hang on to. You will fell exhausted all the time and you’ll be moody and emotionally labile. Also, your short-term memory will be shot.’
‘Is that all?’
'They didn’t seem to get the joke.'”
Author, Smith, has also suffered from Parkinson’s for the past 30 years, so he writes with keen appreciation of its many facets. It is a progressive disease – at a different pace for every individual. Having friends, both here and gone, who have dealt with it, I can appreciate Smith’s determination to continue writing.
It is with sadness that I suspect that this is not only be the last Arkady Renko novel we read, but also that it will be the last novel that Smith wrote before his death.
4*
“Fuck you!” Zhenya yelled. “Fuck you and your filthy war!” They threw him into the back of a police van and Arkady rushed in after him before the doors closed.
Denis looked Zhenya up and down. “You are charged with the use of illegal language.” “ ‘Illegal language’?” He made a show of reading the arresting officer report. “Which bit of this is illegal?” “The final word.” “I’m not allowed to use the word ‘war’?” “Exactly.” “What about the chants?” “I wasn’t there. I didn’t hear them.”
Later, Renko, has a meeting with his boss, Zurin (Victor is his fellow investigator).
“…I have to say, Investigator Renko, it’s not an especially good look.”
“What’s not?” “For you to be attending that demonstration.” “It’s a free country.”
Victor snorted a laugh into his can of Fanta. Zurin again seemed impervious to the humor. “Officers of law enforcement must remain politically neutral at all times.”
“And if it had been a demonstration in favor of the war?” “ ‘Special military operation,’ please.” “But would you have approved of my attendance there?”
“Of course.”
“That wouldn’t be politically neutral.”
“It would.”
“How is it neutral?” “The special military operation is the correct course of action, politically, militarily, morally. Support for it is therefore a given for all right-thinking people and as such is neutral. It’s like breathing. You shouldn’t have to think about it, merely accept it. Anyway, we’re not here to debate semantics. I have a case for you.”
“…Zurin tended to push three kinds of cases Arkady’s way these days. There were minor ones that a trainee traffic cop could have solved, there were ones that involved Arkady traveling to far-flung parts of the Russian Federation and therefore absolving Zurin from having to deal with him, and there were politically sensitive ones that required at least the appearance of Arkady’s experience and dogged investigative skills. These were respectively designed to humiliate, remove, or neutralize Arkady, and even if they never worked, Zurin continued trying.”
A deputy Defense Minister Kazasky has been murdered in one of Moscow’s finest hotels, Hotel Ukraine. Getting to the scene of the crime, Renko, meets with the hotel’s manager and Smith gives us a typical Renko assessment of the man.
“Arkady recognized him as the kind of man who knew instantly where everyone he met fit into his own personal ecosystem: those who needed to be flattered and those who didn’t, those to whom he needed to pay heed and those to whom he didn’t, those who could make his life difficult and those whose lives he could make difficult. Just about the only people who didn’t fit neatly in any category were investigators who had come to find out why an important guest (Kazasky) had been murdered in one of the hotel’s suites.”
Almost immediately Renko is interrupted by the arrival of a former lover, FSB (the Russian CIA or MI5) investigator Makarova.
“Arkady!” Marina Makarova stepped out from the elevator. “Have we been paired together again? I’m surprised.”
The word “surprised” covered many things, Arkady thought—most of all, the unpleasantness of that surprise. Was it possible she knew he had Parkinson’s and was there to make sure he could do the job? “Oh, don’t look so shocked,” she said, “you must have known the FSB would be involved in this investigation.”
“Of course.” He was relieved; she didn’t seem to know. A senior politician in the defense ministry had been found murdered when a war was only a few hours old. The only surprise was that the FSB deigned to breathe the same air as the prosecutor’s office on this one rather than take the whole thing over from the start. “I just hadn’t expected it to be you.” They had been lovers once, first when working a case concerning Chechen organized crime and terrorism in the early years of Putin’s reign, and then on and off for several years afterward until he met an investigative reporter named Tatiana. It had been Tatiana who had shown Arkady perhaps the single most fundamental truth about love: that it meant wanting what was best for the other person rather than yourself, and sometimes that meant letting go, trusting that the pieces would land in the right place.”
“…There was a certain comfort in always knowing exactly where he stood with her. “All the better that it is me, then,” she replied. “We can use our personal connection to ensure an optimum working relationship, conclude the investigation swiftly, and provide an example of what interagency cooperation should look like.”
“Very impressive.”
“My aims?”
“No. The fact you kept a straight face while saying all that.”
Their “arrangement doesn’t work well, in part because FSB doesn’t really want any input or involvement from the Moscow police.
From his beginnings in Gorky Park and Polar Star it was clear that Smith had a deft touch with crime thrillers. There are threats explicit and implied for Renko, as he sees this death as part of a larger drama playing out in Moscow and Ukraine. Arkady and Tatiana are both investigators but with different approaches and different goals. Their determination to face this challenge together is what holds much of the plot together.
“The doctors had warned Arkady that he would be far from normal for a while.
‘Parkinson’s will exacerbate your ability to walk in the beginning,’ they said, ‘and you won’t be able to go up or down steps unless there’s a rail for you to hang on to. You will fell exhausted all the time and you’ll be moody and emotionally labile. Also, your short-term memory will be shot.’
‘Is that all?’
'They didn’t seem to get the joke.'”
Author, Smith, has also suffered from Parkinson’s for the past 30 years, so he writes with keen appreciation of its many facets. It is a progressive disease – at a different pace for every individual. Having friends, both here and gone, who have dealt with it, I can appreciate Smith’s determination to continue writing.
It is with sadness that I suspect that this is not only be the last Arkady Renko novel we read, but also that it will be the last novel that Smith wrote before his death.
4*
September 14, 2025
I started reading Hotel Ukraine with mixed feelings. Firstly there's the excitement of starting a new Arkady Renko novel, but this one was tinged with sadness after the death of the author earlier this year. Having suffered with Parkinson's disease for 30 years, and with his condition worsening, he knew this would be his final Renko novel.
On a more cheerful note this was another great novel from Smith. His plotting and characterisations were first rate, as always, and amongst the bleakness moments of humour shone through.
It's the end of an era, but Martin Cruz Smith leaves us eleven Arkady Renko novels. Therefore all I can do is read them all again and enjoy the legacy he has left behind.
On a more cheerful note this was another great novel from Smith. His plotting and characterisations were first rate, as always, and amongst the bleakness moments of humour shone through.
It's the end of an era, but Martin Cruz Smith leaves us eleven Arkady Renko novels. Therefore all I can do is read them all again and enjoy the legacy he has left behind.
July 12, 2025
Published at Open Letters Review: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/h...
The illustrious career of Russia's greatest homicide detective ends with a legendary final act
Alexei Kazasky, a Russian deputy minister of defense, is discovered shredded beyond recognition in a posh Moscow hotel. “His body looked as if it had been hurled around the room in streaks and sprays, in splashes and smears.” The number 2 is swiped in blood on the wall. Or maybe it's the letter Z? CCTV shows a lone figure enter through the only entrance and leave soon after, but those at the scene do not believe a single man could create such brutality.
These days, Prosecutor General Zurin pushes three types of cases to Senior Inspector Arkady Renko. The very minor, those that send Arkady to far-flung parts of the Russian Federation, or the politically sensitive designed to humiliate and neutralize the irreverent detective. Hotel Ukraine is a story of the third. Finding a murderer is hard enough, but, in a region where powerful creatures pounce at the slightest scent of weakness, the guilty often outnumber the innocent.
Our novel’s backdrop is perilous as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wears on. So do the effects of Renko’s Parkinson’s Disease. Zhenya, Arkady’s adoptive chess prodigy/computer whiz son, keeps the story ferociously high-tech, while Tatiana, Arkady’s ex-lover and pitbull of a New York Times journalist, keeps the corrupt looking over their shoulder hoping to avoid publicity. An encrypted flash drive is connected to a judo club, a para-military group, a psychopath in a baseball cap, and a threat to Putin’s regime. A violent plot steers us from Moscow to Ukraine and back again. Expectations are constantly subverted in brilliant ways, but readers beware - this is the last book in the series, and the only thing more threatening than Arkady Renko searching for the truth is being close to him while he digs.
This author infuses deliciously dark wit into grim material and separates Renko from so many broken down, morose detectives in literature. Arkady’s fingers involuntarily slide in a Parkisonian pill rolling motion making others think he is requesting a bribe. Zhenya is nearly arrested for ‘use of illegal language,’ when he is overhead using the term ‘war’ rather than ‘enhanced military operation’, in reference to Russian’s invasion of Ukraine. We are treated to a thrilling chase sequence which never sees Arkady accelerate above a gentle walk. Martin Cruz Smith mines humor from the unlikeliest sources and uses it effectively to counterbalance the pain of occupation and oppression.
Arkady Renko first appears in the snow-crusted, vodka-soaked 1981 crime fiction novel, Gorky Park. It was a major literary success for a skilled writer who spent a decade gaining little traction from fans of fiction. Gorky Park was applauded for its hyper-realistic portrayal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and pulled the curtain back on the ultimate unknown boogeyman. American members of Generation X knew its Superpower opponent primarily through snippets reported on the evening news, or through the filter of parents and teachers. Few Americans, young or older, possessed a salient idea of Russia as a living place or could fathom Russian people as a vibrant population with rich culture. In the mid-1990’s, a copy of Gorky Park found its way into this reader’s hands and a part of the world that abstractly floated in my mind for years crystallized in full color. Within its genre-defying pages, the landscape and people of Moscow shined as vividly as my own hometown. Polar Star (1989) and Red Square (1992) followed, and millions of readers were hooked. In a time before all known information existed in our pockets, many learned about the world through made up stories and Arkady Renko led some of the finest.
Few English language storytellers grasped this region as acutely as Martin Cruz Smith. He described wrote mysteries with incredibly clarity and gave many readers the gift of experiencing remote locales they’ll never visit. Smith suffers from Parkinson’s himself and after forty-five years of entertaining and teaching us through his novels, this is likely where the brilliant author and classic character exit the literary stage.
This part of the world is as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1980 and even being the last book in a long-running series, Hotel Ukraine serves as a suitable entry point for new readers. They may not jump, pace, cry and cheer with the passion of long-time fans, but this is a magnificent work of mystery writing for us all.
Thank you Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for a review copy.
The illustrious career of Russia's greatest homicide detective ends with a legendary final act
Alexei Kazasky, a Russian deputy minister of defense, is discovered shredded beyond recognition in a posh Moscow hotel. “His body looked as if it had been hurled around the room in streaks and sprays, in splashes and smears.” The number 2 is swiped in blood on the wall. Or maybe it's the letter Z? CCTV shows a lone figure enter through the only entrance and leave soon after, but those at the scene do not believe a single man could create such brutality.
These days, Prosecutor General Zurin pushes three types of cases to Senior Inspector Arkady Renko. The very minor, those that send Arkady to far-flung parts of the Russian Federation, or the politically sensitive designed to humiliate and neutralize the irreverent detective. Hotel Ukraine is a story of the third. Finding a murderer is hard enough, but, in a region where powerful creatures pounce at the slightest scent of weakness, the guilty often outnumber the innocent.
Our novel’s backdrop is perilous as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wears on. So do the effects of Renko’s Parkinson’s Disease. Zhenya, Arkady’s adoptive chess prodigy/computer whiz son, keeps the story ferociously high-tech, while Tatiana, Arkady’s ex-lover and pitbull of a New York Times journalist, keeps the corrupt looking over their shoulder hoping to avoid publicity. An encrypted flash drive is connected to a judo club, a para-military group, a psychopath in a baseball cap, and a threat to Putin’s regime. A violent plot steers us from Moscow to Ukraine and back again. Expectations are constantly subverted in brilliant ways, but readers beware - this is the last book in the series, and the only thing more threatening than Arkady Renko searching for the truth is being close to him while he digs.
This author infuses deliciously dark wit into grim material and separates Renko from so many broken down, morose detectives in literature. Arkady’s fingers involuntarily slide in a Parkisonian pill rolling motion making others think he is requesting a bribe. Zhenya is nearly arrested for ‘use of illegal language,’ when he is overhead using the term ‘war’ rather than ‘enhanced military operation’, in reference to Russian’s invasion of Ukraine. We are treated to a thrilling chase sequence which never sees Arkady accelerate above a gentle walk. Martin Cruz Smith mines humor from the unlikeliest sources and uses it effectively to counterbalance the pain of occupation and oppression.
Arkady Renko first appears in the snow-crusted, vodka-soaked 1981 crime fiction novel, Gorky Park. It was a major literary success for a skilled writer who spent a decade gaining little traction from fans of fiction. Gorky Park was applauded for its hyper-realistic portrayal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and pulled the curtain back on the ultimate unknown boogeyman. American members of Generation X knew its Superpower opponent primarily through snippets reported on the evening news, or through the filter of parents and teachers. Few Americans, young or older, possessed a salient idea of Russia as a living place or could fathom Russian people as a vibrant population with rich culture. In the mid-1990’s, a copy of Gorky Park found its way into this reader’s hands and a part of the world that abstractly floated in my mind for years crystallized in full color. Within its genre-defying pages, the landscape and people of Moscow shined as vividly as my own hometown. Polar Star (1989) and Red Square (1992) followed, and millions of readers were hooked. In a time before all known information existed in our pockets, many learned about the world through made up stories and Arkady Renko led some of the finest.
Few English language storytellers grasped this region as acutely as Martin Cruz Smith. He described wrote mysteries with incredibly clarity and gave many readers the gift of experiencing remote locales they’ll never visit. Smith suffers from Parkinson’s himself and after forty-five years of entertaining and teaching us through his novels, this is likely where the brilliant author and classic character exit the literary stage.
This part of the world is as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1980 and even being the last book in a long-running series, Hotel Ukraine serves as a suitable entry point for new readers. They may not jump, pace, cry and cheer with the passion of long-time fans, but this is a magnificent work of mystery writing for us all.
Thank you Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for a review copy.
September 16, 2025
This is a great book. The series began in the cold war and introduced us to Russian detective Arkady Renko. This is the 11th and final installment. Renko is still his uncompromising and irascible self. The character reflects the author in that both are suffering from Parkinson's Disease. A key character dies. The writing is as fast paced and brutal as ever, as are the crimes. If you liked the series don't miss the final episode. If you have not read it, start at the beginning. It is well worth reading them all in order.
September 27, 2025
A tough listen with the Nazi styled Putin backed Russian Z force murdering through Ukraine.
August 4, 2025
The last of the Russian-set Arkady Renko series. Well worth the read, as they all are, with lots of action and an appropriately strong air of suspicion on every page.
The only spoiler I'll give: the ending is satisfying.
The only spoiler I'll give: the ending is satisfying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2025
The end of an era. At least. When I learned this would be the final installment in the Arkady Renko series, I was both saddened and astonished. And when Smith died three (3) days after its publication, I was astonished by his prescience, his age (I couldn’t imagine he was 82, even though the first book in the series, Gorky Park, was published all the way back in 1981), and the fact that he had lived with Parkinson’s for 30 years prior to his death.
While not the strongest entry in this series - I would have much preferred it if the plot had marinated a bit more and unfolded more slowly/methodically - I will miss Arkady, with all his human imperfections and foibles - immensely.
While not the strongest entry in this series - I would have much preferred it if the plot had marinated a bit more and unfolded more slowly/methodically - I will miss Arkady, with all his human imperfections and foibles - immensely.
August 31, 2025
A bittersweet book as it's the final book and was released right when the author died. Martin Cruz Smith had endured Parkinson's for thirty years. How fitting he endowed it to Arkady Renko.
There is so much symbolism in this book and such a pervading sense of foreboding and tragedy. It's set in the early stages of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This fiction seems all too real with real world headlines affirming much of the tactics, techniques, and procedures commented upon in the book. Indeed the plot mirrors real world events involving a Russian private military contractor. It doesn't end how I thought it would. And that was indeed a pleasant surprise.
There is so much symbolism in this book and such a pervading sense of foreboding and tragedy. It's set in the early stages of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This fiction seems all too real with real world headlines affirming much of the tactics, techniques, and procedures commented upon in the book. Indeed the plot mirrors real world events involving a Russian private military contractor. It doesn't end how I thought it would. And that was indeed a pleasant surprise.
October 15, 2025
"If you’re trying to eliminate our culture, prepare to see the favor returned.” 🇺🇦
I read Gorky Park many years ago and liked it and I now wish I would have continued the series before picking up this last installment. Arkady Renko is a great character and this was a good story with an unexpected ending, but this book felt so very sad probably because I knew about the author's long illness and subsequent passing. While Hotel Ukraine can be read as a stand alone book, I would recommend reading the other books in the series before this one. I'll say one thing for this story, I'll never look at a "saperka"(shovel), in quite the same way again!😣
I read Gorky Park many years ago and liked it and I now wish I would have continued the series before picking up this last installment. Arkady Renko is a great character and this was a good story with an unexpected ending, but this book felt so very sad probably because I knew about the author's long illness and subsequent passing. While Hotel Ukraine can be read as a stand alone book, I would recommend reading the other books in the series before this one. I'll say one thing for this story, I'll never look at a "saperka"(shovel), in quite the same way again!😣
July 16, 2025
Appropriate send-off for Arkady Renko who has served as a blueprint for so many other fictional detectives operating in totalitarian/authoritarian regimes. It was always engrossing, and this last one is no exception.
Been reading Martin Cruz Smith for over 40 years, so, of course I'll miss his stories.
Been reading Martin Cruz Smith for over 40 years, so, of course I'll miss his stories.
July 25, 2025
An excellent conclusion to this long-running series. Smith kept things suspenseful till the end, providing insights into contemporary Russian society and the challenges of living with Arkady’s Parkinson’s Disease as it advances.
August 27, 2025
An absolutely brilliant farewell to both Arkady and the author. A grand finale.
July 13, 2025
This being Arkady Renko's swan song I wanted him to go out like he came into Gorky Park his first novel (as a chief investor for the Moscow militsiya), confident, gritty and looking over his shoulder.
Hotel Ukraine disappointed me somewhat in the plot was short and not well rounded. The story was just average, Renko having Parkinson's didn't bother me - it lent a bit of humanity to his story.
All the sub - plots ended to fast. Martin Cruz Smith could have done Renko a little more justice. I'll miss him anyway.
Hotel Ukraine disappointed me somewhat in the plot was short and not well rounded. The story was just average, Renko having Parkinson's didn't bother me - it lent a bit of humanity to his story.
All the sub - plots ended to fast. Martin Cruz Smith could have done Renko a little more justice. I'll miss him anyway.
September 25, 2025
A great read. I could not put the book down. Arkady Renko is a Russian detective investigating the murder of a diplomat. The story is written with the backdrop and pursuit of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Renko investigating the murder of a diplomat that the government does not want investigated. Copyright July 2025
October 16, 2025
In what is quite possibly, though I really, really hope not, the final Arkady Renko novel, Martin Cruz Smith has not lost a step. Renko is a tough nut to crack, always has been. His dedication to his job is extraordinary. Especially in this time, 2025, when there is a self-interested attempt by corrupt but powerful leaders, Trump and Putin, in the U.S. and Russia to besmirch investigators and government employees in general, this is an important novel. They are being dismissed from their jobs and dismissed as unimportant and mere takers. Renko is a giver. He Is the kind of man they fear. He might bridle at that grandiose description, but it is accurate. He risks all (as do his son and Tatiana, his lover), for justice and for freedom. Cruz Smith is using all his strength, as he grapples with age and Parkinson’s to render a portrait of a real strong man, a real hero, a regular guy willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Hotel Ukraine is a gripping story in its own right but I can’t help seeing it as his swan song. I have followed Mr. Cruz Smith through many books In addition to this series, his two Gypsy books, his Native American based Nightwing, and many more, I always finish the book thinking, this is fantastic, my favorite one yet. I hold out the hope that he will continue, as the quality of his work remains stellar. This last one was my favorite one yet.
Hotel Ukraine is a gripping story in its own right but I can’t help seeing it as his swan song. I have followed Mr. Cruz Smith through many books In addition to this series, his two Gypsy books, his Native American based Nightwing, and many more, I always finish the book thinking, this is fantastic, my favorite one yet. I hold out the hope that he will continue, as the quality of his work remains stellar. This last one was my favorite one yet.
August 29, 2025
I read the first Arkady Renko book when it was published in 1981. It was late in the Cold War and this well written crime mystery in the USSR introduced the world to this thoughtful and cagey yet understated police investigator. Hotel Ukraine is advertised as the last in this 11 book series. While I haven’t read all the books I’ve enjoyed the five I’ve read and Hotel Ukraine a fitting end. Knowing that it would be the last, I could not assume that our hero would come out of it whole.
I have a great respect for Martin Cruz Smith for ending a successful series. Unlike some other series—Jack Reacher being a good example— that become too formulaic, and whose aging characters become even more unrealistic, Smith has chosen to move past the guaranteed revenue and challenge his creativity. I suspect in some ways it must be a relief to walk away from predefined expectations and enjoy the challenges of a new beginning. I look forward to seeing where Smith will be taking us next. This was a really good read to end a satisfying ride.
I have a great respect for Martin Cruz Smith for ending a successful series. Unlike some other series—Jack Reacher being a good example— that become too formulaic, and whose aging characters become even more unrealistic, Smith has chosen to move past the guaranteed revenue and challenge his creativity. I suspect in some ways it must be a relief to walk away from predefined expectations and enjoy the challenges of a new beginning. I look forward to seeing where Smith will be taking us next. This was a really good read to end a satisfying ride.
Read
May 28, 2025What fun it was to spend one last day with Renko. This may be his and his author’s swan song, but it is just as engrossing as all his other cases, and I’ll miss him when he’s gone.
September 4, 2025
On February 24, 2022, the Russian military following the orders of Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine. The Russian autocrat believed his forces would take Kyiv in short order. However, as in most wars things did not go as planned as the Ukrainian army stopped any advance on their capital and as Russian forces receded they committed numerous savage atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Fast forward three and a half years the war continues with no end in sight as it appears that Putin has no desire for peace as evidenced by his meeting with President Trump two weeks ago and the failed diplomacy that followed. This summer Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities has increased and there does not seem to be an end in sight. The ongoing war in Ukraine serves as a backdrop to Martin Cruz Smith’s eleventh and final installment of his Arkady Renko novels entitled HOTEL UKRAINE.
In previous novels we learn that Renko, Smith’s Moscow based investigator suffers from Parkinson’s disease and his symptoms have grown worse. At the outset of the novel, we find Renko in Pushkinskya Square among Russian citizens demonstrating against the invasion of Ukraine. Renko meets his son Zhenya who is arrested for shouting anti-war slogans, and he is grabbed by the police and arrested. This will be the first instance in the novel that Smith mirrors actual events as he is charged with using an illegal word, “war,” as Russian authorities refer to events in Ukraine as a Special Military Operation.
The next day Renko is assigned by Prosecutor General Zurin to investigate the murder of Alexei Kazasky, one of twelve Deputy Ministers of Defense who was killed at the Hotel Ukraine. Almost immediately Renko is reintroduced to a former lover, Marina Makarova, an FSB agent who wants to pin the murder on Yuri Blokhin, a second class advisor at the Ukrainian embassy who turns out to be an SBU agent (equivalent to an FSB agent). Renko’s investigation proves Blokhin is being set up and an angry Makarova is forced to release him. She wants to control the investigation and eventually gets Renko removed from the case by outing him to his superiors that he suffers from Parkinsons.
There are a number of interesting characters that are introduced particularly Renko’s son Zhenya’s friends and compatriots in opposing the war, Misha and Margarita who are members of the Black Army – a group of hacker activists who do their best to educate the Russian public as to the truth of the war in Ukraine. They research the truth and put it out on social media, attack Russian websites, for example, ministries, links, infrastructure and businesses like Gazprom, in addition to doing the same to Putin’s ally, Belarus.
As the novel progresses more and more Smith integrates real events and people into his story. A case in point is Lev Volkov, a former Spetsnaz soldier who fought in the first Chechen war. Volkov founded a private army called the 1812 Group which fought in Crimea in 2014. The group is funded and armed by Putin and Smith recounts their activities particularly in Central Africa and Mali as they take over mine complexes and control the extraction of valuable resources. Volkov was an oligarch, warlord, and political operator who mirrors the real life Victor Prigozhin and his Wagner Group who engaged in the same activities in Africa and was used by Putin as a surrogate army in Ukraine until Putin’s “former cook” went too far and perished in a plane crash. There are other examples of the real war portrayed including the role of sanctions and its economic impact on Russian society, the shortages that develop especially medicines to treat Parkinson’s etc.
The novel takes a major turn as Renko after viewing a thumb drive that hackers make available to suspects that the murder of Kazasky is linked to a suspect who was in Bucha and used a similar weapon to commit atrocities as was used to kill the former defense functionary. Renko’s girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, an investigative reporter for the New York Times convinces Renko to go to Bucha to explore the possibility that what he saw on the thumb drive is the key to solving the murder. The problem is that Renko has been put on leave and was ordered to stand down.
Renko himself realizes that his Parkinsons have slowed him down, but he is intrigued by the case. It is interesting that the author suffered from Parkinsons for over thirty years and on July 11, at the age of 82 he succumbed to the disease almost to the day that his last Renko novel was released. Renko and Tatiana go to Bucha avoiding the problems caused by the war and arrive “going the long way around” from Athens to Warsaw to Ukraine.
HOTEL UKRAINE brings Arkady full circle as it is a prominent location from an earlier Renko novel, GORKY PARK. A tense meeting occurs between Lev Volkov, who is tired of Tatiana’s storylines, and it is possible he will have her killed. Smith offers powerful scenes, such as when Arkady’s consciousness makes the hallucinatory transition from thinking that he’s undergoing an extreme attack of Parkinson’s, to the realization he’s been poisoned. The sequence is probably derived from Smith’s own experience, which lends a high degree of authenticity to the novel. Smith’s reality transferred to Renko, the ongoing war in Ukraine which has caused the death of over million people and has destroyed Ukrainian villages and towns all appear in a story whose end is sad as we realize will no longer have this novelist and his characters to entertain us and make us think about the realistic stories and characters he has created.
In previous novels we learn that Renko, Smith’s Moscow based investigator suffers from Parkinson’s disease and his symptoms have grown worse. At the outset of the novel, we find Renko in Pushkinskya Square among Russian citizens demonstrating against the invasion of Ukraine. Renko meets his son Zhenya who is arrested for shouting anti-war slogans, and he is grabbed by the police and arrested. This will be the first instance in the novel that Smith mirrors actual events as he is charged with using an illegal word, “war,” as Russian authorities refer to events in Ukraine as a Special Military Operation.
The next day Renko is assigned by Prosecutor General Zurin to investigate the murder of Alexei Kazasky, one of twelve Deputy Ministers of Defense who was killed at the Hotel Ukraine. Almost immediately Renko is reintroduced to a former lover, Marina Makarova, an FSB agent who wants to pin the murder on Yuri Blokhin, a second class advisor at the Ukrainian embassy who turns out to be an SBU agent (equivalent to an FSB agent). Renko’s investigation proves Blokhin is being set up and an angry Makarova is forced to release him. She wants to control the investigation and eventually gets Renko removed from the case by outing him to his superiors that he suffers from Parkinsons.
There are a number of interesting characters that are introduced particularly Renko’s son Zhenya’s friends and compatriots in opposing the war, Misha and Margarita who are members of the Black Army – a group of hacker activists who do their best to educate the Russian public as to the truth of the war in Ukraine. They research the truth and put it out on social media, attack Russian websites, for example, ministries, links, infrastructure and businesses like Gazprom, in addition to doing the same to Putin’s ally, Belarus.
As the novel progresses more and more Smith integrates real events and people into his story. A case in point is Lev Volkov, a former Spetsnaz soldier who fought in the first Chechen war. Volkov founded a private army called the 1812 Group which fought in Crimea in 2014. The group is funded and armed by Putin and Smith recounts their activities particularly in Central Africa and Mali as they take over mine complexes and control the extraction of valuable resources. Volkov was an oligarch, warlord, and political operator who mirrors the real life Victor Prigozhin and his Wagner Group who engaged in the same activities in Africa and was used by Putin as a surrogate army in Ukraine until Putin’s “former cook” went too far and perished in a plane crash. There are other examples of the real war portrayed including the role of sanctions and its economic impact on Russian society, the shortages that develop especially medicines to treat Parkinson’s etc.
The novel takes a major turn as Renko after viewing a thumb drive that hackers make available to suspects that the murder of Kazasky is linked to a suspect who was in Bucha and used a similar weapon to commit atrocities as was used to kill the former defense functionary. Renko’s girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, an investigative reporter for the New York Times convinces Renko to go to Bucha to explore the possibility that what he saw on the thumb drive is the key to solving the murder. The problem is that Renko has been put on leave and was ordered to stand down.
Renko himself realizes that his Parkinsons have slowed him down, but he is intrigued by the case. It is interesting that the author suffered from Parkinsons for over thirty years and on July 11, at the age of 82 he succumbed to the disease almost to the day that his last Renko novel was released. Renko and Tatiana go to Bucha avoiding the problems caused by the war and arrive “going the long way around” from Athens to Warsaw to Ukraine.
HOTEL UKRAINE brings Arkady full circle as it is a prominent location from an earlier Renko novel, GORKY PARK. A tense meeting occurs between Lev Volkov, who is tired of Tatiana’s storylines, and it is possible he will have her killed. Smith offers powerful scenes, such as when Arkady’s consciousness makes the hallucinatory transition from thinking that he’s undergoing an extreme attack of Parkinson’s, to the realization he’s been poisoned. The sequence is probably derived from Smith’s own experience, which lends a high degree of authenticity to the novel. Smith’s reality transferred to Renko, the ongoing war in Ukraine which has caused the death of over million people and has destroyed Ukrainian villages and towns all appear in a story whose end is sad as we realize will no longer have this novelist and his characters to entertain us and make us think about the realistic stories and characters he has created.
July 19, 2025
4 1/2 Stars
I read HOTEL UKRAINE with heavy heart knowing that its’ author, Martin Cruz Smith, had passed away mere days prior to its’ release. In the Acknowledgments at the end of the novel, Martin Cruz Smith discussed his thirty-year-long battle with dreaded Parkinson’s Disease and that he knew going into it that this would be his final novel.
HOTEL UKRAINE was already tabbed as the final Detective Arkady Renko novel --- the 11th in this stellar series that began with perhaps his most famous work, GORKY PARK, which was later turned into a hit film that starred Oscar-winner William Hurt. It is ironic that Smith also chose to inflict his character Renko with the same disease that would cost him his life, and it slows him down from time to time but never stops him in his pursuit of justice.
Justice has never come easy to Renko, who is often called a Russian Sherlock Holmes, as he is often limited by the severe government control that surrounds him. Things have gotten volatile now in the Putin regime as at the start of the novel the war with Ukraine has just begun. It is illegal for government officials or law enforcement to use the term ‘war,’ and they are ready to arrest and imprison those who use it flippantly. Rather, the term they are speaking aloud to describe the conflict as ‘special military operation.’
Renko must work amidst a groundswell of pro-Ukraine sentiment along with watching his own government dispel the rumors that Putin was dying of cancer and ripe for the picking. It is during this time that the deputy minister of defense, Alexei Kasasky, is found slain. Renko’s superiour, Zurin, puts him and his small team on the case --- but with an extremely short leash. It is also unknown to Zurin at this time that his best investigator, Arkady Renko, was quietly succumbing to Parkinson’s.
The case is made more complicated for Renko by the unexpected addition of his long-time adversary, Marina Makarova, who works with the FSB --- one-time known as part of the KGB in the days of the former Soviet Union. Working against the FSB, and firmly on the side of Ukraine in the current conflict, was the SBU and Renko was aware of their agent named Blokhin. Renko needed to find out if Blokhin’s group had played a part in the murder of Kasasky and knew that he was probably the only person whom Blokhin would trust enough to speak frankly with.
At home, Renko must deal with his wife Tatiana who works as a reporter doing a piece on the war for the New York Times, and his son Zhenya who definitely anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine in the conflict. Renko loves his family and only cares for his family, knowing what people like Makarova and her FSB would do if they could get their hands on Natalia or Zhenya and expose either of them as Russian traitors. Renko needs his family now for Tatiana’s knowledge of global foreign policy and Zhenya’s technical skills to aid him in his investigation.
In the room where Kasasky’ s body was found it appeared there was the number 2 written on the wall. Renko later realized it was not a ‘2’ but the letter Z --- which was a popular slogan in Ukraine protesting the invasion by Russia. Regrettably, Makarova learns of Renko’s disability and turns him in which subsequently finds him dropped from the case and placed on leave by Zurin. Of course, Arkady Renko does not plan to let this slow him down as he travels with Tatiana to Ukraine where they meet up with Blokhin to get some perspective.
The visit to Bucha, Ukraine is quite eye-opening and upon returning to mother Russia, Renko and Tatiana set their sights on a man named Volkov who heads a radical para-military group within Russia and has been rumored as a potential replacement someday for Putin, if and when he is no longer able to continue as leader. Following a meeting with Volkov, both Renko and Tatiana are hospitalized from a severe dose of poison, with Tatiana fighting for her life. The already depleted Renko recovers but will need all of his wits and the aid of his few remaining colleagues to solve the crime he never stopped investigating and do so under the radar of the FSB while praying for his wife to recover. HOTEL UKRAINE is everything we have come to expect from the Arkady Renko series and Martin Cruz Smith, and it is a bittersweet goodbye to both these novels and Smith’s brilliant imagination and skill with manipulating the written word.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
I read HOTEL UKRAINE with heavy heart knowing that its’ author, Martin Cruz Smith, had passed away mere days prior to its’ release. In the Acknowledgments at the end of the novel, Martin Cruz Smith discussed his thirty-year-long battle with dreaded Parkinson’s Disease and that he knew going into it that this would be his final novel.
HOTEL UKRAINE was already tabbed as the final Detective Arkady Renko novel --- the 11th in this stellar series that began with perhaps his most famous work, GORKY PARK, which was later turned into a hit film that starred Oscar-winner William Hurt. It is ironic that Smith also chose to inflict his character Renko with the same disease that would cost him his life, and it slows him down from time to time but never stops him in his pursuit of justice.
Justice has never come easy to Renko, who is often called a Russian Sherlock Holmes, as he is often limited by the severe government control that surrounds him. Things have gotten volatile now in the Putin regime as at the start of the novel the war with Ukraine has just begun. It is illegal for government officials or law enforcement to use the term ‘war,’ and they are ready to arrest and imprison those who use it flippantly. Rather, the term they are speaking aloud to describe the conflict as ‘special military operation.’
Renko must work amidst a groundswell of pro-Ukraine sentiment along with watching his own government dispel the rumors that Putin was dying of cancer and ripe for the picking. It is during this time that the deputy minister of defense, Alexei Kasasky, is found slain. Renko’s superiour, Zurin, puts him and his small team on the case --- but with an extremely short leash. It is also unknown to Zurin at this time that his best investigator, Arkady Renko, was quietly succumbing to Parkinson’s.
The case is made more complicated for Renko by the unexpected addition of his long-time adversary, Marina Makarova, who works with the FSB --- one-time known as part of the KGB in the days of the former Soviet Union. Working against the FSB, and firmly on the side of Ukraine in the current conflict, was the SBU and Renko was aware of their agent named Blokhin. Renko needed to find out if Blokhin’s group had played a part in the murder of Kasasky and knew that he was probably the only person whom Blokhin would trust enough to speak frankly with.
At home, Renko must deal with his wife Tatiana who works as a reporter doing a piece on the war for the New York Times, and his son Zhenya who definitely anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine in the conflict. Renko loves his family and only cares for his family, knowing what people like Makarova and her FSB would do if they could get their hands on Natalia or Zhenya and expose either of them as Russian traitors. Renko needs his family now for Tatiana’s knowledge of global foreign policy and Zhenya’s technical skills to aid him in his investigation.
In the room where Kasasky’ s body was found it appeared there was the number 2 written on the wall. Renko later realized it was not a ‘2’ but the letter Z --- which was a popular slogan in Ukraine protesting the invasion by Russia. Regrettably, Makarova learns of Renko’s disability and turns him in which subsequently finds him dropped from the case and placed on leave by Zurin. Of course, Arkady Renko does not plan to let this slow him down as he travels with Tatiana to Ukraine where they meet up with Blokhin to get some perspective.
The visit to Bucha, Ukraine is quite eye-opening and upon returning to mother Russia, Renko and Tatiana set their sights on a man named Volkov who heads a radical para-military group within Russia and has been rumored as a potential replacement someday for Putin, if and when he is no longer able to continue as leader. Following a meeting with Volkov, both Renko and Tatiana are hospitalized from a severe dose of poison, with Tatiana fighting for her life. The already depleted Renko recovers but will need all of his wits and the aid of his few remaining colleagues to solve the crime he never stopped investigating and do so under the radar of the FSB while praying for his wife to recover. HOTEL UKRAINE is everything we have come to expect from the Arkady Renko series and Martin Cruz Smith, and it is a bittersweet goodbye to both these novels and Smith’s brilliant imagination and skill with manipulating the written word.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
October 27, 2025
I started reading Martin Cruz Smith back in 1981 when his first novel Gorky Park was published. He went on to write 11 thrillers featuring Arkady Renko, an investigator for the Russian police. I read those 11 novels as well as 6 stand alone novels he wrote. He was a master of the spy thriller, he passed away just as Hotel Ukraine was being published. He had Parkinson's disease for 30 years and he gave the same ailment to Renko. A master storyteller who focused on Russia and it's troubles. He will be missed.
September 1, 2025
4.25. I liked the complexity of the book and the satisfying ending. I enjoyed the trip to the Ukraine and the descriptions of what was going on there. Perfect final chapter for Arkady. This book made me want to reread the series.
October 17, 2025
The storyline of investigator Renko struggling with Parkinsons is beautifully integrated into this political thriller. The author died of the disease July this year.
October 18, 2025
Hotel Ukraine is the latest and last Inspector Arkady Reno adventure by Herman Cruz Smith. I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with life in Russia once again. It’s time to reread Gorky Park.
October 3, 2025
Author Martin Cruz Smith
Author Martin Cruz Smith introduced Moscow police detective Arkady Renko in the novel 'Gorky Park' in 1981. There are ten more books in the series, and Renko has aged a bit over time. In 'Hotel Ukraine', Martin Cruz Smith, who has Parkinson's Disease, takes a leaf from his own life and Detective Renko has the same illness. Renko's symptoms are escalating, and he's experiencing weakness, muscle cramps, stiffness, sleeping problems, bad dreams, trouble using his hands, etc.
Renko has been hiding his illness, fearful of being made to retire, but his imbalance and tremors are becoming difficult to conceal. In this book, Renko takes on his final investigation - the murder of a Russian deputy minister of defense.
*****
The story opens in 2022, soon after Russia's initial incursion into Ukraine. Renko's boss, Prosecutor General Zurin - who hates Arkady - tends to push three kinds of cases his way: minor ones that a traffic cop could solve; ones that involve Arkady traveling to distant parts of the Russian federation; and politically sensitive ones that require at least the appearance of Arkady's experience and investigative skills.
Thus Renko and his partner Victor are sent to investigate when a deputy minister of defense, Alexei Kazasky, is found dead in the Hotel Ukraine.
Kazasky is so smashed up he's almost unrecognizable, and the autopsy reveals multiple deep lacerations as well as massive blunt force trauma, as if Kazasky was tortured.
Renko and Victor are joined by another investigator, Marina Makarova from the FSB. Marina - who was once Renko's lover - is a woman of steel "who would always put the FSB first, herself second, and everything and everyone else a distant third."
Marina soon hones in on a suspect, Yuri Blokhin - an advisor at the Ukrainian embassy.
Marina bolsters her case with three male FSB agents who say they followed Blokhin to the Hotel Ukraine on the night of the murder. Marina thinks 'case closed' until Arkady interviews the three male FSB agents and their stories fall apart.
After Blohkin is released from custody, Marina gets Renko dismissed from the case, so she can control the inquiry. Arkady is nothing if not tenacious, however, and he continues investigating with the help of his girlfriend, Tatiana Petrovna - a Moscow-based journalist for the New York Times.
Arkady and Tatiana have reason to believe Kazasky's killer is an officer in a private military force called the 1812. The soldiers in the 1812 - which is funded by Putin himself - are better trained and more capable than the regular Russian army. Right now, the 1812 is in Ukraine, assisting the Russian invasion.
Though it's very dangerous, Arkady and Tatiana go to Ukraine, where they uncover horrific brutality by the Russian troops against civilians....including children. Tatiana plans to write a piece about this, to expose the atrocities. Arkady and Tatiana also identify the person who probably killed Kazasky. The duo's activities put a bullseye on their backs, especially when they learn why Kazasky was killed.
While all this is happening, Renko's adopted son Zhenya, a chess whiz, has joined the Black Army - a group of 'hacktivists' who oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Zhenya will be at great risk if the FSB learns of his activities.
As the story progresses, Arkady, Tatiana, and Zhenya face terrible danger as disparate Russian factions vie for power.
Martin Cruz Smith uses the story as a vehicle to condemn the war in Ukraine, which Russians must call a 'Special Military Action' (rather than a war) to avoid being arrested.
This is Arkady Renko's last case and the end of the series. To me, it seems like the plot of this book is more spare than previous Renko novels, perhaps because of the author's illness. Sadly, Martin Cruz Smith died in July, 2025 after suffering from Parkinson's disease for 30 years.
Fortunately for mystery and suspense fans, we still have Martin Cruz Smith's books.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
September 29, 2025
Martin Cruz Smith's Hotel Ukraine is a contemporary thriller, so current that it focuses on a war that is still raging in Ukraine. The saperska, a weapon that combines knife blades and a bludgeon, may give you nightmares. Arkady Renko investigates a death at the Hotel Ukraine. Marina Makarova, an FSB officer, wants him off the case because his questioning of three agents who worked for her showed that they were lying. Instead, she used his Parkinson's disease as the basis for forcing his removal on humanitarian grounds. But Arkady triumphs. He and his girlfriend, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, uncover the details behind a secret military organization involved in the military action in Ukraine. Expect a creative, suspenseful and believable story. Even the details add to the plot. For example, a quick routine flight from Moscow to Kiev now takes almost half a dozen flights and long stretches of driving. From hours to over a week. Hiding in underground train stations during curfew also sounds like a detail right out of the news.
September 6, 2025
I first met Arkady Renko 45 years ago and am sorry that this is the final book in the series. Bonding with a protagonist is essential to my love of books / series. I like it when the main characters change and age with time, but am sad that Arkady is no longer physically able to fight crime. I shall miss him. Very enjoyable read. Kristi & Abby Tabby
August 5, 2025
A Russian defense minister is murdered as Putin invades Ukraine
Since the publication in 1981 of Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith has traced the evolution of the country then known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the time of Leonid Brezhnev to its current state under Vladimir Putin through 11 novels featuring detective Arkady Renko. Now, in the eleventh and final book in the series, Cruz Smith brings Renko’s story up to the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ailing now with Parkinson’s Disease, Renko takes on a difficult case involving the murder of a senior Russian defense official in Hotel Ukraine.
A surreal conversation opens the story
Demonstrators are rushing into the streets of Moscow to protest the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Arkady’s adopted son Zhenya is prominent among them. Like so many others, he is shouting the slogan, “Down with the war.” Then the police sweep in and snatch him. Witnessing the arrest, Arkady accompanies him to the jail. There, he takes part in a surreal conversation with a police official.
“You are charged with the use of illegal language,” the official says to Zhenya.
“Which bit of this is illegal?” Arkady asks.
“The final word.”
“I’m not allowed to use the word ‘war’?” asks Zhenya.
“Exactly.”
“If he can’t say ‘war,’ Arkady asked, “what can he say?”
“Special military operation.”
So it goes in Putin’s Russia today.
A potentially explosive investigation
Back in his office, he learns from his boss, Prosecutor General Zurin, that someone has murdered Alexei Kazasky, the deputy minister of defense. (“Because his father was a decorated general, Arkady could have been a deputy minister himself by now if only he had played the game.”) The minister’s body was found in a suite in the Hotel Ukraine. As Arkady discovers on site, the man had been savagely mutilated. And the murderer or murderers had painted on the wall in Kazasky’s blood the number 2. As readers of crime fiction, we know of course that this will prove to be a pivotal clue.
The case is potentially explosive, so Arkady is unsurprised to learn that the FSB is conducting an investigation parallel to his. And in short order, the internal security agency announces the arrest of the minister’s murderer. But Arkady knows their suspect is not the killer. The arrest merely reflects the way things are done in Russia today. It’s not Arkady’s way, though. “Arkady had never been able to bring himself to believe in the rationale that underpinned the city’s police policy: this specific suspect may not have committed this specific crime, but he’s bound to have committed others we haven’t pinned on him, and even if he hasn’t, he’s bound to commit some in the future, so let’s lock him up because it will all even itself out in the long run anyway.”
But even Arkady has underestimated how very great are the implications of the crime. As his work proceeds, he discovers that dark forces are at work. And the minister’s murder is merely a hint of what is to come.
On a personal note
In the summer of 1965 I visited the Soviet Union for two weeks in the course of extended travels through Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and the nations of Western Europe. I stayed in the Hotel Ukraine—the Ukraina, in its Russian spelling. It’s the tallest hotel in Europe at 34 stories and today includes 505 rooms, 38 apartments, and five restaurants.
The Ukraina is a prime example of Stalinist architecture. Construction started before the dictator’s death in 1953, but the hotel opened only in 1957. So it was relatively new in 1965 and the most luxurious accommodations then available in the USSR. I found it singularly uncomfortable, in part because I was constantly under surveillance from the stout, humorless woman who managed the floor. And when I complained that someone had stolen a tube of medicinal ointment from my room, I learned that “There is no crime in the Soviet Union.” She did not appreciate my laughing response.
About the author
Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025) wrote 33 books under a variety of pseudonyms, 18 of them before he launched the Arkady Renko series with the breakthrough bestseller Gorky Park. He was born born Martin William Smith but changed his middle name to Cruz, his paternal grandmother’s surname. (The new name also accurately reflected his complex ethnic heritage, as his mother was an American Indian of Pueblo descent.)
Smith earned a BA in creative writing from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a journalist for several years. He turned to writing fiction in the 1970s. He lived with his family in San Rafael, California, and died there in 2025 of complications from Parkinson’s Disease. (Parkinson’s afflicts his hero, Arkady Renko, as well. It figures in the story in a major way.)
Since the publication in 1981 of Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith has traced the evolution of the country then known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the time of Leonid Brezhnev to its current state under Vladimir Putin through 11 novels featuring detective Arkady Renko. Now, in the eleventh and final book in the series, Cruz Smith brings Renko’s story up to the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ailing now with Parkinson’s Disease, Renko takes on a difficult case involving the murder of a senior Russian defense official in Hotel Ukraine.
A surreal conversation opens the story
Demonstrators are rushing into the streets of Moscow to protest the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Arkady’s adopted son Zhenya is prominent among them. Like so many others, he is shouting the slogan, “Down with the war.” Then the police sweep in and snatch him. Witnessing the arrest, Arkady accompanies him to the jail. There, he takes part in a surreal conversation with a police official.
“You are charged with the use of illegal language,” the official says to Zhenya.
“Which bit of this is illegal?” Arkady asks.
“The final word.”
“I’m not allowed to use the word ‘war’?” asks Zhenya.
“Exactly.”
“If he can’t say ‘war,’ Arkady asked, “what can he say?”
“Special military operation.”
So it goes in Putin’s Russia today.
A potentially explosive investigation
Back in his office, he learns from his boss, Prosecutor General Zurin, that someone has murdered Alexei Kazasky, the deputy minister of defense. (“Because his father was a decorated general, Arkady could have been a deputy minister himself by now if only he had played the game.”) The minister’s body was found in a suite in the Hotel Ukraine. As Arkady discovers on site, the man had been savagely mutilated. And the murderer or murderers had painted on the wall in Kazasky’s blood the number 2. As readers of crime fiction, we know of course that this will prove to be a pivotal clue.
The case is potentially explosive, so Arkady is unsurprised to learn that the FSB is conducting an investigation parallel to his. And in short order, the internal security agency announces the arrest of the minister’s murderer. But Arkady knows their suspect is not the killer. The arrest merely reflects the way things are done in Russia today. It’s not Arkady’s way, though. “Arkady had never been able to bring himself to believe in the rationale that underpinned the city’s police policy: this specific suspect may not have committed this specific crime, but he’s bound to have committed others we haven’t pinned on him, and even if he hasn’t, he’s bound to commit some in the future, so let’s lock him up because it will all even itself out in the long run anyway.”
But even Arkady has underestimated how very great are the implications of the crime. As his work proceeds, he discovers that dark forces are at work. And the minister’s murder is merely a hint of what is to come.
On a personal note
In the summer of 1965 I visited the Soviet Union for two weeks in the course of extended travels through Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and the nations of Western Europe. I stayed in the Hotel Ukraine—the Ukraina, in its Russian spelling. It’s the tallest hotel in Europe at 34 stories and today includes 505 rooms, 38 apartments, and five restaurants.
The Ukraina is a prime example of Stalinist architecture. Construction started before the dictator’s death in 1953, but the hotel opened only in 1957. So it was relatively new in 1965 and the most luxurious accommodations then available in the USSR. I found it singularly uncomfortable, in part because I was constantly under surveillance from the stout, humorless woman who managed the floor. And when I complained that someone had stolen a tube of medicinal ointment from my room, I learned that “There is no crime in the Soviet Union.” She did not appreciate my laughing response.
About the author
Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025) wrote 33 books under a variety of pseudonyms, 18 of them before he launched the Arkady Renko series with the breakthrough bestseller Gorky Park. He was born born Martin William Smith but changed his middle name to Cruz, his paternal grandmother’s surname. (The new name also accurately reflected his complex ethnic heritage, as his mother was an American Indian of Pueblo descent.)
Smith earned a BA in creative writing from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a journalist for several years. He turned to writing fiction in the 1970s. He lived with his family in San Rafael, California, and died there in 2025 of complications from Parkinson’s Disease. (Parkinson’s afflicts his hero, Arkady Renko, as well. It figures in the story in a major way.)
July 20, 2025
I read HOTEL UKRAINE with a heavy heart knowing that Martin Cruz Smith had passed away just a few days after its release.
In the Acknowledgments, Smith discussed his 30-year battle with Parkinson’s disease and was fully aware that this would be his final novel. It wraps up a stellar series that began with GORKY PARK, which eventually became a hit film starring William Hurt. Smith chose to inflict his protagonist, Detective Arkady Renko, with Parkinson’s. It slows him down from time to time but never stops him in his pursuit of justice.
Justice has never come easy to Arkady, who is frequently called a Russian Sherlock Holmes, as he is often limited by the severe government control that surrounds him. Things have gotten volatile in the Putin regime as the war with Ukraine has just begun. It is illegal for government officials or law enforcement to say the word “war.” Those who use it flippantly risk being arrested and imprisoned. Instead, the term that they speak aloud to describe the conflict is “special military operation.”
Arkady must work amidst a groundswell of pro-Ukraine sentiment, along with watching his own government dispel the rumors that Putin is dying of cancer and is ripe for the picking. It is during this time that the Deputy Minister of Defense, Alexei Kazasky, is found slain. Arkady’s superior, Zurin, puts him and his small team on the case --- but with an extremely short leash. It is unknown to Zurin at this time that his best investigator is quietly succumbing to Parkinson’s.
The case is made more complicated for Arkady by the unexpected addition of his longtime adversary, Marina Makarova, who works with the FSB --- which was part of the KGB in the days of the former Soviet Union. Working against the FSB, and firmly on the side of Ukraine in the current conflict, is the SBU, and Arkady is aware of their agent, Blokhin. He needs to find out if Blokhin’s group had played a role in Kazasky’s murder.
Meanwhile, Arkady must deal with his wife, Tatiana Petrovna, a journalist who is doing a piece on the war for the New York Times, and his son, Zhenya, who is anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine. He loves his family and knows what people like Makarova would do if they could get their hands on his loved ones and expose them as Russian traitors. He also needs Tatiana’s knowledge of global foreign policy and Zhenya’s technical skills to aid him in his investigation.
In the room where Kazasky’s body is found, it appears that a “2” is written on the wall. Arkady later realizes that it’s a “Z,” a popular slogan in Ukraine protesting Russia’s invasion. Regrettably, Makarova learns of Arkady’s illness and turns him in, which subsequently finds him dropped from the case and placed on leave by Zurin. Of course, Arkady does not plan to let this deter him as he travels with Tatiana to Ukraine where they meet with Blokhin to gain some perspective. Their visit is quite eye-opening.
HOTEL UKRAINE is everything we have come to expect from this outstanding series and Martin Cruz Smith. It is a bittersweet goodbye to these novels, as well as Smith’s brilliant imagination and skill with manipulating the written word.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
In the Acknowledgments, Smith discussed his 30-year battle with Parkinson’s disease and was fully aware that this would be his final novel. It wraps up a stellar series that began with GORKY PARK, which eventually became a hit film starring William Hurt. Smith chose to inflict his protagonist, Detective Arkady Renko, with Parkinson’s. It slows him down from time to time but never stops him in his pursuit of justice.
Justice has never come easy to Arkady, who is frequently called a Russian Sherlock Holmes, as he is often limited by the severe government control that surrounds him. Things have gotten volatile in the Putin regime as the war with Ukraine has just begun. It is illegal for government officials or law enforcement to say the word “war.” Those who use it flippantly risk being arrested and imprisoned. Instead, the term that they speak aloud to describe the conflict is “special military operation.”
Arkady must work amidst a groundswell of pro-Ukraine sentiment, along with watching his own government dispel the rumors that Putin is dying of cancer and is ripe for the picking. It is during this time that the Deputy Minister of Defense, Alexei Kazasky, is found slain. Arkady’s superior, Zurin, puts him and his small team on the case --- but with an extremely short leash. It is unknown to Zurin at this time that his best investigator is quietly succumbing to Parkinson’s.
The case is made more complicated for Arkady by the unexpected addition of his longtime adversary, Marina Makarova, who works with the FSB --- which was part of the KGB in the days of the former Soviet Union. Working against the FSB, and firmly on the side of Ukraine in the current conflict, is the SBU, and Arkady is aware of their agent, Blokhin. He needs to find out if Blokhin’s group had played a role in Kazasky’s murder.
Meanwhile, Arkady must deal with his wife, Tatiana Petrovna, a journalist who is doing a piece on the war for the New York Times, and his son, Zhenya, who is anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine. He loves his family and knows what people like Makarova would do if they could get their hands on his loved ones and expose them as Russian traitors. He also needs Tatiana’s knowledge of global foreign policy and Zhenya’s technical skills to aid him in his investigation.
In the room where Kazasky’s body is found, it appears that a “2” is written on the wall. Arkady later realizes that it’s a “Z,” a popular slogan in Ukraine protesting Russia’s invasion. Regrettably, Makarova learns of Arkady’s illness and turns him in, which subsequently finds him dropped from the case and placed on leave by Zurin. Of course, Arkady does not plan to let this deter him as he travels with Tatiana to Ukraine where they meet with Blokhin to gain some perspective. Their visit is quite eye-opening.
HOTEL UKRAINE is everything we have come to expect from this outstanding series and Martin Cruz Smith. It is a bittersweet goodbye to these novels, as well as Smith’s brilliant imagination and skill with manipulating the written word.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
December 29, 2025
A sad but very satisfying goodbye to Martin Cruz Smith and his creation: Inspector Arkady Rendko. I don’ seek out book series and I’m not a finisher. I haven’t even read all the plays of Shakespeare, and some don’t seem worth reading, if I can say that on a forum for competitive readers. I read “Gorky Park” along with everyone else on the planet when it came out, then a few more in the series and liked them, just never felt compelled to read the whole set. I’ll never understand Michael Connelly and Lee Child for writing book after book about one guy.
I had to read this one after Cruz passed away back in July. I forgot about it and was just reminded. I was reminded why I liked this guy so much by the quality of his prose and the fact that he’s actually saying something worth reading, unlike the current winners of Goodreads’ award for mystery and thriller. Ugh, mostly godawful. Not a real person to be found in any of them, at least that’s my experience.
This last installment touches on the war in Ukraine, or those opposing it in Moscow and the purges that nation is committing to stifle the dissent.
Lubyanka. Even the name, Arkady thought, sounded like a gunshot. It was impossible to sit in any of the interrogation rooms and not wonder who had passed through them over the years. Lubyanka was where the Cheka had carried out the Red Terror and the NKVD had implemented Stalin’s relentless purges. Mandelstam and Solzhenitsyn had been held here; Bukharin and Wallenberg too. In Soviet times they had called it the tallest building in Moscow on the grounds that Siberia could be seen from its basement. If Arkady listened or looked carefully enough, perhaps he would hear the distant echoes of a scream or see a fingernail embedded in the brickwork. It was cursed, haunted, a vast repository of evil created in the name of a greater mission.”
One hell of a paragraph.
Yet another reason I’m sadden that Martic Cruz Smith won’t be writing more novels: I always wanted to read a book dedicated to Zhenya, the street urchin chess prodigy Arakdy rescued from the streets and adopted him. Now he’s a computer hacker too clever for the authorities to trap in his resistance to their illegal war. His cat an mouse games with the secret police were almost as fun as his speed-chess strategy in Stalin’s Ghost.
This makes me sad:
Martin Cruz Smith, Hotel Ukraie: 4.33 2,305 ratings - 217 reviews
Holly Jackson, Not Quite Dead Yet: 96,868 ratings - 19,862 reviews
To each his own, I suppose.
Only three more to go! Can I do it? My brain is like the U.S.S Enterprise and fat Scotty is screaming at me from the boiler room that it can't handle any more, it's going to blow. Take it from me, the loss of my brain is no great loss to society
I had to read this one after Cruz passed away back in July. I forgot about it and was just reminded. I was reminded why I liked this guy so much by the quality of his prose and the fact that he’s actually saying something worth reading, unlike the current winners of Goodreads’ award for mystery and thriller. Ugh, mostly godawful. Not a real person to be found in any of them, at least that’s my experience.
This last installment touches on the war in Ukraine, or those opposing it in Moscow and the purges that nation is committing to stifle the dissent.
Lubyanka. Even the name, Arkady thought, sounded like a gunshot. It was impossible to sit in any of the interrogation rooms and not wonder who had passed through them over the years. Lubyanka was where the Cheka had carried out the Red Terror and the NKVD had implemented Stalin’s relentless purges. Mandelstam and Solzhenitsyn had been held here; Bukharin and Wallenberg too. In Soviet times they had called it the tallest building in Moscow on the grounds that Siberia could be seen from its basement. If Arkady listened or looked carefully enough, perhaps he would hear the distant echoes of a scream or see a fingernail embedded in the brickwork. It was cursed, haunted, a vast repository of evil created in the name of a greater mission.”
One hell of a paragraph.
Yet another reason I’m sadden that Martic Cruz Smith won’t be writing more novels: I always wanted to read a book dedicated to Zhenya, the street urchin chess prodigy Arakdy rescued from the streets and adopted him. Now he’s a computer hacker too clever for the authorities to trap in his resistance to their illegal war. His cat an mouse games with the secret police were almost as fun as his speed-chess strategy in Stalin’s Ghost.
This makes me sad:
Martin Cruz Smith, Hotel Ukraie: 4.33 2,305 ratings - 217 reviews
Holly Jackson, Not Quite Dead Yet: 96,868 ratings - 19,862 reviews
To each his own, I suppose.
Only three more to go! Can I do it? My brain is like the U.S.S Enterprise and fat Scotty is screaming at me from the boiler room that it can't handle any more, it's going to blow. Take it from me, the loss of my brain is no great loss to society
August 4, 2025
I ordered this book from Amazon back in December. It came auto-delivered to my Kindle on the release date last month, and I noticed that at some point a subtitle had bee added: The Final Arkady Renko Novel.
And a few days later, via the WSJ's book review, I learned that the author, Martin Cruz Smith, had died on July 11.
Well, darn. I still have the $3.95 paperback of Gorky Park I bought and read back in 1982. And I've been a diligent follower of Smith's diligent Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, since then.
As the book opens, Arkady needs to get his adopted computer-whiz son, Zhenya, out of the clutches of the Russian FSB. He was nabbed for protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling it a "war" instead of the approved term, "special military operation."
I thought this observation was pointful enough to share at Goodreads:
Once more, Arkady thought, you needed only one book to really understand Russia. Not Tolstoy or Pushkin, not Dostoyevsky or Lermontov, but one his mother used to read to him as a child: Through the Looking-Glass, otherwise known as Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
Well… those are two separate books, I think. But otherwise, spot on. Of course, you'd need to add a lot more violence, thuggery, and terror to the Alice books to really get it right.
Soon enough, Arkady is given a murder case: a lower-level defense minister has been brutally murdered at the Hotel Ukraine. Arkady's investigative skills (and a little bit of happenstance luck) draw him to the father/son team of Lev and Ivan Volkov, who run the paramilitary "1812 Group". (Think a barely fictionalized version of the Wagner Group, and its (late) leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and son Pavel.) Arkady and his longtime lady friend, journalist Tatiana Petrovna, take a dangerous trip to Ukraine, discovering atrocities committed by 1812. (And those are barely fictionalized too.)
Soon enough, both Arkady and Tatiana find themselves in extreme peril from Volkov, the 1812 Group, and their allies in the FSB. Leading to a very cinematic showdown in the sewers and subway tunnels of Moscow.
I will miss Arkady Renko and Martin Cruz Smith a lot. I might do a re-reading project.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews