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Arkady Renko #8
Tatiana
Martin Cruz Smith's “masterful” (USA TODAY) and “irresistible” (People) New York Times bestseller and Washington Post notable book of the year: Arkady Renko must connect the dots among a Russian journalist’s mysterious death, corrupt politicians, murderous gangsters, and brazen bureaucrats.
Arkady Renko, one of the iconic investigators of contemporary fiction, has survived the cultural journey from the Soviet Union to the New Russia, only to find the nation as obsessed with secrecy and brutality as was the old Communist dictatorship. In Tatiana, the melancholy hero unravels a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself.
The reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow the same week that a mob billionaire is shot and buried with the trappings due a lord. The trail leads to Kaliningrad, a Cold War “secret city” that is separated by hundreds of miles from the rest of Russia. The more Arkady delves into Tatiana’s past, the more she leads him into a surreal world of wandering sand dunes, abandoned children, and a notebook written in the personal code of a dead translator. Finally, in a lethal race to uncover what the translator knew, Renko makes a startling discovery that draws him still deeper into Tatiana’s past—and, paradoxically, into Russia’s future, where bulletproof cars, poets, corruption of the Baltic Fleet, and a butcher for hire combine to give Kaliningrad the “distinction” of having the highest crime rate in Russia.
More than a mystery, Tatiana is Martin Cruz Smith’s most ambitious and politically daring novel since Gorky Park. It is a story rich in character, black humor, and romance, with an insight that is the hallmark of a writer The New York Times has called “endlessly entertaining and deeply serious…[not merely] our best writer of suspense, but of one of our best writers, period.”
Arkady Renko, one of the iconic investigators of contemporary fiction, has survived the cultural journey from the Soviet Union to the New Russia, only to find the nation as obsessed with secrecy and brutality as was the old Communist dictatorship. In Tatiana, the melancholy hero unravels a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself.
The reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow the same week that a mob billionaire is shot and buried with the trappings due a lord. The trail leads to Kaliningrad, a Cold War “secret city” that is separated by hundreds of miles from the rest of Russia. The more Arkady delves into Tatiana’s past, the more she leads him into a surreal world of wandering sand dunes, abandoned children, and a notebook written in the personal code of a dead translator. Finally, in a lethal race to uncover what the translator knew, Renko makes a startling discovery that draws him still deeper into Tatiana’s past—and, paradoxically, into Russia’s future, where bulletproof cars, poets, corruption of the Baltic Fleet, and a butcher for hire combine to give Kaliningrad the “distinction” of having the highest crime rate in Russia.
More than a mystery, Tatiana is Martin Cruz Smith’s most ambitious and politically daring novel since Gorky Park. It is a story rich in character, black humor, and romance, with an insight that is the hallmark of a writer The New York Times has called “endlessly entertaining and deeply serious…[not merely] our best writer of suspense, but of one of our best writers, period.”
Audiobook
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Martin Cruz Smith
55 books1,282 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]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 679 reviews
July 1, 2020
In this eighth book in the 'Arkady Renko' series, the Russian police detective looks into the death of an investigative journalist. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Investigator Arkady Renko is attending the funeral of businessman/mafia leader Grisha Grigorenko in Moscow when he encounters a group of demonstrators protesting the death of Tatiana Petrovna, a journalist who uncovers government corruption and exposes government officials who collude with criminals.
Tatiana's death was ruled a suicide but Renko doesn't believe it and - against department regulations - starts an investigation.
Tatiana's death seems to be linked to the recovered notebook of a murdered international translator, a book filled with indecipherable pictures and symbols. Renko gets the notebook but can't figure it out.
Renko's investigation soon takes him to Kaliningrad, a port city run by gangster Grigorenko and his cohorts, considered one of the most corrupt cities in Russia.
Everyone - the mob, cops, government officials, and Tatiana's editor - wants Renko to quit investigating Tatiana's death.
In addition, many people want to get their hands on the mysterious notebook. All this leads to intimidation, violence, and betrayal but Renko carries on.
There are various interesting characters in the story including Renko's gruff but likable partner Victor;
a broke, middle-aged, dissolute poet who was Tatiana's former lover;
Renko's chess-hustler ward Zhenya who's a whiz with puzzles;
an intrepid journalist who hopes to take over Tatiana's beat;
criminals on the make; and more.
In time, the notebook is translated and Tatiana's death is resolved.
To me Renko's investigation seemed more plodding and less compelling than in previous books but the Russian ambiance of the story is fascinating and memorable. All in all a pretty good mystery/thriller.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
January 6, 2024
1.5 stars
short review for busy readers: Who body snatched Martin Cruz Smith and wrote this crappy made-for-TV movie script in his place??? Phoned in until the very last few chapters where Smith suddenly rediscovers his mojo. Short, fast read. Not the place to start the Arkady Renko series.
in detail:
*sound of book being tossed into recycling bin in disgust*
short review for busy readers: Who body snatched Martin Cruz Smith and wrote this crappy made-for-TV movie script in his place??? Phoned in until the very last few chapters where Smith suddenly rediscovers his mojo. Short, fast read. Not the place to start the Arkady Renko series.
in detail:
*sound of book being tossed into recycling bin in disgust*
April 19, 2014
Among the many jobs I’d never want is working as a journalist in Russia, and probably right behind that one on the list is being a detective in Russia.
Moscow police investigator Arkday Renko is back in his eighth book that finds him getting mixed up with the events surrounding the death of famous investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna. The official verdict is that Tatiana killed herself, but official stories aren’t worth anything in a Russia where the police and government are available to the highest bidder. Renko begins to connect her death to the murder of a wealthy mob boss and also to a translator who was part of a mysterious business deal.
As usual Renko finds roadblocks everywhere from apathetic and corrupt fellow cops to his own boss who’d rather work on his golf game than see a police detective actually investigate anything. Renko’s also got problems on the personal front in his role as legal guardian of the brilliant but strange teenager Zhenya who is pressuring Arkday to let him join the army. Worst of all is that his doctor pops in with the news that the bullet he carries in his brain from a previous misadventure has started to shift and strenuous activity could cause a sudden case of death.
Re-reading Renko’s introduction during the Cold War in Gorky Park and then this one immediately after that was a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. Back then Arkday had to play a dangerous game of trying to do real police work in a communist society that never wanted to admit any flaws. Now he plays a dangerous game of trying do real police work in a society so consumed by capitalism that the government has become a relentless stealing machine that ruthlessly cracks down on anyone would dare expose the corruption.
It’s a quality mystery in which Martin Cruz Smith does his usual thing of using his much abused but still stubborn detective to tell us what it’s like living in the Russia of the moment. Renko remains one of the more interesting fictional detectives with a pragmatic nature that doesn’t try to change the world but still insists on driving himself to find answers even when it puts him in extreme danger. One of the more interesting new elements in this one is that Renko starts listening to audio tapes Tatiana recorded as her notes, and he starts getting more and more intrigued by the dead woman.
My only complaint is just that of familiarity. Smith has been been writing Renko for over 30 years now, and the rhythms are pretty much the same since about the fifth book. I guessed a major twist in this book not because of anything in the plot, but just because I thought it seemed like the kind of thing that would happen in a Renko book. That’s not to say that it’s completely predictable or that I didn’t enjoy it, but I did have a pretty good idea of where it would end up.
Moscow police investigator Arkday Renko is back in his eighth book that finds him getting mixed up with the events surrounding the death of famous investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna. The official verdict is that Tatiana killed herself, but official stories aren’t worth anything in a Russia where the police and government are available to the highest bidder. Renko begins to connect her death to the murder of a wealthy mob boss and also to a translator who was part of a mysterious business deal.
As usual Renko finds roadblocks everywhere from apathetic and corrupt fellow cops to his own boss who’d rather work on his golf game than see a police detective actually investigate anything. Renko’s also got problems on the personal front in his role as legal guardian of the brilliant but strange teenager Zhenya who is pressuring Arkday to let him join the army. Worst of all is that his doctor pops in with the news that the bullet he carries in his brain from a previous misadventure has started to shift and strenuous activity could cause a sudden case of death.
Re-reading Renko’s introduction during the Cold War in Gorky Park and then this one immediately after that was a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. Back then Arkday had to play a dangerous game of trying to do real police work in a communist society that never wanted to admit any flaws. Now he plays a dangerous game of trying do real police work in a society so consumed by capitalism that the government has become a relentless stealing machine that ruthlessly cracks down on anyone would dare expose the corruption.
It’s a quality mystery in which Martin Cruz Smith does his usual thing of using his much abused but still stubborn detective to tell us what it’s like living in the Russia of the moment. Renko remains one of the more interesting fictional detectives with a pragmatic nature that doesn’t try to change the world but still insists on driving himself to find answers even when it puts him in extreme danger. One of the more interesting new elements in this one is that Renko starts listening to audio tapes Tatiana recorded as her notes, and he starts getting more and more intrigued by the dead woman.
My only complaint is just that of familiarity. Smith has been been writing Renko for over 30 years now, and the rhythms are pretty much the same since about the fifth book. I guessed a major twist in this book not because of anything in the plot, but just because I thought it seemed like the kind of thing that would happen in a Renko book. That’s not to say that it’s completely predictable or that I didn’t enjoy it, but I did have a pretty good idea of where it would end up.
April 20, 2014
Cruz Smith is in back in high form here with chess-inspired plotting and well-drawn characterizations of a set of people trying to avoid being collateral damage in a massive corruption scheme in Putin’s modern Russia. It could make a great first read of the series featuring Arkady Renko, a Moscow police detective whose successes at achieving justice never seems to reduce his supply of enemies. But knowing some of Renko’s history from prior reads makes me want to know more about his character than I really get with this tale. Instead, he is more of a lens or window on the drama among other characters.
Renko’s entry to this case comes in the form of a murder of a freelance translator for business leaders on a remote beach in Kaliningrad, a geographically isolated part of Russia with a port city of the same name on the Baltic Sea. It was rebuilt during the Cold War as a military stronghold from bombed-out Konigsberg after World War 2 and now is a frontier for shady development projects in the new Russia. A prominent journalist on the trail of nefarious activities in Kaliningrad, Tatiana, has disappeared or been murdered, having left a voice recording that has Renko looking for a notebook of the translator as a key to the mystery. When he succeeds in his brilliant efforts to acquire it, he finds the pictorial code it is written in totally baffling. Some of the symbols in the notebook seem to have something to do with submarines and with an ancient business of mining the beach sands for ambergris.
While Renko engages in some exciting and dangerous cat-and-mouse ploys in Kaliningrad, back at home the teenaged boy Zhenya, whom Renko serves as a guardian, takes on the challenge of translating the notebook. Zhenya is a chess genius and hustler you may have encountered in prior books in the series. With the help of a prospective girlfriend and fellow chess master, he slowly makes progress that comes to the dangerous attention of the son of a dead Russian mafia kingpin hoping to get his hand into the pie of the lucrative scheme. The playful and brave efforts of these teens to solve their conundrum and help Renko in the process is the most pleasurable part of this tale.
Ever since Renko appeared in "Gorky Park", I have savored his character through five of the other six books in the series. Here we still get the pleasure of his dogged persistence in pursuing some form of justice for powerful and corrupt figures. But I have trouble with this book getting a fix on Renko’s heart and soul, and I miss the special edge to his sardonic and downtrodden character as portrayed in the books set in the Cold War epoch. That’s why I rate it average despite good satisfaction overall.
Renko’s entry to this case comes in the form of a murder of a freelance translator for business leaders on a remote beach in Kaliningrad, a geographically isolated part of Russia with a port city of the same name on the Baltic Sea. It was rebuilt during the Cold War as a military stronghold from bombed-out Konigsberg after World War 2 and now is a frontier for shady development projects in the new Russia. A prominent journalist on the trail of nefarious activities in Kaliningrad, Tatiana, has disappeared or been murdered, having left a voice recording that has Renko looking for a notebook of the translator as a key to the mystery. When he succeeds in his brilliant efforts to acquire it, he finds the pictorial code it is written in totally baffling. Some of the symbols in the notebook seem to have something to do with submarines and with an ancient business of mining the beach sands for ambergris.
While Renko engages in some exciting and dangerous cat-and-mouse ploys in Kaliningrad, back at home the teenaged boy Zhenya, whom Renko serves as a guardian, takes on the challenge of translating the notebook. Zhenya is a chess genius and hustler you may have encountered in prior books in the series. With the help of a prospective girlfriend and fellow chess master, he slowly makes progress that comes to the dangerous attention of the son of a dead Russian mafia kingpin hoping to get his hand into the pie of the lucrative scheme. The playful and brave efforts of these teens to solve their conundrum and help Renko in the process is the most pleasurable part of this tale.
Ever since Renko appeared in "Gorky Park", I have savored his character through five of the other six books in the series. Here we still get the pleasure of his dogged persistence in pursuing some form of justice for powerful and corrupt figures. But I have trouble with this book getting a fix on Renko’s heart and soul, and I miss the special edge to his sardonic and downtrodden character as portrayed in the books set in the Cold War epoch. That’s why I rate it average despite good satisfaction overall.
July 5, 2015
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Martin Cruz Smith's books are enjoyable mysteries. His Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko is a determined man in investigating a death already ruled a suicide. Tatiana was a crusading reporter and fell to her death off a balcony. Somehow Renko connects her death to a murder of an organized crime figure. His investigation takes him to Kaliningrad, a part of Russia that used to be Koeingsberg, Germany, prior to 1945. It is now an enclave of Russia, bordered by Poland and Lithuania.
One quote from the book that made me laugh: "Judges can be expensive...
They should put an ATM in the courtroom and eliminate the middleman."
A minor quibble--one of the characters drives from Moscow to Kaliningrad, and has to go through Lithuanian and Polish customs. This book is set in 2012, after Poland and Lithuania joined the Schwengen agreement--meaning only 1 customs check.
One quote from the book that made me laugh: "Judges can be expensive...
They should put an ATM in the courtroom and eliminate the middleman."
A minor quibble--one of the characters drives from Moscow to Kaliningrad, and has to go through Lithuanian and Polish customs. This book is set in 2012, after Poland and Lithuania joined the Schwengen agreement--meaning only 1 customs check.
September 10, 2022
Martin Cruz Smith’s Tatiana takes place well after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and into the Putin era. It is a reasonably good story but I miss the earlier books like Gorky Park.
The policeman, Renko, is now dealing with the new Russian mobsters and crass oligarchs of the 21st century. He’s suspicious about the death (suicide officially) of an old friend, investigative journalist Tatiana. Some of Cruz Smith’s usual characters make their appearances. What always remains is the underlying corruption of the system with its strong resistance to reform.
The policeman, Renko, is now dealing with the new Russian mobsters and crass oligarchs of the 21st century. He’s suspicious about the death (suicide officially) of an old friend, investigative journalist Tatiana. Some of Cruz Smith’s usual characters make their appearances. What always remains is the underlying corruption of the system with its strong resistance to reform.
April 3, 2016
This is another jewel in the Arkady Renko series. It begins with the murder of a translator. Renko finds himself at the funeral of a murdered gangster billionaire presided over by his heir apparent, Alexi, and attended by the cream of gangster society. Arkady then finds himself caught up in a protest about the so called suicide of the investigative journalist, Tatiana, a thorn in the side of the Russian authorities. Anya, a reporter who has been sleeping with Arkady, gives him a notebook which Tatiana had which belonged to the murdered translator. The notebook proves to be well nigh impossible to decode and others are after it.
Arkady takes on the investigation of Tatiana's death and becomes even more determined after her body disappears. It is assumed that the authorities are behind the disappearance so it does not become a rallying point for people to get behind. Arkady's persistence takes him to Kaliningrad, amber mining companies, a poet by the name of Maxim who knew Tatiana and he uncovers other secrets. This whilst facing untold dangers lurking everywhere. Arkady still has a bullet rattling around in his head that he acquired in Stalin's Ghost and there is every possibility that that alone could kill him instantly. Arkady's hard drinking partner, Victor, really proves his worth as he attempts to protect Zhenya and his newly acquired friend, Lotte, from gangsters and assassins.
Arkady encounters corruption at earth shattering levels to steal from the Russian people. The author incorporates the real history of Russia and uses it as a framework to weave a spellbinding mystery for the uncompromising Renko to follow. So we read about the Kursk disaster, the Chechen school hostage scenario and the suspicious deaths of investigative journalists that threaten the State. This lends the novel credibility and authenticity. Brilliant storytelling with the formidable Arkady.
Arkady takes on the investigation of Tatiana's death and becomes even more determined after her body disappears. It is assumed that the authorities are behind the disappearance so it does not become a rallying point for people to get behind. Arkady's persistence takes him to Kaliningrad, amber mining companies, a poet by the name of Maxim who knew Tatiana and he uncovers other secrets. This whilst facing untold dangers lurking everywhere. Arkady still has a bullet rattling around in his head that he acquired in Stalin's Ghost and there is every possibility that that alone could kill him instantly. Arkady's hard drinking partner, Victor, really proves his worth as he attempts to protect Zhenya and his newly acquired friend, Lotte, from gangsters and assassins.
Arkady encounters corruption at earth shattering levels to steal from the Russian people. The author incorporates the real history of Russia and uses it as a framework to weave a spellbinding mystery for the uncompromising Renko to follow. So we read about the Kursk disaster, the Chechen school hostage scenario and the suspicious deaths of investigative journalists that threaten the State. This lends the novel credibility and authenticity. Brilliant storytelling with the formidable Arkady.
May 18, 2023
It has been ages since I read my last Renko but diving into this one was such a smooth beautiful dive so unlike my usual belly flops in the sea.
Meeting Renko again, seeing Zhenya and Victor was great. Both Renko and Cruz Smith get sparer and sparer. A bullet straight to the point. Cruz Smith created a person who actively works not to care but he does care, he cares a lot and that seeps through and keeps me here.
Meeting Renko again, seeing Zhenya and Victor was great. Both Renko and Cruz Smith get sparer and sparer. A bullet straight to the point. Cruz Smith created a person who actively works not to care but he does care, he cares a lot and that seeps through and keeps me here.
April 15, 2020
I haven't read any Arkady Renko book in years and it's wonderful to renew the pleasure.
This book is most probably my favorite in the series (although the prior books are just as addictive). I find that in this one, Renko has finally come into maturity, keeping his stubborn sense of justice against all odds but perhaps with less pathos than in the previous books. The plot is depressingly too close to reality for comfort but it wouldn't be riveting if it weren't, and the secondary characters truly hold their own, leaving a memorable trace in the reader's mind.
A very satisfying read!
This book is most probably my favorite in the series (although the prior books are just as addictive). I find that in this one, Renko has finally come into maturity, keeping his stubborn sense of justice against all odds but perhaps with less pathos than in the previous books. The plot is depressingly too close to reality for comfort but it wouldn't be riveting if it weren't, and the secondary characters truly hold their own, leaving a memorable trace in the reader's mind.
A very satisfying read!
April 6, 2017
Like so many mystery fans, I met Arkady Renko in 1981 when he first appeared in Martin Cruz Smith’s brilliant, best-selling novel of suspense, Gorky Park. Seven more tales about the troubled Russian crime investigator have followed at intervals of three years or more. I’ve read nearly all of them; recently, I read and reviewed Three Stations. Tatiana is the latest.
Smith, a Bay Area resident (Marin County, I believe), has somehow managed to craft a series of compelling and all too credible stories that chronicle the descent of the Russian people from the tightly circumscribed lives they lived under Communism into the revived authoritarianism and kleptocracy of the Putin era.
Like so many fictional hero-detectives, Arkady Renko is an outlier, a brilliant performer among mediocrities and despised for his honesty on a police force that’s corrupt to its core. However, Renko is uniquely Russian. He’s melancholy to the edge of depression, fatalistic, cynical, and endlessly romantic. The son of a notoriously brutal general in the army, he seems to live for little more than to atone for his father’s sins.
In Tatiana, Renko stumbles upon the mysterious death of Tatiana Petrovna, a crusading Russian investigative reporter who gives her name to the book. Clearly, she is modeled on the tragic figure of Anna Politkovskaya, a fearless journalist who was assassinated in Moscow in 2006.
Working in the shadows of the police bureaucracy, barely tolerated by his boss, Renko pursues the truth behind Tatiana’s death with the help of his alcoholic sidekick, Victor Orlov; his adopted teenage son, Zhenya, a genius at chess who wants to run away to join the army; the famous old poet Maxim Dal; and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Anya. As the plot unfolds, the leading figures of the Russian Mafia enter the scene. The story revolves around an interpreter’s notebook, written in a personal language and supposedly untranslatable.
Smith has a great gift for character. Every one of the actors in this complex and satisfying tale is sculpted with care and lingers in memory. Much of the dialogue is priceless — lively and clever without appearing contrived. Martin Cruz Smith is one of the premier crime writers of our age.
Smith, a Bay Area resident (Marin County, I believe), has somehow managed to craft a series of compelling and all too credible stories that chronicle the descent of the Russian people from the tightly circumscribed lives they lived under Communism into the revived authoritarianism and kleptocracy of the Putin era.
Like so many fictional hero-detectives, Arkady Renko is an outlier, a brilliant performer among mediocrities and despised for his honesty on a police force that’s corrupt to its core. However, Renko is uniquely Russian. He’s melancholy to the edge of depression, fatalistic, cynical, and endlessly romantic. The son of a notoriously brutal general in the army, he seems to live for little more than to atone for his father’s sins.
In Tatiana, Renko stumbles upon the mysterious death of Tatiana Petrovna, a crusading Russian investigative reporter who gives her name to the book. Clearly, she is modeled on the tragic figure of Anna Politkovskaya, a fearless journalist who was assassinated in Moscow in 2006.
Working in the shadows of the police bureaucracy, barely tolerated by his boss, Renko pursues the truth behind Tatiana’s death with the help of his alcoholic sidekick, Victor Orlov; his adopted teenage son, Zhenya, a genius at chess who wants to run away to join the army; the famous old poet Maxim Dal; and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Anya. As the plot unfolds, the leading figures of the Russian Mafia enter the scene. The story revolves around an interpreter’s notebook, written in a personal language and supposedly untranslatable.
Smith has a great gift for character. Every one of the actors in this complex and satisfying tale is sculpted with care and lingers in memory. Much of the dialogue is priceless — lively and clever without appearing contrived. Martin Cruz Smith is one of the premier crime writers of our age.
November 17, 2013
Arkady Renko is a loner, and outsider and a despised investigator for the Moscow prosecutor. He rarely shows up at work, to the usual satisfaction of all concerned, and he is given the least desirable cases to investigate. Most of the time, this doesn't provoke even the slightest protest from Renko.
Much to the dismay of many, he often finds something worthy of investigation that provokes consternation among those who surround him. Once he gets started, it is almost impossible for any one or any organization to halt him.
No one seems to tell Renko the truth about facts involved with a case, yet he finds it, reasons it out. Many are willing to share their truths about life, love and getting by, which he parses but rarely adopts.
His life is bleak, oftimes discouraging, but he plods ahead. Renko sees the corruption, venality, greed, indifference to life, and bleak expectations that Muscovites and the other citizens of the new Russia confront daily.
If you follow Renko from Gorky Park, to Polar Star, through all the 20+ years of stories, you appreciate the care with which Martin Cruz Smith documents the history of contemporary Soviet and Russian experience.
Another part of my enjoyment of this character, is his ability to see beyond the words; to understand what isn't being said; to never forget one thread while he gathers others.
This book is about a plot by Russian "Mafia" and the murder of a journalist who made her living exposing graft and corruption. The plot has many turns as Renko is continually out numbered and "outgunned." It is a oscillation between Moscow and the formerly closed city of Kaliningrad. It also turns on parallel activities of Renko and his "adopted" teenage son, Zhenya.
There is plenty of action and cliffhangers before the final resolution. And, for a bit in his life, Renko gets a taste of what life without constant pursuit of evil might be like. Satisfying.
Much to the dismay of many, he often finds something worthy of investigation that provokes consternation among those who surround him. Once he gets started, it is almost impossible for any one or any organization to halt him.
No one seems to tell Renko the truth about facts involved with a case, yet he finds it, reasons it out. Many are willing to share their truths about life, love and getting by, which he parses but rarely adopts.
His life is bleak, oftimes discouraging, but he plods ahead. Renko sees the corruption, venality, greed, indifference to life, and bleak expectations that Muscovites and the other citizens of the new Russia confront daily.
If you follow Renko from Gorky Park, to Polar Star, through all the 20+ years of stories, you appreciate the care with which Martin Cruz Smith documents the history of contemporary Soviet and Russian experience.
Another part of my enjoyment of this character, is his ability to see beyond the words; to understand what isn't being said; to never forget one thread while he gathers others.
This book is about a plot by Russian "Mafia" and the murder of a journalist who made her living exposing graft and corruption. The plot has many turns as Renko is continually out numbered and "outgunned." It is a oscillation between Moscow and the formerly closed city of Kaliningrad. It also turns on parallel activities of Renko and his "adopted" teenage son, Zhenya.
There is plenty of action and cliffhangers before the final resolution. And, for a bit in his life, Renko gets a taste of what life without constant pursuit of evil might be like. Satisfying.
February 8, 2014
Tatiana is the latest of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels, and is published in the shadow of the writer’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. I understand that it was dictated, and it seems to me that this process has altered the texture of his writing. MCS was always a very good prose stylist, but the writing in Tatiana is particularly graceful, with a distinctive rhythm to it. It’s one of the best of the later Renko novels, maybe even the best.
August 3, 2017
Corruption, particularly government corruption, is one of the elements that make Arkady Renko such an appealing character. His investigations follow the trail, no matter where they lead. Here, it would seem that he has found an ideal ally. Tatiana Petrovna is an investigative reporter who has angered both politicians and mafia figures. She was relentless, even in the face of constant threats against her life. Unfortunately, she's dead. Suicide. That's the first difference in this book. Without preliminary introductions, it opens with three corpses whose connections are not at all clear.
Tatiana Petrovna's body has disappeared, an event viewed with indifference by the political officials so often targeted by her reporting. Her friends are demanding an autopsy, and Renko is swept up in the group as they are attacked by an assortment of skinheads and police. Protest equals troublemakers in the view of the latter, and Renko is kicked and stomped on before he can show his identification. Even then, the police are not necessarily apologetic. He and his partner Victor Orlov are on the scene by accident, to photograph the funeral of Grisha Grigorenko, recently assassinated mobster kingpin. This too, is a meaningless exercise; Grigorenko's death is not exactly an actuarial anomaly given his occupation.
Renko's superior, Prosecutor Zurin, should know by now that for Renko, boredom and curiosity are like a lit fuse of dynamite. Eager to get Renko out of his hair, he quickly approves Renko's request to look for Tatiana Petrovna's missing corpse. Renko's search will take him to a remote village called Kaliningrad. Is it merely coincidence? Kaliningrad is also the site of a secret international conclave where Joseph Bonnafos had been hired as a consecutive interpreter. Fluent in six languages and discreet, he is the ideal choice for the role. His caution extends to his notes of the meeting. They are written in a personal shorthand of glyphs. Bonnafos is an avid bicyclist. He pedals his custom-made bicycle out to the beach for recreation — and is murdered.
Renko develops an obsession for Tatiana after listening to a box of tapes he finds in her apartment. One records the minute by minute decisions during a hostage crisis in a Moscow theater. A poison gas is released. “Seven hundred hostages were freed and not a single one of our soldiers lost in what clearly should have been a triumph in the war against terrorism. However, the gas also killed one hundred thirty hostages....Hundreds more need hospitalization. There is an antidote, but we are informed that the nature of the gas is a state secret and cannot be divulged. The man from Special Operations says, 'When you chop wood, chips fly.'” (p.76) This is only one of several tragedies she narrates in a passive voice that drips with irony and unspoken accusation. Although chilling in what they reveal about the government, Smith unfortunately is not able to convey the haunting power of the tapes to the reader. Perhaps this indicates something about me. The level of corruption and the disregard for human life is no longer surprising to me. Smith seems to realize that Arkady, himself, is not surprised by these revelations. Arkady's obsession is personal. Tatiana's voice conjures the memory of his dead wife, Irina, who was also a journalist. Irina's death, however, was an unnecessary accident, the product of incompetence and bureaucratic indifference.
This begins as a promising mystery. The author's depiction of the interpreter is particularly intriguing. Joseph Bonnafos' interests are narrow but deep, and I wished we had gotten to know him better before his violent demise.
One problem is that Renko and Orlov are working separately during most of the case. Renko displays his characteristic sense of irony. When Anya, another journalist, asks him: “How can they lose a body?” he responds: “They've lost bodies for years. It's one of their functions.” (p.18) Without Orlov's exaggerated emotions, however, Renko's wit cannot be fully displayed. Despite his role, Orlove is an under-utilized character in this book.
The biggest problem I had, however, was credibility. Renko is rescued from one life-threatening situation by pure luck. He stumbles on a clue to the translator's missing bicycle through a chance conversation. The decoding of the interpreter's notes felt completely improbable. As written, I could feel the author's hand nudging his characters toward the solution.
Characters such as Zhenya, the seventeen year old street kid Renko's has assumed responsibility for, and Lotte, a chess-player Zhenya meets, felt underdeveloped and placed to enhance the plot. Zhenya was a much more vivid character in an earlier book, THE THREE STATIONS.
Of course, Smith's Arkady Renko books are always fun to read. I will continue to read them as long as Smith writes them. Still, in my opinion, this was not one of the best books of the series.
Tatiana Petrovna's body has disappeared, an event viewed with indifference by the political officials so often targeted by her reporting. Her friends are demanding an autopsy, and Renko is swept up in the group as they are attacked by an assortment of skinheads and police. Protest equals troublemakers in the view of the latter, and Renko is kicked and stomped on before he can show his identification. Even then, the police are not necessarily apologetic. He and his partner Victor Orlov are on the scene by accident, to photograph the funeral of Grisha Grigorenko, recently assassinated mobster kingpin. This too, is a meaningless exercise; Grigorenko's death is not exactly an actuarial anomaly given his occupation.
Renko's superior, Prosecutor Zurin, should know by now that for Renko, boredom and curiosity are like a lit fuse of dynamite. Eager to get Renko out of his hair, he quickly approves Renko's request to look for Tatiana Petrovna's missing corpse. Renko's search will take him to a remote village called Kaliningrad. Is it merely coincidence? Kaliningrad is also the site of a secret international conclave where Joseph Bonnafos had been hired as a consecutive interpreter. Fluent in six languages and discreet, he is the ideal choice for the role. His caution extends to his notes of the meeting. They are written in a personal shorthand of glyphs. Bonnafos is an avid bicyclist. He pedals his custom-made bicycle out to the beach for recreation — and is murdered.
Renko develops an obsession for Tatiana after listening to a box of tapes he finds in her apartment. One records the minute by minute decisions during a hostage crisis in a Moscow theater. A poison gas is released. “Seven hundred hostages were freed and not a single one of our soldiers lost in what clearly should have been a triumph in the war against terrorism. However, the gas also killed one hundred thirty hostages....Hundreds more need hospitalization. There is an antidote, but we are informed that the nature of the gas is a state secret and cannot be divulged. The man from Special Operations says, 'When you chop wood, chips fly.'” (p.76) This is only one of several tragedies she narrates in a passive voice that drips with irony and unspoken accusation. Although chilling in what they reveal about the government, Smith unfortunately is not able to convey the haunting power of the tapes to the reader. Perhaps this indicates something about me. The level of corruption and the disregard for human life is no longer surprising to me. Smith seems to realize that Arkady, himself, is not surprised by these revelations. Arkady's obsession is personal. Tatiana's voice conjures the memory of his dead wife, Irina, who was also a journalist. Irina's death, however, was an unnecessary accident, the product of incompetence and bureaucratic indifference.
This begins as a promising mystery. The author's depiction of the interpreter is particularly intriguing. Joseph Bonnafos' interests are narrow but deep, and I wished we had gotten to know him better before his violent demise.
One problem is that Renko and Orlov are working separately during most of the case. Renko displays his characteristic sense of irony. When Anya, another journalist, asks him: “How can they lose a body?” he responds: “They've lost bodies for years. It's one of their functions.” (p.18) Without Orlov's exaggerated emotions, however, Renko's wit cannot be fully displayed. Despite his role, Orlove is an under-utilized character in this book.
The biggest problem I had, however, was credibility. Renko is rescued from one life-threatening situation by pure luck. He stumbles on a clue to the translator's missing bicycle through a chance conversation. The decoding of the interpreter's notes felt completely improbable. As written, I could feel the author's hand nudging his characters toward the solution.
Characters such as Zhenya, the seventeen year old street kid Renko's has assumed responsibility for, and Lotte, a chess-player Zhenya meets, felt underdeveloped and placed to enhance the plot. Zhenya was a much more vivid character in an earlier book, THE THREE STATIONS.
Of course, Smith's Arkady Renko books are always fun to read. I will continue to read them as long as Smith writes them. Still, in my opinion, this was not one of the best books of the series.
December 2, 2013
Classic Renko, this book feels as if it is starting off slowly, but soon you find yourself hooked and, at least in my case, up until 3:00 AM finishing it. Renko is the Russian Philip Marlowe, a relentless investigator who simply won't do what is in his own best interest, so concerned is he with solving the puzzle. And this is a puzzle indeed, the essential clues locked in the personal shorthand of a murdered interpreter. How is the murder tied to a journalist's suicide, a mobster's assassination, and a poet's obsession?
Martin Cruz Smith does what all good thriller writers do: he takes some fascinating facts he has discovered about amber, or interpreters, or bicycles, or naval disasters, and weaves a compelling story around them. He also pays homage to a classic noir thriller, which I will not name because it would give things away. Smith spares us this time, by the way, Arkady's usual encounter with offal or rendered animal flesh or other disgusting materials that are often part of the Renko experience.
Be warned: you cannot just jump into the Arkady Renko world. Familiarity with the character and his previous adventures is essential, as Smith does not waste a lot of time explaining who the recurring characters are or how they relate to Renko. Best to start with the first novel, Gorky Park, and enjoy the journey.
Martin Cruz Smith does what all good thriller writers do: he takes some fascinating facts he has discovered about amber, or interpreters, or bicycles, or naval disasters, and weaves a compelling story around them. He also pays homage to a classic noir thriller, which I will not name because it would give things away. Smith spares us this time, by the way, Arkady's usual encounter with offal or rendered animal flesh or other disgusting materials that are often part of the Renko experience.
Be warned: you cannot just jump into the Arkady Renko world. Familiarity with the character and his previous adventures is essential, as Smith does not waste a lot of time explaining who the recurring characters are or how they relate to Renko. Best to start with the first novel, Gorky Park, and enjoy the journey.
July 6, 2014
The following dialogue sums up the life of Arkady Renko, senior investigator for Moscow's chief prosecutor:"That will be on your tombstone, 'Things got complicated.'" The fact that Arkady carries a bullet fragment in his brain, and that it could dislodge, causing his death, leads him to live for the moment. At this set of moments, he is investigating the death of a crusading woman reporter named Tatiana Petrovna, and looking into the consequences of the murder of a major crime figure. No one else, including the prosecutor and Renko's partner, wants him to investigate, but, as a character observes later, "You can only push Arkady so far." The key to both crimes is locked in the cypher of a professional translator's notebook, found after that person's death in Kaliningrad, the worst of pre-Soviet cities. How the three cases come together, and how Arkady reconciles with his sort-of son, escapes death, and finds something that might be love, all while trying to spike a ploy of stunning cynicism, even by Russian standards, makes a wonderful book, with a wonderful last paragraph. (It should be noted that the eighth Arkady Renko book, like its predecessors, is full of wonderful paragraphs, shrewd observations, and black humor.)
August 24, 2016
I was so looking forward to reading this after I heard that one of the characters was based on Anna Politkovskaya. I've always like this series, mainly because of Arkady Renko, the Russian police investigator, but this one let me down. I felt that Tatiana Petrovna, the character based on Politkovskaya, didn't do her justice. Anna was truly an amazing woman, courageous beyond belief. It felt a bit cheap to see her image used superficially to further a plot without more time/weight given to the incredible risks she took to search for truth and the ultimate price she paid.
December 15, 2013
Within a few days, the fearless reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from her sixth-floor apartment in Moscow and a mob billionaire name Grisha Grigorenko receives a bullet to the head and is buried with all the trappings of a lord.
Meanwhile, Tatiana's body is "lost" by the morgue, then found and secretly cremated. Investigator Arkady Renko is suspicious of connections between the two deaths. No one else cares to see any connections.
As usual, the cynical and analytical Renko is on his own as he pursues his investigation of Tatiana's death, even though the prosecutor's office has decided that there is no case. Tatiana supposedly committed suicide. But there is a witness who heard her screaming as she fell. Does a woman who commits suicide by jumping from a great height scream on the way down?
Renko goes to Tatiana's apartment and finds tapes in Tatiana's voice that describe horrific crimes. Her account of these crimes does not agree with the Kremlin's official versions. Did her investigations mark her as an enemy to the government and was that government involved in her death? Arkady Renko is determined to find the answer to that question.
The evidence found in Tatiana's apartment leads Renko to Kaliningrad, a Cold War "secret city" that seems to be at the center of the mystery. Tatiana's sister lived there and, there, Renko meets with a famous poet who was once Tatiana's lover. Kalinigrad also is the city with the highest crime rate in Russia. Human life seems cheap there.
The solution to the mystery lies in a notebook belonging to a professional interpreter - a professional interpreter who (coincidentally?) was murdered in Kaliningrad. The notebook is filled with cryptic drawings and mysterious symbols that constitute a language known only to the interpreter.
Arkady Renko's ward, the young chess prodigy Zhenya, gets his hands on the notebook and he and a friend, another chess prodigy, begin to crack the code and figure out what the notebook says. While they work on this project in Arkady's Moscow apartment, Arkady himself continues to pursue his investigations in Kaliningrad.
Tatiana is written with Martin Cruz Smith's typical combination of black humor, irony, and romance, as well as a keen understanding of Russian society and the way things work in the bureaucracy there. The characters are richly drawn and the story is entertaining. I didn't feel that it was one of Smith's best, but it was an enjoyable read and Arkady Renko is always a good companion.
Renko lives with an inoperable bullet rattling around in his skull and with the knowledge that that bullet could spell his doom at any time. He has been warned against exertion, but he has come to terms with the possibility of death and he chooses to pursue his calling in life, the investigation of crime, with stoicism and fatalism. And with passion, because, in spite of everything, he really does care about pursuing justice, difficult though that may be in the society in which he lives. The important thing to Arkady may not be that justice is actually achieved but that he stubbornly never gives up the fight to achieve it. Arkady Renko, cynic, may also be the last of the Russian romantics.
Meanwhile, Tatiana's body is "lost" by the morgue, then found and secretly cremated. Investigator Arkady Renko is suspicious of connections between the two deaths. No one else cares to see any connections.
As usual, the cynical and analytical Renko is on his own as he pursues his investigation of Tatiana's death, even though the prosecutor's office has decided that there is no case. Tatiana supposedly committed suicide. But there is a witness who heard her screaming as she fell. Does a woman who commits suicide by jumping from a great height scream on the way down?
Renko goes to Tatiana's apartment and finds tapes in Tatiana's voice that describe horrific crimes. Her account of these crimes does not agree with the Kremlin's official versions. Did her investigations mark her as an enemy to the government and was that government involved in her death? Arkady Renko is determined to find the answer to that question.
The evidence found in Tatiana's apartment leads Renko to Kaliningrad, a Cold War "secret city" that seems to be at the center of the mystery. Tatiana's sister lived there and, there, Renko meets with a famous poet who was once Tatiana's lover. Kalinigrad also is the city with the highest crime rate in Russia. Human life seems cheap there.
The solution to the mystery lies in a notebook belonging to a professional interpreter - a professional interpreter who (coincidentally?) was murdered in Kaliningrad. The notebook is filled with cryptic drawings and mysterious symbols that constitute a language known only to the interpreter.
Arkady Renko's ward, the young chess prodigy Zhenya, gets his hands on the notebook and he and a friend, another chess prodigy, begin to crack the code and figure out what the notebook says. While they work on this project in Arkady's Moscow apartment, Arkady himself continues to pursue his investigations in Kaliningrad.
Tatiana is written with Martin Cruz Smith's typical combination of black humor, irony, and romance, as well as a keen understanding of Russian society and the way things work in the bureaucracy there. The characters are richly drawn and the story is entertaining. I didn't feel that it was one of Smith's best, but it was an enjoyable read and Arkady Renko is always a good companion.
Renko lives with an inoperable bullet rattling around in his skull and with the knowledge that that bullet could spell his doom at any time. He has been warned against exertion, but he has come to terms with the possibility of death and he chooses to pursue his calling in life, the investigation of crime, with stoicism and fatalism. And with passion, because, in spite of everything, he really does care about pursuing justice, difficult though that may be in the society in which he lives. The important thing to Arkady may not be that justice is actually achieved but that he stubbornly never gives up the fight to achieve it. Arkady Renko, cynic, may also be the last of the Russian romantics.
July 19, 2018
"If you don't mind me saying so, you are a difficult person to be in love with."
An interpreter speaking six languages attends a meeting in Kaliningrad. A loner, he jots down the proceedings as a series of symbols, letters and the odd reference in a notebook, and in his spare time he rides an expensive Italian-made racing cycle. He is in contact with Tatiana, a crusading journalist before his body is found in the dunes, while Tatiana apparently commits suicide by plunging six floors from a Moscow apartment block. In the same week, mafia boss Grisha Grigorenko dies from a bullet in the head.
In the eighth Investigator Arkady Renko novel, the action switches between Moscow and the Russian enclave bordered by Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. Kaliningrad, a Cold War city and home port of the Baltic fleet, was for a while left off the maps. Formerly the seat of German Kings "Koenigsburg" it is one of the world's richest sources of amber.
Martin Cruz Smith again excels in a novel rich in characters and subplots, with mafia families and corrupt government officials, casting tragic events in Russia's recent history with the personal loss suffered by Arkady Renko. Aided by Detective Viktor Orlov, and teenage chess-wizard Zhenya, there are delightful cameos of a resort town on the Baltic near the ever-shifting sands of a spit between Russia and Lithuania, visited only by birdwatchers out of season, and two Moscow detectives who take early retirement to Sochi, only to find it full of middle-aged men and specials on Australian wine. It demands a reader take note of verbal and visual clues. 4★.
An interpreter speaking six languages attends a meeting in Kaliningrad. A loner, he jots down the proceedings as a series of symbols, letters and the odd reference in a notebook, and in his spare time he rides an expensive Italian-made racing cycle. He is in contact with Tatiana, a crusading journalist before his body is found in the dunes, while Tatiana apparently commits suicide by plunging six floors from a Moscow apartment block. In the same week, mafia boss Grisha Grigorenko dies from a bullet in the head.
In the eighth Investigator Arkady Renko novel, the action switches between Moscow and the Russian enclave bordered by Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. Kaliningrad, a Cold War city and home port of the Baltic fleet, was for a while left off the maps. Formerly the seat of German Kings "Koenigsburg" it is one of the world's richest sources of amber.
Martin Cruz Smith again excels in a novel rich in characters and subplots, with mafia families and corrupt government officials, casting tragic events in Russia's recent history with the personal loss suffered by Arkady Renko. Aided by Detective Viktor Orlov, and teenage chess-wizard Zhenya, there are delightful cameos of a resort town on the Baltic near the ever-shifting sands of a spit between Russia and Lithuania, visited only by birdwatchers out of season, and two Moscow detectives who take early retirement to Sochi, only to find it full of middle-aged men and specials on Australian wine. It demands a reader take note of verbal and visual clues. 4★.
July 23, 2020
3.5 stars, based on quality of prose, plot, pacing, and characters
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
The plot is just complex enough, and there is a central twist that reminds me of my favourite Marlowe by Raymond Chandler:
The main and supporting characters are fine, interesting and distinct of voice. The villain is a bit sketchy, but adequate. Anya is mostly non-existent in this mystery.
All-in-all, a pleasant and satisfying read. I will go on to the next book, The Siberian Dilemma.
A younger Arkady and Anya
Full size image here
Notes and quotes:
There are some nice phrases here, but nothing extensive, almost nothing of the philosopher-detective that Arkady has been in the past.
The issue was still undecided when a massive sedan slid out of the dark. It was a dumbfounding sight, Maxim Dal in a silver ZIL, an armored Soviet-era limousine with double headlights, tail fins and whitewall tires. It had to be at least fifty years old. In an authoritative voice Dal ordered Anya and Arkady to get in. It was like boarding a spaceship from the past.
-
There were five cats in Svetlana’s apartment. They hadn’t been fed or had their box changed for at least a day, and they swarmed around Victor while he poured milk into a saucer. Victor, oddly enough, was a cat person. An admirer not of fluffy Persian cats or exotic Siamese, but of feral survivors of the street. Did they eat songbirds? Let them. Victor’s favorite birds were crows.
-
The church is a dead telephone; even though people know better, they pick it up and listen. Have you been listening?”
-
“No, I’m talking about your friend Anya. I understand she has the notes. She’d let you see.”
“I doubt that. I don’t know that she’s even talking to me.”
“I’ve seen you two together. She was born to talk to you, like drops of water drilling through a stone. Drip, drip, drip. Drilling until there’s space for dynamite.”
-
Alexi questions Arkady under duress:
“So Anya told me.” Alexi’s smile was like a hook in the mouth. “Is it true that you don’t carry a firearm? For what reason?”
“I’m lazy.”
“No, really.”
“Well, when I did carry one I hardly ever used it. And it makes you stupid. You stop thinking of options. The gun doesn’t want options.”
“But you’ve been shot.”
“There’s the downside.”
-
Standing with her on the beach, he had been invulnerable despite being nicked. How could she impart so much power and, at the same time, hold on to him as if she might drown without him? Her depth was astonishing. Endless. And in her eyes he saw a better man than he had been before.
-
Alexia talks to the girl after (implied) sex
“You think we’re going to pay for this?”
“A thousand times.”
“Why?” Arkady asked.
“Because God is such a bastard, He will take you away from me.”
-
Again, Alexi is questioned:
“Did you forget your poem? Recite anything.
‘You are my song, my dark blue dream of winter’s drowsy drone, and sleighs that slow and golden go through gray blue shadows on the snow.’ ”
Martin Cruz Smith
Full size image here
.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
The plot is just complex enough, and there is a central twist that reminds me of my favourite Marlowe by Raymond Chandler:
The main and supporting characters are fine, interesting and distinct of voice. The villain is a bit sketchy, but adequate. Anya is mostly non-existent in this mystery.
All-in-all, a pleasant and satisfying read. I will go on to the next book, The Siberian Dilemma.
A younger Arkady and Anya
Full size image here
Notes and quotes:
There are some nice phrases here, but nothing extensive, almost nothing of the philosopher-detective that Arkady has been in the past.
The issue was still undecided when a massive sedan slid out of the dark. It was a dumbfounding sight, Maxim Dal in a silver ZIL, an armored Soviet-era limousine with double headlights, tail fins and whitewall tires. It had to be at least fifty years old. In an authoritative voice Dal ordered Anya and Arkady to get in. It was like boarding a spaceship from the past.
-
There were five cats in Svetlana’s apartment. They hadn’t been fed or had their box changed for at least a day, and they swarmed around Victor while he poured milk into a saucer. Victor, oddly enough, was a cat person. An admirer not of fluffy Persian cats or exotic Siamese, but of feral survivors of the street. Did they eat songbirds? Let them. Victor’s favorite birds were crows.
-
The church is a dead telephone; even though people know better, they pick it up and listen. Have you been listening?”
-
“No, I’m talking about your friend Anya. I understand she has the notes. She’d let you see.”
“I doubt that. I don’t know that she’s even talking to me.”
“I’ve seen you two together. She was born to talk to you, like drops of water drilling through a stone. Drip, drip, drip. Drilling until there’s space for dynamite.”
-
Alexi questions Arkady under duress:
“So Anya told me.” Alexi’s smile was like a hook in the mouth. “Is it true that you don’t carry a firearm? For what reason?”
“I’m lazy.”
“No, really.”
“Well, when I did carry one I hardly ever used it. And it makes you stupid. You stop thinking of options. The gun doesn’t want options.”
“But you’ve been shot.”
“There’s the downside.”
-
Standing with her on the beach, he had been invulnerable despite being nicked. How could she impart so much power and, at the same time, hold on to him as if she might drown without him? Her depth was astonishing. Endless. And in her eyes he saw a better man than he had been before.
-
Alexia talks to the girl after (implied) sex
“You think we’re going to pay for this?”
“A thousand times.”
“Why?” Arkady asked.
“Because God is such a bastard, He will take you away from me.”
-
Again, Alexi is questioned:
“Did you forget your poem? Recite anything.
‘You are my song, my dark blue dream of winter’s drowsy drone, and sleighs that slow and golden go through gray blue shadows on the snow.’ ”
Martin Cruz Smith
Full size image here
.
August 23, 2025
It was the sort of day that didn't give a damn.
Some opening lines are better than others. I thought this one above average. The Prologue tells of Joseph, a man who is fluent in 6 languages and therefore works as a translator. He happens also to have been fond of bike riding, although he came to it too late to be competitive. We find him out for a ride after working. And then he encounters a very very bad man.
When the novel itself opens there is nothing about this translator and so I wondered how he would fit in. I didn't have to wait for too many chapters, but the switch from one scene to an entirely different set of circumstances was stark! By Chapter 2, Arkady Renko learns that Tatiana Petrovna, a journalist, threw herself off her 6th floor balcony. Arkady thinks it more likely that she was "helped" off that 6th floor balcony as she was heard to scream. He thought suicides fairly quiet acts and a scream didn't fit the profile.
And so we follow Arkady as he follows his curiosity. Victor is coaxed away from his vodka. Zhenya is elusive, not always checking in. In this installment we do see more of him, though. I was glad of that and think we might see more of him in future installments. We are not fooled as to are the bad guys. If this were a stand alone, I might have worried that Arkady wouldn't still be alive on the last page. But there are 3 more installments and I knew he would survive.
I was glad to be back reading about Arkady and I will be sorry when the series comes to an end. I think this is not the best of it, but still am happy to color in that 4th star.
Some opening lines are better than others. I thought this one above average. The Prologue tells of Joseph, a man who is fluent in 6 languages and therefore works as a translator. He happens also to have been fond of bike riding, although he came to it too late to be competitive. We find him out for a ride after working. And then he encounters a very very bad man.
When the novel itself opens there is nothing about this translator and so I wondered how he would fit in. I didn't have to wait for too many chapters, but the switch from one scene to an entirely different set of circumstances was stark! By Chapter 2, Arkady Renko learns that Tatiana Petrovna, a journalist, threw herself off her 6th floor balcony. Arkady thinks it more likely that she was "helped" off that 6th floor balcony as she was heard to scream. He thought suicides fairly quiet acts and a scream didn't fit the profile.
And so we follow Arkady as he follows his curiosity. Victor is coaxed away from his vodka. Zhenya is elusive, not always checking in. In this installment we do see more of him, though. I was glad of that and think we might see more of him in future installments. We are not fooled as to are the bad guys. If this were a stand alone, I might have worried that Arkady wouldn't still be alive on the last page. But there are 3 more installments and I knew he would survive.
I was glad to be back reading about Arkady and I will be sorry when the series comes to an end. I think this is not the best of it, but still am happy to color in that 4th star.
September 26, 2013
****This review is based on an advance uncorrected proof from the publisher, so the version that appears on bookshelves on its release date may be somewhat different from the version I read****
I don't know how I have missed ever reading a Martin Cruz Smith novel. Smith's hero is a Russian investigator named Arkady Renko, a good man in an extremely corrupt world. "Tatiana" is, I believe, his twelfth novel in the series, which started with the best-selling "Gorky Park" (which was made into a decent movie starring William Hurt). Unfortunately, it is the only one I have read, a mistake that will be rectified soon.
Renko's world is the epitome of noir: shadowy, depressing, violent. Renko himself is the epitome of the noir detective hero. He has a tragic past that he can't seem to get over, and he has an obsessive personality, especially when it comes to seeking justice, something that is seriously lacking in contemporary Russia. Post-Soviet era Russia is a bleak and terrifying country, but it's home to Renko and the thousands of poor souls who know no other life. The poverty gap is as wide as it is here in the states. Millionaire Russian mobsters drive around in sporty Italian cars donning $5,000 suits and eat in expensive restaurants with politicians who are essentially in their back pockets. Meanwhile, average Russian citizens struggle to find food and heat for their homes.
The novel begins with the murder of a well-known journalist, Tatiana Petrovna, known for her scathing articles berating the Putin Administration and defending the Chechen people. Authorities are calling her fall from her six-story apartment building a suicide. Never mind that a few witnesses heard her screaming prior to the fall. Not that it matters because the witnesses have disappeared, and so has the body. Sadly, this is not an atypical occurrence for the Russian police. For the lazy ones, it just means less paperwork.
Detective Renko, however, is not one of the lazy ones.
His investigation (with the help of his partner, Victor, an alcoholic but intrepid detective in his own right) leads him to Alexei Grigorenko, a rising young star in the local mob after the mysterious murder of his mob-boss father put him in charge. Alexei is looking for a notebook that Tatiana supposedly had in her possession the night of her murder. It's supposedly full of gibberish, a code that may be not be decipherable. Nobody knows for sure, though, because the notebook went missing with the body.
Until Arkady's adopted son, Zhenya, finds it. Now the mob is after the only person Arkady can legitimately call family, and they're not exactly on speaking terms.
"Tatiana" is, besides being an excellent crime thriller, a wonderful peek into life in modern-day Russia. For those who keep up on current events (I myself don't, at least not as much as I probably should), Tatiana's character will be recognizable as based on the real-life Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a Pullitzer Prize winner who was tragically gunned down in front of her apartment building in 2006. Her murder is still unsolved.
I highly recommend "Tatiana" for fans of good old-fashioned noir detective fiction, soaked in vodka, with a twist.
I don't know how I have missed ever reading a Martin Cruz Smith novel. Smith's hero is a Russian investigator named Arkady Renko, a good man in an extremely corrupt world. "Tatiana" is, I believe, his twelfth novel in the series, which started with the best-selling "Gorky Park" (which was made into a decent movie starring William Hurt). Unfortunately, it is the only one I have read, a mistake that will be rectified soon.
Renko's world is the epitome of noir: shadowy, depressing, violent. Renko himself is the epitome of the noir detective hero. He has a tragic past that he can't seem to get over, and he has an obsessive personality, especially when it comes to seeking justice, something that is seriously lacking in contemporary Russia. Post-Soviet era Russia is a bleak and terrifying country, but it's home to Renko and the thousands of poor souls who know no other life. The poverty gap is as wide as it is here in the states. Millionaire Russian mobsters drive around in sporty Italian cars donning $5,000 suits and eat in expensive restaurants with politicians who are essentially in their back pockets. Meanwhile, average Russian citizens struggle to find food and heat for their homes.
The novel begins with the murder of a well-known journalist, Tatiana Petrovna, known for her scathing articles berating the Putin Administration and defending the Chechen people. Authorities are calling her fall from her six-story apartment building a suicide. Never mind that a few witnesses heard her screaming prior to the fall. Not that it matters because the witnesses have disappeared, and so has the body. Sadly, this is not an atypical occurrence for the Russian police. For the lazy ones, it just means less paperwork.
Detective Renko, however, is not one of the lazy ones.
His investigation (with the help of his partner, Victor, an alcoholic but intrepid detective in his own right) leads him to Alexei Grigorenko, a rising young star in the local mob after the mysterious murder of his mob-boss father put him in charge. Alexei is looking for a notebook that Tatiana supposedly had in her possession the night of her murder. It's supposedly full of gibberish, a code that may be not be decipherable. Nobody knows for sure, though, because the notebook went missing with the body.
Until Arkady's adopted son, Zhenya, finds it. Now the mob is after the only person Arkady can legitimately call family, and they're not exactly on speaking terms.
"Tatiana" is, besides being an excellent crime thriller, a wonderful peek into life in modern-day Russia. For those who keep up on current events (I myself don't, at least not as much as I probably should), Tatiana's character will be recognizable as based on the real-life Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a Pullitzer Prize winner who was tragically gunned down in front of her apartment building in 2006. Her murder is still unsolved.
I highly recommend "Tatiana" for fans of good old-fashioned noir detective fiction, soaked in vodka, with a twist.
July 7, 2014
Rosado on the road!
'Where were the anti-putins?'
4* Gorky Park (Arkady Renko, #1)
4* Polar Star (Arkady Renko, #2)
3* Three Stations (Arkady Renko, #7)
CR Tatiana (Arkady Renko, #8)
4* December 6
3* Nightwing
'Where were the anti-putins?'
4* Gorky Park (Arkady Renko, #1)
4* Polar Star (Arkady Renko, #2)
3* Three Stations (Arkady Renko, #7)
CR Tatiana (Arkady Renko, #8)
4* December 6
3* Nightwing
January 12, 2014
I would give this 4 1/2 stars if I could. Extremely well-written, as always, more a mystery than a thriller. Superbly researched.
October 14, 2021
I have way too much on my plate at the moment to write a review of this novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. I think this may be the final installment of the Arkady Renko series which means I can start over again from the beginning. Maybe the next time I read this I can give it the review it deserves.
April 23, 2026
Arkady Renko book #8. This time we find one of my favorite Investigators looking into the death of a mobster as well as a reporter who supposedly committed suicide. Then there is also the encrypted journal of a murdered interpreter which is tied into everything but almost impossible to decipher. Overall, a great story and we see the faithful Victor Orlov and Arkady’s semi adopted son Zhenya rounding out the investigation.
A nice surprise or two within the story. I was a little disappointed by the book’s end.
A nice surprise or two within the story. I was a little disappointed by the book’s end.
May 19, 2019
There were fourteen morgues in Moscow, some as clean as model kitchens, others abattoirs with carts of bloody saws and chisels. Arkady fell into a kind of fugue state, seeing with a cold professional eye, being there and not there.This was more of an "it-was-ok" spliced with but-I-liked-it-sort-of. This must be the tenth Martin Cruz Smith I've read since Gorky Park way back in the eighties, you'd think things would have improved more noticeably in thirty years, but well, there you go. Somehow not much.
Nothing wrong with MCS's characters, though the lead Investigator is a bit standard (pained, gruff, wounded, serial-scorned by women, misunderstood by allies on the force)... but we've been with him for many years now. He's the Oscar Madison of maverick Russian police inspectors, and he's had it with this, seriously.
Generally, the main characters are solid and the ones added for this episode are reasonably memorable without being parodies of suspense villains (which in other MCS books they can be). The romance angle is fairly adult and not wince-inducing; the woman is a touch saintly and too simultaneously over-it-all to add up, but the lead Investigator is so pathetic we'll take anyone short of a broom-riding Delilah. (Broom Riding Delilahs will kindly stow their brooms in the upright storage compartment before boarding. He'll have them too.) There's a teenage kid and he's not adorably or achingly cute. Even the kid has a babe and she's not a one-dimensional plot-propper-upper. Nobody gets gratuitously raped. So far so good.
MCS is always on pretty safe ground with his atmosphere and locales, as they are always on the Ex-Soviet World Tour map, strange, unique, and contradictory places left behind by the failed empire. All good there, certainly.
Plotting is well, reasonable. Not tight; but the current model in suspense/mystery/espionage/you-name-it is that "tight" is relative and not a dealbreaker. For me, it may not be a dealbreaker, but it certainly leans on that mutual author-reader deal pretty hard. "Nice little deal you got here, shame if anything were to happen to it, huh, chum?"
The actual MADDENING thing here is that some of the situations and sequences (I'd describe them if there were more here to discuss; there aren't) are so good and so neatly constructed that the flat-lining sections just let the air out. Did MCS just hand in the notes from his private island retreat and let the interns get on with it ? Or maybe there is no Martin Cruz Thank You Very Much Smith and the books are the creation of alien private-island anchor-baby infiltrators?
CONTENT-PROVIDER anchorbaby infiltrators ? Am I hitting a nerve ?
Okay, right, no.
Everyone who's read all the Renkos knows this; MCS really excels at certain situations, and then devolves to the standard plot points-- the glum interval while the detective broods, the inevitable beatdown, the turnabout and chase. The freaking chase, come on, it's 2014 do we need to end everything in the final-chase and stand-off that happened in the neanderthal days of crime/suspense/whatever-they-called-it-then ?
Grunt for yes. Kiss kiss, bang bang.
March 5, 2021
Tatjana – Arkadi Renkos achter Fall
Ein erschossener Mafiaboss, eine kritische Journalistin, welche angeblich Selbstmord begeht, und eine unbekannte Wasserleiche in Kaliningrad – drei Fälle die augenscheinlich nichts miteinander zu tun haben und die von offizieller Seite auch nicht weiter verfolgt werden sollen – und mittendrin Arkadi Renko. Dieser Don Quijote der Moskauer Staatsanwaltschaft ist der Einzige, der die Ereignisse hinterfragt und – unaufgefordert und gegen den Willen seiner Vorgesetzten – mit Ermittlungen beginnt.
Wie gewohnt bewegt er sich dabei auf extrem dünnem Eis, die Mafia im Nacken und von den eigenen Kollegen boykottiert hält nur sein Kollege Victor, selbst längst dem Wodka verfallen, zu ihm. Aus Puzzlestücken ergibt sich allmählich ein komplexes Bild, welches die Ereignisse zusammen – und Renko nach Kaliningrad führt. Verschiedene Mafiaclans planen einen Deal mit den Spitzen der Baltischen Flotte und dem Verteidigungsministerium, es geht um ein Atom U Boot und die gewaltige Summe von zwei Milliarden Dollar. Logisch stören da neugierige Journalisten und unbestechliche Ermittler.
Martin Cruz Smith schafft es erneut ein detailliertes Abbild des Putinschen Russlands in einen spannenden, brisanten Thriller zu packen, mit vielen Parallelen zum dortigen Alltag. Renko ist dabei ein Abbild der Hoffnungslosigkeit mit welcher ein kleines Häufchen Aufrechter sich der Übermacht aus Korruption und Kriminalität entgegen stellen und so endet auch dieses Buch wieder mit ein paar Nadelstichen, die Renko dem System verpasst ohne dabei den Lauf der Ereignisse ernstlich ändern zu können.
Immer wieder lesenswert!
Ein erschossener Mafiaboss, eine kritische Journalistin, welche angeblich Selbstmord begeht, und eine unbekannte Wasserleiche in Kaliningrad – drei Fälle die augenscheinlich nichts miteinander zu tun haben und die von offizieller Seite auch nicht weiter verfolgt werden sollen – und mittendrin Arkadi Renko. Dieser Don Quijote der Moskauer Staatsanwaltschaft ist der Einzige, der die Ereignisse hinterfragt und – unaufgefordert und gegen den Willen seiner Vorgesetzten – mit Ermittlungen beginnt.
Wie gewohnt bewegt er sich dabei auf extrem dünnem Eis, die Mafia im Nacken und von den eigenen Kollegen boykottiert hält nur sein Kollege Victor, selbst längst dem Wodka verfallen, zu ihm. Aus Puzzlestücken ergibt sich allmählich ein komplexes Bild, welches die Ereignisse zusammen – und Renko nach Kaliningrad führt. Verschiedene Mafiaclans planen einen Deal mit den Spitzen der Baltischen Flotte und dem Verteidigungsministerium, es geht um ein Atom U Boot und die gewaltige Summe von zwei Milliarden Dollar. Logisch stören da neugierige Journalisten und unbestechliche Ermittler.
Martin Cruz Smith schafft es erneut ein detailliertes Abbild des Putinschen Russlands in einen spannenden, brisanten Thriller zu packen, mit vielen Parallelen zum dortigen Alltag. Renko ist dabei ein Abbild der Hoffnungslosigkeit mit welcher ein kleines Häufchen Aufrechter sich der Übermacht aus Korruption und Kriminalität entgegen stellen und so endet auch dieses Buch wieder mit ein paar Nadelstichen, die Renko dem System verpasst ohne dabei den Lauf der Ereignisse ernstlich ändern zu können.
Immer wieder lesenswert!
January 19, 2014
Another great addition to the ongoing and improbable life of Arkady Renko. Though I really love them all, this installment is right up there as one of my favorites. The character arcs are so engrossing and the window into various less-illumed aspects of Russian life and history is fascinating.
November 30, 2017
Πρωτότυπο, εφυέστατο, ρεαλιστικό... Μοναδική επιλογή, αν θέλεις να διαβάσεις ένα καλό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα. Ο επιθεωρητής Αρκάντι Ρένκο με τον βοηθό του, Βίκτωρ Ορλόφ, αποτελούν το σπουδαιότερο -και πιο ταιριαστό- δίδυμο που έχω συναντήσει στην αστυνομική λογοτεχνία έως τώρα.
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