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Arkady Renko #2
Polar Star
Arkady Renko has made too many enemies and now he toils in obscurity on a Russian factory ship in the middle of the Bering Sea. But when a female crew member is picked up dead with the day's catch, Arkady becomes obsessed with the case and once again discovers more than he wants to know and certainly more than he bargained for....
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 13, 1989
About the author
Martin Cruz Smith
57 books1,300 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 562 reviews
June 19, 2017
In the first major case of his literary career, Gorky Park, Moscow detective Arkady Renko antagonized too many powerful people. As a consequence, he lost his job and his Communist party membership and was shuffled off into oblivion. He then disappeared from view for eight years before returning in Polar Star.
Renko's fallen about as far as a man possibly can. From being at the top of his profession as a criminal investigator, he's now working on the slime line on a Russian factory fishing ship in the Bering Sea. It's a joint Russian-American venture in which American trawlers catch the fish and dump them on the deck of the Polar Star. The crew on the factory ship then process the fish and freeze them so that they can ultimately get to the marketplace. It's a dirty, disgusting job and freezing cold to boot. Working on the slime line is a job for men who have fallen about as far as they possibly can.
Renko has been working the line in obscurity for quite some time, but then one day, one of the American trawlers lowers a net full of fish onto the deck of the Polar Star and caught up in the net is the body of a sexy young woman named Zina who had worked on the factory ship. The woman had last been seen standing by the rail of the ship during a dance which had been attended by the ship's crew along with some crew members from one of the American trawlers.
The ship's captain knows that Renko was once a top criminal investigator and so pulls him off the slime line and asks him to investigate the death. All of the Powers That Be are hoping that Renko will come up with a simple explanation that will not embarrass anyone other than the dead woman. The best verdict would be that she fell accidentally into the sea or, in the alternative, that she committed suicide and was then caught up in the trawler's net.
It's clear to Renko, though, that the woman was murdered and he is determined to get to the truth of the matter. Again, that's going to antagonize a lot of people, some for political reasons and others for reasons far more sinister, and before long, Renko's life will be in danger. The Polar Star is a large ship, but it's not that big and there are not that many places to hide. If he's going to complete his mission, Renko is going to have to be very careful and very, very lucky.
I really enjoyed this book a lot. Renko is a very intriguing and sympathetic protagonist, and there are a lot of other interesting and well-drawn characters as well. The mystery is compelling and there's a lot of tension throughout the story. Smith excels at describing the setting, which is at once bleak and beautiful. One also learns a great deal about the commercial fishing industry in this book; happily I'm having pork chops for dinner tonight.
Renko's fallen about as far as a man possibly can. From being at the top of his profession as a criminal investigator, he's now working on the slime line on a Russian factory fishing ship in the Bering Sea. It's a joint Russian-American venture in which American trawlers catch the fish and dump them on the deck of the Polar Star. The crew on the factory ship then process the fish and freeze them so that they can ultimately get to the marketplace. It's a dirty, disgusting job and freezing cold to boot. Working on the slime line is a job for men who have fallen about as far as they possibly can.
Renko has been working the line in obscurity for quite some time, but then one day, one of the American trawlers lowers a net full of fish onto the deck of the Polar Star and caught up in the net is the body of a sexy young woman named Zina who had worked on the factory ship. The woman had last been seen standing by the rail of the ship during a dance which had been attended by the ship's crew along with some crew members from one of the American trawlers.
The ship's captain knows that Renko was once a top criminal investigator and so pulls him off the slime line and asks him to investigate the death. All of the Powers That Be are hoping that Renko will come up with a simple explanation that will not embarrass anyone other than the dead woman. The best verdict would be that she fell accidentally into the sea or, in the alternative, that she committed suicide and was then caught up in the trawler's net.
It's clear to Renko, though, that the woman was murdered and he is determined to get to the truth of the matter. Again, that's going to antagonize a lot of people, some for political reasons and others for reasons far more sinister, and before long, Renko's life will be in danger. The Polar Star is a large ship, but it's not that big and there are not that many places to hide. If he's going to complete his mission, Renko is going to have to be very careful and very, very lucky.
I really enjoyed this book a lot. Renko is a very intriguing and sympathetic protagonist, and there are a lot of other interesting and well-drawn characters as well. The mystery is compelling and there's a lot of tension throughout the story. Smith excels at describing the setting, which is at once bleak and beautiful. One also learns a great deal about the commercial fishing industry in this book; happily I'm having pork chops for dinner tonight.
May 18, 2022
Like many crime noir detectives, Arkady Renko's Spidey Sense for truth comes at the cost of personal failure. None of the personal failures you've read about elsewhere can hold a candle to Renko's nose dive into depths of hell so profound that he's having to look up to see bottom.
When we reconnect with him in this book after his travails in Gorky Park, he has spent 8 years in Siberia trying to lay low until he is forgotten about. This involves freezing as a night watchman and a couple of jobs on Arctic fishing boats doing the worst of all horrible jobs.
And then someone dies.
Very fun and he's even more quarrelsome than in the first book. I can't wait to read the next one.
When we reconnect with him in this book after his travails in Gorky Park, he has spent 8 years in Siberia trying to lay low until he is forgotten about. This involves freezing as a night watchman and a couple of jobs on Arctic fishing boats doing the worst of all horrible jobs.
And then someone dies.
Very fun and he's even more quarrelsome than in the first book. I can't wait to read the next one.
June 7, 2013
Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko books are a series of mysteries set at various points in late 2oth century Russian history, starting with the last death throes of Communism. This is the second book in the series. I’ve read Stalin’s Ghost (#6) and watched the film version of Gorky Park (#1). Here, Renko, a former criminal investigator, has fled Moscow after the events of Gorky Park and is on the run from the KGB. After a series of awful jobs, he ends up gutting fish on a trawler in the Bering Sea. A fellow crew member is murdered and because of Renko’s unique skill set, he’s asked to help with the investigation.
What sets these books apart for me, beyond the glimpses into current Russian society, is Smith’s exemplary character building of Renko. Renko has a quick mind and a dark, mordant wit. He clearly sees the cracks in the Soviet/Russian system and he’s not afraid, to his continual regret, to speak his mind and buck authority. William Hurt did a credible job in Gorky Park, but I picture a young Alan Rickman with the line readings in the book.
Take a line like “Good luck”. This is how it’s written by Smith. He doesn’t embellish it with, “he said sardonically” or “he said cryptically” or “he said with withering sarcasm”. Renko’s character has been so firmly established that the reader can add his own inflections as he reads the books.
This book offers up plenty of interesting characters (Russian and American), plot twists and political intrigue. The crimes in these books always start off with seemingly “grand” motivations but usually end up being about something petty and tawdry. This is not a bad thing.
If you’re looking for a nice blend of police procedural, mystery and an “exotic” locale, I’d recommend this and the other Renko books.
What sets these books apart for me, beyond the glimpses into current Russian society, is Smith’s exemplary character building of Renko. Renko has a quick mind and a dark, mordant wit. He clearly sees the cracks in the Soviet/Russian system and he’s not afraid, to his continual regret, to speak his mind and buck authority. William Hurt did a credible job in Gorky Park, but I picture a young Alan Rickman with the line readings in the book.
Take a line like “Good luck”. This is how it’s written by Smith. He doesn’t embellish it with, “he said sardonically” or “he said cryptically” or “he said with withering sarcasm”. Renko’s character has been so firmly established that the reader can add his own inflections as he reads the books.
This book offers up plenty of interesting characters (Russian and American), plot twists and political intrigue. The crimes in these books always start off with seemingly “grand” motivations but usually end up being about something petty and tawdry. This is not a bad thing.
If you’re looking for a nice blend of police procedural, mystery and an “exotic” locale, I’d recommend this and the other Renko books.
January 2, 2017
3.5 stars. I remember reading Gorky Park many years ago. In fact I reread it several times. I enjoyed the politics of The Soviet Union and the corruption of the state. This is the next book in the series, which I believe was not written until many years after the original.
This is set on a factory ship in the seas off Alaska. This provides tension and claustrophobia to the story..it is very atmospheric. I really enjoyed the comparison between the Soviet ship and the American one. There were spies and baddies and smuggling and quotas. Arcady Renko is aboard as he has been exiled for his part in the Gorky Park investigation.
This was pretty exciting in places and Renko is a great character. Looking forward to the next one where hopefully Renko will be back on dry land and possibly reinstated as an Investigator? Time will tell. Well worth a read!
This is set on a factory ship in the seas off Alaska. This provides tension and claustrophobia to the story..it is very atmospheric. I really enjoyed the comparison between the Soviet ship and the American one. There were spies and baddies and smuggling and quotas. Arcady Renko is aboard as he has been exiled for his part in the Gorky Park investigation.
This was pretty exciting in places and Renko is a great character. Looking forward to the next one where hopefully Renko will be back on dry land and possibly reinstated as an Investigator? Time will tell. Well worth a read!
November 6, 2024
‘How would you describe Hell? she asked Arkady.
He thought about it. ‘A Party Congress. A four-hour speech by the Secretary General. No, an eternal speech. The delegates spread out like flatfish listening to a speech that goes on and on and on.’
Well it’s years since I read Gorky Park, the previous book in the Arkady Renko series. Can I remember the story or the character- nah. But as a standalone this was a cracker and I will add Gorky Park to a re-read list.
Set on an Arctic trawler Renko investigates the murder of a young girl brought up in a fishing net. Lots of twists and turns. Great dialogue. Renko as the antithesis of the Communist Party man. Relentlessly searching for the truth in a Harry Bosch way. No respect for authority or others just wanting closure with the truth.
He thought about it. ‘A Party Congress. A four-hour speech by the Secretary General. No, an eternal speech. The delegates spread out like flatfish listening to a speech that goes on and on and on.’
Well it’s years since I read Gorky Park, the previous book in the Arkady Renko series. Can I remember the story or the character- nah. But as a standalone this was a cracker and I will add Gorky Park to a re-read list.
Set on an Arctic trawler Renko investigates the murder of a young girl brought up in a fishing net. Lots of twists and turns. Great dialogue. Renko as the antithesis of the Communist Party man. Relentlessly searching for the truth in a Harry Bosch way. No respect for authority or others just wanting closure with the truth.
August 16, 2012
Don't pass on this one. It's one of my favorite Renko stories. His first exile and on a Russian fish factory ship where Smith gives you a palpable sense of what that must mean for the body and the spirit. The mystery and investigation is also top notch with typical Renko twists and insights. One of those rare mysteries that I have enjoyed reading over again.
December 17, 2020
Time is money. Nowhere else is this more true than the Russian factory ship Polar Star, tasked with processing tons of fish delivered by trawlers in the arctic seas. Soviet slogans are mouthed, but quotas are the driving force for the pragmatic crew. Surpassed quotas equal bonuses. Delays equal deductions. Thus, it is significant that the conveyor belt in the bowels of the Polar Star are stopped, and Arkady Renko, former Muscovite chief investigator, is pulled from the “slime line.”
Author Martin Cruz Smith also wastes no time. In Chapter One the trawlmaster rips open a net bulging with 20 plus tons of fish, crabs, mud, seaweed, and slime – and a woman's body. She was Zina Patiashvili. She worked in the galley of the Polar Star, but was well-known throughout the ship and by the crew of The Eagle, one of two accompanying trawlers.
By the end of Chapter Two you may gag at the thought of eating fish sticks. Smith describes in vivid detail the “slime line” where fish are sorted, hosed, sawed open, gutted, and stored. This is where Renko's on-going evasion of the KGB had taken him. He had sought invisibility. In his own wry words, he finds himself resurrected. The captain of the ship requires a level of competence in uncovering the details of Zina's death. Renko now finds himself on the radar of Comrade Volovoi, the political officer, and his various informants, as well as the menacing crew members holding fast to their own secrets.
Readers of Gorky Park will greet this second book in the series with excitement. Renko continues to marvel at the bureaucratic lies and hypocrisy and is an endless source of private jokes and mock humility. The supporting characters in this book are unforgettable, their tics and mannerisms depicted through Renko's eyes.
Smith fills this book with quite a bit of detail about the ship's layout, the mechanics of transferring fish from the trawlers to the factory ship, and the much anticipated single day of shore leave at the American port, Dutch Harbor, where quality consumer goods are available. The crew has been at sea for five months, unlike their American counterparts who sail in and out of port. At times the pace of the book slows. Renko's seemingly impossible search for the truth and increasingly dangerous situations are like shots of adrenaline in the midst of this detail. I enjoyed this book, which I had overlooked when I sought out later books in the series.
Author Martin Cruz Smith also wastes no time. In Chapter One the trawlmaster rips open a net bulging with 20 plus tons of fish, crabs, mud, seaweed, and slime – and a woman's body. She was Zina Patiashvili. She worked in the galley of the Polar Star, but was well-known throughout the ship and by the crew of The Eagle, one of two accompanying trawlers.
By the end of Chapter Two you may gag at the thought of eating fish sticks. Smith describes in vivid detail the “slime line” where fish are sorted, hosed, sawed open, gutted, and stored. This is where Renko's on-going evasion of the KGB had taken him. He had sought invisibility. In his own wry words, he finds himself resurrected. The captain of the ship requires a level of competence in uncovering the details of Zina's death. Renko now finds himself on the radar of Comrade Volovoi, the political officer, and his various informants, as well as the menacing crew members holding fast to their own secrets.
Readers of Gorky Park will greet this second book in the series with excitement. Renko continues to marvel at the bureaucratic lies and hypocrisy and is an endless source of private jokes and mock humility. The supporting characters in this book are unforgettable, their tics and mannerisms depicted through Renko's eyes.
Smith fills this book with quite a bit of detail about the ship's layout, the mechanics of transferring fish from the trawlers to the factory ship, and the much anticipated single day of shore leave at the American port, Dutch Harbor, where quality consumer goods are available. The crew has been at sea for five months, unlike their American counterparts who sail in and out of port. At times the pace of the book slows. Renko's seemingly impossible search for the truth and increasingly dangerous situations are like shots of adrenaline in the midst of this detail. I enjoyed this book, which I had overlooked when I sought out later books in the series.
February 12, 2017
'Polar Star', #2 in the Inspector Arkady Renko series, is a terrific story! I think it way more superior to the first book in the series, Gorky Park. It can be a standalone read, but Renko's backstory, which is referred to occasionally in this novel, is described in its entirety in the first novel. Missing from this narrative is exactly why Renko, an educated man who was an excellent Moscow police detective, is now on the run and hiding from the close attention of various Soviet political authorities and no longer a police inspector.
Arkady's skills are being wasted in his current job cutting up fish on the 'slime line' of the fish processor ship, Polar Star.
From Wikipedia:
"Some factory ships can also function as mother ships. The basic idea of a mother ship is that it can carry small fishing boats that return to the mother ship with their catch. But the idea extends to include factory trawlers supporting a fleet of smaller catching vessels that are not carried on board. They serve as the main ship in a fleet operating in waters a great distance from their home ports."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facto...
The Polar Star carries 300 people as crew, 50 of them women.
Most of them are processing the fish:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_...
Renko is in survival mode, quietly earning a living in jobs which hopefully are under the radar of people he pissed off in Moscow. He is considered politically unreliable by important Communist Party members, a death sentence in the Soviet Union. Renko insisted on solving cases which involve prostitution, smuggling, murder and political corruption - all of which are considered impossible under a Communist government.
It is two years after the events in 'Gorky Park', and after many hard labor jobs in Siberia which have served to muscle up the Inspector's body, he is now cutting fish up on a boat on its way to Dutch Harbor, occasionally stopping to swing aboard the fish caught by smaller American fishing boats to prepare the fish for later sale and distribution in America.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unala...
(Gentle reader, my mother, an Aleut, went to school near Dutch Harbor, as she was born on Kodiak Island.)
Fate steps in to change Renko's preferred state of intentional anonymity - Polar Star crewmember Zina Patiashvili's body unexpectedly falls out of an American fishing boat's net being emptied into the Russian ship's hold for processing. How did the Russian crew member's body get in another ship's fishing net? Was she murdered? If so, by who and why? Renko is reluctant to take the job of investigating the death because he knows solving it will not be welcomed by anyone, but Captain Victor Marchuk gives him no choice; Marchuk has no choice - American monitors are on board the Polar Star per international agreements. No one else on board has the required skill set to find out what happened.
As Renko expected, he soon is experiencing near-death 'accidents'. Gulp. It is a good thing he is in such good shape, but even so, he is not safe from fish knives, which everyone has, and bullets, not to mention the freezing cold of the Arctic waters just outside of the suddenly too-small ship of which he is literally trapped.
Solving the murder is worse than being elbow-deep in fish slime!
Arkady's skills are being wasted in his current job cutting up fish on the 'slime line' of the fish processor ship, Polar Star.
From Wikipedia:
"Some factory ships can also function as mother ships. The basic idea of a mother ship is that it can carry small fishing boats that return to the mother ship with their catch. But the idea extends to include factory trawlers supporting a fleet of smaller catching vessels that are not carried on board. They serve as the main ship in a fleet operating in waters a great distance from their home ports."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facto...
The Polar Star carries 300 people as crew, 50 of them women.
Most of them are processing the fish:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_...
Renko is in survival mode, quietly earning a living in jobs which hopefully are under the radar of people he pissed off in Moscow. He is considered politically unreliable by important Communist Party members, a death sentence in the Soviet Union. Renko insisted on solving cases which involve prostitution, smuggling, murder and political corruption - all of which are considered impossible under a Communist government.
It is two years after the events in 'Gorky Park', and after many hard labor jobs in Siberia which have served to muscle up the Inspector's body, he is now cutting fish up on a boat on its way to Dutch Harbor, occasionally stopping to swing aboard the fish caught by smaller American fishing boats to prepare the fish for later sale and distribution in America.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unala...
(Gentle reader, my mother, an Aleut, went to school near Dutch Harbor, as she was born on Kodiak Island.)
Fate steps in to change Renko's preferred state of intentional anonymity - Polar Star crewmember Zina Patiashvili's body unexpectedly falls out of an American fishing boat's net being emptied into the Russian ship's hold for processing. How did the Russian crew member's body get in another ship's fishing net? Was she murdered? If so, by who and why? Renko is reluctant to take the job of investigating the death because he knows solving it will not be welcomed by anyone, but Captain Victor Marchuk gives him no choice; Marchuk has no choice - American monitors are on board the Polar Star per international agreements. No one else on board has the required skill set to find out what happened.
As Renko expected, he soon is experiencing near-death 'accidents'. Gulp. It is a good thing he is in such good shape, but even so, he is not safe from fish knives, which everyone has, and bullets, not to mention the freezing cold of the Arctic waters just outside of the suddenly too-small ship of which he is literally trapped.
Solving the murder is worse than being elbow-deep in fish slime!
May 15, 2025
Polar Star is the sequel to Gorky Park featuring the unforgettable former KGB detective Arkady Renko in another suspenseful mystery. This involved a Soviet factory ship as it makes its way through the fog and ice of the Bering Sea off of Alaska. This battered and rusted Polar Star is virtually a Soviet village with a crew of three-hundred people, fifty of them women in American waters. Its satellites are American trawlers that catch the fish while the Soviets clean, freeze and carry the harvest home. The last net of the night bears pollack, cod, and crabs from the depths of the sea, and the body of a woman missing from the Polar Star.
No one on board has any experience in the investigation of a violent death except for Arkady Renko, a fugitive from the KGB working at the lowliest job on the “slime line” in the bowels of the ship. At one time Renko was a senior investigator for homicide in Moscow but the thaw of glasnost and perestroika has reached the Bering Sea and the captain of the Polar Star orders that an unwilling Arkady be restored as a detective and bring his expertise to the mystery. His unlikely assistant is Natasha, a party Amazon with very dark eyes. And then there is Susan, who heads the American team aboard the Polar Star. Both are initially hostile to Arkady Renko but drawn to him. And also aboard ship is an ominous figure from Renko’s past, Karp Korobetz. He was a brutal criminal sent to Siberia by Renko although now he is praised as the ship’s model worker.
Arkady Renko’s probe infiltrates layers of intrigue at sea, and ultimately into the isolated port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and finally on to the Arctic ice as Arkady Renko finally uncovers the true missions of the Polar Star and the American fleet surrounding it. This page-turning mystery is divided into three parts: Water, Earth and Ice. I found it a wonderful sequel to Gorky Park. It was intricately and brilliantly plotted. Martin Cruz Smith is a master storyteller.
“Out of the net and into the light spilled a flood of silver pollack, a whole school that had been caught en masse and dredged up like bright coins. There were thick, bruised-looking bullheads; overlapping waves of flatfish, blood-red on the eyed side, pale on the blind side; sculpin with heads like dragons; cod, some bloated like balloons by their air bladders, some exploded into soft tissue and pink slime; coral crabs as hairy as tarantulas. The bounty of the night sea. And a girl. She slid loose-limbed like a swimmer as the fish poured from the net. . . .”
No one on board has any experience in the investigation of a violent death except for Arkady Renko, a fugitive from the KGB working at the lowliest job on the “slime line” in the bowels of the ship. At one time Renko was a senior investigator for homicide in Moscow but the thaw of glasnost and perestroika has reached the Bering Sea and the captain of the Polar Star orders that an unwilling Arkady be restored as a detective and bring his expertise to the mystery. His unlikely assistant is Natasha, a party Amazon with very dark eyes. And then there is Susan, who heads the American team aboard the Polar Star. Both are initially hostile to Arkady Renko but drawn to him. And also aboard ship is an ominous figure from Renko’s past, Karp Korobetz. He was a brutal criminal sent to Siberia by Renko although now he is praised as the ship’s model worker.
Arkady Renko’s probe infiltrates layers of intrigue at sea, and ultimately into the isolated port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and finally on to the Arctic ice as Arkady Renko finally uncovers the true missions of the Polar Star and the American fleet surrounding it. This page-turning mystery is divided into three parts: Water, Earth and Ice. I found it a wonderful sequel to Gorky Park. It was intricately and brilliantly plotted. Martin Cruz Smith is a master storyteller.
February 7, 2012
I’m not sure why I delayed getting to this title since I enjoyed Gorky Park so much, to which this book is a sequel of sorts. Of sorts, because it follows directly on the heels of Gorky, but the author in a few brief paragraphs lays out precisely why Arkady, formerly head investigator for the prosecutor’s office in Moscow is now working as a slimer on a factory ship in the Bering Sea.
It’s good. Those who don’t like what they view as excessive detail in Moby Dick probably won’t like this book either, but as you know, I wallow in all manner of detail and the descriptive scenes of working on the factory ship were quite interesting, particularly when they discover a slime eel (hagfish) in the body of a Russian woman who was dragged up by one of the accompanying American trawlers (it’s a joint Russian/American business.) Totally gross.
Because of his previous investigative experience, the captain pulls Arkady from the factory line and has him investigate, wanting to have everything kosher for the American observers on board. Arkardy is forced to walk a very fine line between those in power who see no reason for an investigation, nor do they want one, and his innate sense of justice that refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide when all the evidence points in a different direction. Everyone lies and everyone has nefarious reasons for doing so. It’s a world populated by paranoiacs and schemers.
Lots of reflections on Russian society; comments like “In irony we lead the world,” which in context is not only amusing but perspicacious. And, my goodness, Smith has a dim view of people in general if his books are any testament.
It’s good. Those who don’t like what they view as excessive detail in Moby Dick probably won’t like this book either, but as you know, I wallow in all manner of detail and the descriptive scenes of working on the factory ship were quite interesting, particularly when they discover a slime eel (hagfish) in the body of a Russian woman who was dragged up by one of the accompanying American trawlers (it’s a joint Russian/American business.) Totally gross.
Because of his previous investigative experience, the captain pulls Arkady from the factory line and has him investigate, wanting to have everything kosher for the American observers on board. Arkardy is forced to walk a very fine line between those in power who see no reason for an investigation, nor do they want one, and his innate sense of justice that refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide when all the evidence points in a different direction. Everyone lies and everyone has nefarious reasons for doing so. It’s a world populated by paranoiacs and schemers.
Lots of reflections on Russian society; comments like “In irony we lead the world,” which in context is not only amusing but perspicacious. And, my goodness, Smith has a dim view of people in general if his books are any testament.
January 25, 2010
More than a decade ago, I attempted to read a mystery called Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. I couldn’t stomach it. Though it had received rave reviews, it seemed to plod and creak toward very little. I tossed it in a box and, after several cross-country moves, I have no clue where it is. But before I gave up on Gorky Park, a selection from the Mystery Book Club arrived in my mailbox. I didn’t get home in time to return it and ended up with Polar Star, the sequel to Gorky Park, in hardbound. I was too cheap to get rid of it, so I’ve been schlepping it around seemingly forever. On two other occasions, I started to read it, but it just didn’t resonate with me.
Of course, that was before I visited Belarus. Somehow, experiencing the world behind the former Iron Curtain gave me a perspective that completely changed my ideas about the book. Now, I realize that the normally sparse and plodding style and the awkward phrasing was a deliberate trope to emulate Russian grammar and the Russian pace of speaking. Once I found myself reading the book as though I were in Belarus (although the events in the story itself take place on a Russian “factory ship” in the Bering Strait), I was able to enjoy the book.
Fortunately, the entire book is not sparse in its language. There are two vivid images that I am unlikely to forget. The first was a reference to painted lead soldiers (toy soldiers in the book, but they reminded me of some of my experience with painted miniatures in my actual life) that had been thrown together in a box until their paint schemes were uneven and patchy, with little flecks of metal showing through. Investigator Arkady, the protagonist, suggested that the men who were veterans on the factory ship looked a lot like those neglected soldiers with all their missing paint. The second image was a simile of a difficult task being like trying to distill amber from sap. Quite memorable in my opinion!
Ostensibly, the plot is about a female crewmember of the “factory ship” found dead in the large fish nets transferred from trawler to the mother ship. That event is indeed the Ur-strand of a complex web of deceit and counter-intrigue. Realistically, it makes good sense because not everything that seems to be related is related. Some are minor plots to beat the system. Some are major plots that could have inspired the murder. Nothing is really certain until the end. It is a very tight mystery.
Yes, I’ll give Gorky Park another chance if I ever find it and yes, I’m glad I finally read this one. Guess it just goes to show you, irrational bias or lack of taste can make you miss something good. Maybe this review will cause someone else to reconsider a book they’ve previously blocked out.
Of course, that was before I visited Belarus. Somehow, experiencing the world behind the former Iron Curtain gave me a perspective that completely changed my ideas about the book. Now, I realize that the normally sparse and plodding style and the awkward phrasing was a deliberate trope to emulate Russian grammar and the Russian pace of speaking. Once I found myself reading the book as though I were in Belarus (although the events in the story itself take place on a Russian “factory ship” in the Bering Strait), I was able to enjoy the book.
Fortunately, the entire book is not sparse in its language. There are two vivid images that I am unlikely to forget. The first was a reference to painted lead soldiers (toy soldiers in the book, but they reminded me of some of my experience with painted miniatures in my actual life) that had been thrown together in a box until their paint schemes were uneven and patchy, with little flecks of metal showing through. Investigator Arkady, the protagonist, suggested that the men who were veterans on the factory ship looked a lot like those neglected soldiers with all their missing paint. The second image was a simile of a difficult task being like trying to distill amber from sap. Quite memorable in my opinion!
Ostensibly, the plot is about a female crewmember of the “factory ship” found dead in the large fish nets transferred from trawler to the mother ship. That event is indeed the Ur-strand of a complex web of deceit and counter-intrigue. Realistically, it makes good sense because not everything that seems to be related is related. Some are minor plots to beat the system. Some are major plots that could have inspired the murder. Nothing is really certain until the end. It is a very tight mystery.
Yes, I’ll give Gorky Park another chance if I ever find it and yes, I’m glad I finally read this one. Guess it just goes to show you, irrational bias or lack of taste can make you miss something good. Maybe this review will cause someone else to reconsider a book they’ve previously blocked out.
April 26, 2022
This is a new Arkady Renko story which takes place several years afer the action of Gorky Park and Arkady is no longer the investigator but somebody who is actually just ahead of the forces who want to lock him up in the Soviet Union and he has landed on a fishing trawler by the name of "Polar Star". When a female member of the boat ends up in the net of the fishingboat its captain wants to know what happened and the Party does want to close down this investigation as quick as possible because a suicide is most convenient.
Arkady Renko is asked to conduct the investigation by the captain as he is the only person who has any training to do so and the representative from the communist Party is not too happy about is, neither is Renko who is living his live without wanting to catch any attention.
Soon Arkady is caught up in an investigation that leaves him with many questions but only a few satisfactory answers. His person is quickly very unpopular as his actions endanger the the day that the entire crew from a Russian trawler gets a day on American soil in Dutch Harbor (well known to the viewers on Discovery Channel in a series about Crab fishing). And the amount of people dying continues in the polar region the fishing takes place.
Once again there is a chance that Arkady Renko is not leaving the boat alive because some people are invested in hiding the reason for the death of the Blond Georgian lady which started the story.
Renko is a fascinating character he does not give up until he gets the answers he is searching for and at this stage of his live he did not care too much, which changes towards the end of the book when he finds that he actually would like to stay alive. And yes he does get his answers even if there is no real happy end.
Once more Cruz Smith delivers a story from before the Iron Curtain was lifted and the ordinary lives of Soviet citizen is shown in his book, this time it is less a thriller and more a whodunnit with a dash of why.
Arkady Renko remains a fascinating character that is less of a Soviet communist but more of a Russian anti-hero who is more interested in solving a case than looking what is best for Mother Russia.
This second book is actually quite good and is easy to read and paints the live of fishermen in the polar region and their motivation quite good. Looking forward to the next book, of which I have a few.
Arkady Renko is asked to conduct the investigation by the captain as he is the only person who has any training to do so and the representative from the communist Party is not too happy about is, neither is Renko who is living his live without wanting to catch any attention.
Soon Arkady is caught up in an investigation that leaves him with many questions but only a few satisfactory answers. His person is quickly very unpopular as his actions endanger the the day that the entire crew from a Russian trawler gets a day on American soil in Dutch Harbor (well known to the viewers on Discovery Channel in a series about Crab fishing). And the amount of people dying continues in the polar region the fishing takes place.
Once again there is a chance that Arkady Renko is not leaving the boat alive because some people are invested in hiding the reason for the death of the Blond Georgian lady which started the story.
Renko is a fascinating character he does not give up until he gets the answers he is searching for and at this stage of his live he did not care too much, which changes towards the end of the book when he finds that he actually would like to stay alive. And yes he does get his answers even if there is no real happy end.
Once more Cruz Smith delivers a story from before the Iron Curtain was lifted and the ordinary lives of Soviet citizen is shown in his book, this time it is less a thriller and more a whodunnit with a dash of why.
Arkady Renko remains a fascinating character that is less of a Soviet communist but more of a Russian anti-hero who is more interested in solving a case than looking what is best for Mother Russia.
This second book is actually quite good and is easy to read and paints the live of fishermen in the polar region and their motivation quite good. Looking forward to the next book, of which I have a few.
November 13, 2011
I'm picking Polar Star as my favorite in the Arkady Renko series. The first is Gorky Park and I recommend starting with it. Each is a self-contained mystery but the background of the protagonist adds considerably to the story.
In Plar Star, Arkady Renko is working on a fish-processing ship in the Bering Sea. This is his reward for solving a politically sensitive murder investigation in the previous Gorky Park. Renko was a Moscow police investigator during the Soviet regime. His dealings with bureaucracy of the government causes him to constantly tease the third rail of government officialdom.
Subsequent books, starting with Red Square pick up Renko's story after the fall of the Communist government. There are seven in the series and each one is a great read. I'd pick Wolves Eat Dogs as the next best but all are terrific.
In Plar Star, Arkady Renko is working on a fish-processing ship in the Bering Sea. This is his reward for solving a politically sensitive murder investigation in the previous Gorky Park. Renko was a Moscow police investigator during the Soviet regime. His dealings with bureaucracy of the government causes him to constantly tease the third rail of government officialdom.
Subsequent books, starting with Red Square pick up Renko's story after the fall of the Communist government. There are seven in the series and each one is a great read. I'd pick Wolves Eat Dogs as the next best but all are terrific.
June 23, 2026
Arkady, back in the USSR finds that his status has fallen to a criminal level. With a little help Arkady flees Moscow for the east coast and learns hell is a factory ship. Solid read
February 15, 2018
This is an amazing book. The sequel to "Gorky Park," it's set in the last days of the USSR and the Cold War. Arkady Renko is a worthy protagonist, and indeed just about all of the characters are well-drawn. One of my favorites was Karp Korobetz, a tattooed gangster who Arkady had sent to prison many years before. He becomes Renko's nemesis in the story, and very nearly succeeds in murdering him, in some chilling action sequences. And they almost become friends by the end of the book, in a scene that would be unfair to reveal. 4.5+ stars. Why I missed it back then, who knows?
I didn't know much about the author, and had only read his "Gorky Park" long ago. He was a prolific but not very successful pulp-fiction writer in the 1960s and 70s. Here's a good 2005 profile:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Recommended reading. Sample:
MCS: "I was making less money each year so I bought a movie magazine to figure out what the hell people wanted. There seemed to be lots of killer animals, sharks, bees. I'd seen a newspaper report about vampire bats so I wrote up a story with vampire bats and some Hopi shamanism and my agent sold it within a day." It became a very bad movie, but paid the bills for awhile while he struggled to sell "Gorky Park".
I'd wondered how he got the Russian settings so right. The answer: hanging out with Russian defectors and emigrants. The Siberian and Aleutian settings are also well-drawn, and accurate for the time. You don't hear much about Siberia now, but it was a good place for exiled Russians to rebuild their lives at the tail-end of the USSR, in the resources boom years.
I didn't know much about the author, and had only read his "Gorky Park" long ago. He was a prolific but not very successful pulp-fiction writer in the 1960s and 70s. Here's a good 2005 profile:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Recommended reading. Sample:
MCS: "I was making less money each year so I bought a movie magazine to figure out what the hell people wanted. There seemed to be lots of killer animals, sharks, bees. I'd seen a newspaper report about vampire bats so I wrote up a story with vampire bats and some Hopi shamanism and my agent sold it within a day." It became a very bad movie, but paid the bills for awhile while he struggled to sell "Gorky Park".
I'd wondered how he got the Russian settings so right. The answer: hanging out with Russian defectors and emigrants. The Siberian and Aleutian settings are also well-drawn, and accurate for the time. You don't hear much about Siberia now, but it was a good place for exiled Russians to rebuild their lives at the tail-end of the USSR, in the resources boom years.
October 16, 2015
One of my new favorites! A follow up to 'Gorky Park'. Arkady Renko former Moscow investigator finds himself working the 'slime line' on a Soviet factory ship in the Bering Sea. Murder mystery wrapped in a spy thriller, or spy thriller wrapped in a murder mystery? I can't tell. So many twists and turns. A bonus of the Kindle edition I read was a portion of an interview with the author. He did not intend to write of further adventures of Arkady Renko after finishing 'Gorky Park', but found inspiration later. Martin Cruz Smith actually spent some time on a Soviet factory ship in Dutch Harbor Alaska, and at the Captain's invitation intended to spend some time observing fishing operations. However, Moscow government officials soon put a stop to that. I also love the back story of Renko's journey between the ending of Gorky Park, and winding up on the Polar Star.
April 10, 2010
to start off: i thought it was marvellous. one hardly comes across crime novels of such good quality. i bought it because i remembered i had read Gorky Park some years ago and i really liked it.
the book follows arkady renko, who, after some investigation not quite satisfactory to the state, works on a soviet factory ship that works together with american boats on a joint venture.
one day a corpse comes up in the net of one of the factory ship's girls. as the only person on board experienced with investigations the captain asks arkady off the slime line to find out as much as he can. from there a plot develops that i would not have thought possible on the confines of basically three ships in the middle of the ocean with a limited cast of characters.
the good thing about it - it did keep me guessing until the very end, which does not happen often. it is written very well and its plot is intricate with lots of little bit of information about fishing, russia, espionage, technology... and without being preachy or obvious about it. great insight into a different way of life in a different time, and a sympathetic one for that.
five straightforward stars.
the book follows arkady renko, who, after some investigation not quite satisfactory to the state, works on a soviet factory ship that works together with american boats on a joint venture.
one day a corpse comes up in the net of one of the factory ship's girls. as the only person on board experienced with investigations the captain asks arkady off the slime line to find out as much as he can. from there a plot develops that i would not have thought possible on the confines of basically three ships in the middle of the ocean with a limited cast of characters.
the good thing about it - it did keep me guessing until the very end, which does not happen often. it is written very well and its plot is intricate with lots of little bit of information about fishing, russia, espionage, technology... and without being preachy or obvious about it. great insight into a different way of life in a different time, and a sympathetic one for that.
five straightforward stars.
March 13, 2013
In Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith conjured a claustrophobic atmosphere in Soviet-era Moscow; that task is simpler here, where the action takes place on a handful of ships and a single, small Aleutian island. Yet the overall feel is considerably more upbeat, perhaps because former detective Arkady Renko enters this story at rock bottom, cutting fish on the slime line of a fish processing ship. A young woman worker from the boat goes missing but, before anyone really notices, reappears from the depths of the ocean, hauled up in a fishing net. Renko is drafted to solve the mystery, then undrafted, but he's hooked; a combination of integrity, curiosity, and pressure from above won't let him drop it. The author makes Renko smart, tough, and canny. There's plenty of psychological complexity, but it belongs to other characters, so a reader can follow along as Renko sorts it out, without having to wade through pages of the detective probing his own soul. The novels in this series are pretty astringent, and would be hard to read straight through, but are a real pleasure with a break in between.
October 4, 2013
Wow, a huge improvement on Gorky Park, which I really liked. It all takes place on a fish processing boat in the Bering Sea, several years after Renko loses his job and Party membership for the events in Gorky Park. Renko is now reduced to cleaning fish in subzero temperatures, until a murder occurs on board, and he is very reluctantly pulled into the investigation. Unlike Gorky Park, where the reader knows the identity of the murderer practically from the start, this is a stone-cold whodunit. Even better, Smith really creates a sense of place and mood with his depiction of this lonely fishing boat, stuck in the frozen middle of nowhere. One of the most effective mysteries I've read.
September 5, 2019
The sequel to Gorky Park is more entertaining than the original.The setting aboard a factory fishing ship in the Bering Sea is memorable.
March 11, 2023
4.5/5
Arkady Renko is back.
After Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith returns nearly a decade later to give us a second installment in this absolutely fantastic thriller/mystery series. After the events of the first book, Renko is lucky to be alive, and has been banished to Siberia. A former high ranking Party member in Moscow, he has been stripped of his Party card and his dignity, and has spent the last 7 or 8 years toiling in obscurity in the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Polar Star sees Renko aboard a Soviet factory ship; it’s exactly what it sounds like. This is a floating factory, that goes out to sea for months and months at a time, catching and processing fish to be sold across the USSR. When a girl ends up murdered and hauled back aboard in a fish net, the captain enlists Renko to poke around and see what he can come up with.
“Thriller” can have stinky connotations in the literary world. Some people think these are nothing but popcorn genre novels that couldn’t possibly hold anything more than some brainless entertainment. Cruz Smith is here to bust apart these stereotypes, and with the first two novels of these series he does it wonderfully. These books have so much to offer—beautiful prose, thoughtful plots, and immersive and well researched settings that will not only absorb you into Renko’s late Soviet world, but likely teach you a thing or two as well.
Smith’s characters are truly excellent—vivid and real. This is a mystery worthy of the likes of John Le Carré’s George Smiley. Renko is a dark, brooding figure filled with unexpected insight, dark humor and brains. I’m so glad I discovered this series, and I think it’s safe to say that Renko may very well be my favorite literary investigator. Smith really puts something extra into this character and these books, and if you’re a fan of the genre and haven’t read these yet, you are missing out.
These books are still coming out too…in fact at the time of this review a new Renko novel set in Ukraine is slated for later this year, and I personally can’t wait to continue the series and see what else Smith has to offer us in this fantastic series.
Arkady Renko is back.
After Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith returns nearly a decade later to give us a second installment in this absolutely fantastic thriller/mystery series. After the events of the first book, Renko is lucky to be alive, and has been banished to Siberia. A former high ranking Party member in Moscow, he has been stripped of his Party card and his dignity, and has spent the last 7 or 8 years toiling in obscurity in the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Polar Star sees Renko aboard a Soviet factory ship; it’s exactly what it sounds like. This is a floating factory, that goes out to sea for months and months at a time, catching and processing fish to be sold across the USSR. When a girl ends up murdered and hauled back aboard in a fish net, the captain enlists Renko to poke around and see what he can come up with.
“Thriller” can have stinky connotations in the literary world. Some people think these are nothing but popcorn genre novels that couldn’t possibly hold anything more than some brainless entertainment. Cruz Smith is here to bust apart these stereotypes, and with the first two novels of these series he does it wonderfully. These books have so much to offer—beautiful prose, thoughtful plots, and immersive and well researched settings that will not only absorb you into Renko’s late Soviet world, but likely teach you a thing or two as well.
Smith’s characters are truly excellent—vivid and real. This is a mystery worthy of the likes of John Le Carré’s George Smiley. Renko is a dark, brooding figure filled with unexpected insight, dark humor and brains. I’m so glad I discovered this series, and I think it’s safe to say that Renko may very well be my favorite literary investigator. Smith really puts something extra into this character and these books, and if you’re a fan of the genre and haven’t read these yet, you are missing out.
These books are still coming out too…in fact at the time of this review a new Renko novel set in Ukraine is slated for later this year, and I personally can’t wait to continue the series and see what else Smith has to offer us in this fantastic series.
September 3, 2014
A superb, engrossing, brutal thriller. This is the third Arkady Renko I've read (I read Red Square first, since I owned it, then Gorky Park) and the best of the three so far. Gorky Park dwelt too much on the unlikable Irina. Since I liked Arkady so much, I couldn't understand what he saw in this Siberian hussy. Maybe you have to be male. Irina fortunately doesn't present herself in Polar Star; there are only a few mentions of her. There is a Georgian hussy here, but she's not heinous. In fact, she's very dead. Arkady, after his objectionable behavior in Gorky Park, is in exile. He spent awhile working in a reindeer abattoir, then transferred to the Soviet factory ship Polar Star, which is trawling the Bering Sea. Behind it several much smaller American ships catch the fish with nets, then transfer them to the factory ship. Arkady has the most disgusting, low level job aboard, gutting and cleaning on the fish line. When Zina's cold dead body is brought up in a net with the day's catch, the captain asks Arkady to investigate. Soon, a suicide note is "found," and the official investigation is concluded. Arkady, naturally, keeps his unofficial investigation open. And people keep trying to kill him. He's a Russian MacGyver, extricating himself from a nearly endless parade of deaths in the book's three sections - Water, Earth (a brief stopover in the Aleutian Islands), and Ice (the ships head north and the sea freezes over).
Smith is a terrific writer; in this book, he's in a league with John le Carré. Somehow, despite being Soviet, despite being a target of his enemies in the superstructure, Arkady maintains the most hilarious, dry sense of humor.
He came over to Arkady. "The ladies want to know if you have a two-headed prick."
"What is normal here?" Arkady asked.
"Ugggh." A machinist recoiled from his first bit of a cracker. "What kind of meat is in this pâté?"
"Peanuts," Izrail told him. "It's peanut butter."
"Oh." The machinist took another nibble. "Not bad."
August 2, 2015
After Arkady Renko’s last case (Gorky Park) ended in a Phyrric victory, he was interned in a Soviet hospital and diagnosed with “sluggish schizophrenia.” (The theory behind this diagnosis was that anyone who acted against the state was clearly insane.) Martin Cruz Smith’s novel Polar Star begins a few years after Renko’s ignoble dismissal from the Moscow militia. When we finally catch up to him, Renko is working on the “slime line” on a factory ship. He’s run as far east as he can to get away from the KGB and the men who want to put him back in the hospital or a prison. Renko keeps his head down and cuts up fish. His plan might have worked if a female crewmember hadn’t been murdered and the ship’s captain hadn’t found out about Renko’s experience as an investigator...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
February 10, 2021
Daha bir sevdim Renko'yu.
December 4, 2024
This is a series that I think is better read in order. In this installment, we find Arkady Renko on a factory ship in the Bering Sea, working the slime line. That is a job that would interest few of us. It means long shifts doing nothing but gutting, cleaning or fileting fish. Not much background for how Renko came to be in such a position is given and so it would do well to have read Gorky Park.
We don't have to sit long on the slime line. Early in the book - very early (!) - one of the catcher boats delivers a net full of fish to the deck of the Polar Star. It was a good, full catch, except for one thing. Also in this net is a dead woman. The woman is immediately identified as Zina Patiashvili, who worked aboard the factory ship. The Captain is aware of Renko's background and asks him to investigate.
It soon becomes apparent that not everyone thinks the murder should be investigated. It soon becomes apparent that perhaps Renko will be next. How far can you run and where can you hide on a ship in the Bering Sea? How many secrets are there to be discovered?
I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this series. The writing style seems perfect for the genre. No, there aren't truly good characterizations other than Renko. Good plotting and I often didn't know what to expect next. There is some foul language and occasional violence, but the language is sprinkled sparingly and the violence isn't so long and detailed that I'd want to skip a few pages. But it is there.
I'm looking forward to the next, which I know will be soon. In fact, I have several scheduled over the next very few months. I think this series might be 5-stars for me, but perhaps none of the individual installments are. I'm not sure that makes sense, but there you have it.
We don't have to sit long on the slime line. Early in the book - very early (!) - one of the catcher boats delivers a net full of fish to the deck of the Polar Star. It was a good, full catch, except for one thing. Also in this net is a dead woman. The woman is immediately identified as Zina Patiashvili, who worked aboard the factory ship. The Captain is aware of Renko's background and asks him to investigate.
It soon becomes apparent that not everyone thinks the murder should be investigated. It soon becomes apparent that perhaps Renko will be next. How far can you run and where can you hide on a ship in the Bering Sea? How many secrets are there to be discovered?
I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this series. The writing style seems perfect for the genre. No, there aren't truly good characterizations other than Renko. Good plotting and I often didn't know what to expect next. There is some foul language and occasional violence, but the language is sprinkled sparingly and the violence isn't so long and detailed that I'd want to skip a few pages. But it is there.
I'm looking forward to the next, which I know will be soon. In fact, I have several scheduled over the next very few months. I think this series might be 5-stars for me, but perhaps none of the individual installments are. I'm not sure that makes sense, but there you have it.
January 10, 2010
This is the second book in the Arkady Renko series and I have to say I found it a bit slow. As mentioned above, the whole book takes place on a Soviet Factory ship in the Bearing Sea, where American ships bring their fish to be processed rather than returning to a factory on American soil. However, there are only so many people on said ship and Renko pursues this murder with an almost bulldoggish determination that at 384 pages becomes almost tedious. Smith does have one advantage that I admire over other mystery writers is I am truely left guessing until the end "who done it".
It's also been several years since I read Gorky Park and I have to admit I was a bit foggy on some of the details that linked the two books together. So I was left to piece together past bits with current bits and that distracts me from the main story.
I wasn't so turned off that I won't look into the next book. Overall I am enjoying the series and I'll probably try and pick up a used copy next time I'm at my favorite used bookstore
It's also been several years since I read Gorky Park and I have to admit I was a bit foggy on some of the details that linked the two books together. So I was left to piece together past bits with current bits and that distracts me from the main story.
I wasn't so turned off that I won't look into the next book. Overall I am enjoying the series and I'll probably try and pick up a used copy next time I'm at my favorite used bookstore
May 22, 2011
Polar Star is set in the microcosm of a Soviet fish-factory ship working the fog-shrouded waters of the Arctic Sea. The story begins as a member of the crew is dredged up in one of the fishing nets. Arkady Renko, a former detective exiled to the gulag as a reward for previous successes, is called up (unwillingly for all concerned) from the "slime line" to find a harmless explanation for the accident.
The book is satisfying as a classic murder mystery. It's even more interesting as an exploration of the claustrophobic atmosphere of a factory ship and the unsettled era of Perestroika. I particularly enjoyed a scene where Renko teaches an American observer how to "fish" for vegetables in the Russian soup.
Although this book is typically listed as #2 in the Arkady Renko series, it stands as a complete novel. Martin Cruz Smith says that he never intended to write a sequel to Gorky Park. And Polar Star is also a totally self-contained novel.
The book is satisfying as a classic murder mystery. It's even more interesting as an exploration of the claustrophobic atmosphere of a factory ship and the unsettled era of Perestroika. I particularly enjoyed a scene where Renko teaches an American observer how to "fish" for vegetables in the Russian soup.
Although this book is typically listed as #2 in the Arkady Renko series, it stands as a complete novel. Martin Cruz Smith says that he never intended to write a sequel to Gorky Park. And Polar Star is also a totally self-contained novel.
December 2, 2018
Having just re-watched Gorky Park, I decided I wanted to go back through the Arkady Renko mysteries, read the ones I hadn't and re-read the others. Here's a piece of advice: don't wait too long before you do something like this. There was only 1 copy of the audiobook in my largish library system--but it's narrated by the late great Frank Muller so I'm glad to have had a chance to listen. Arkady is in trouble after Gorky Park and put in a psychiatric hospital in Siberia. But he escapes with a little help from a friend and lands up on a fishing ship, the Polar Star, where a mysterious death leads to danger from humans and the cold. Lots of fabulous description and detail, more about Arkady to appreciate, fascinating investigation with twists and surprises, relatively dark mood, although he does come out alive and ready for his next adventure, Red Square, which I don't believe I've read. Luckily one library still owns--and Frank Muller narrates. Bliss.
April 11, 2017
So long ago I read GORKY PARK, and I really enjoyed it, and then recently I read a much-later volume, which at first I thought was a stand-alone, and I knew I would have to go back and make some attempt at reading all of the series. Smith is a good writer, his story keeps you riveted, and it doesn't hurt that the action takes place amongst Russians (reflecting an era active during my life, which also makes it interesting). Surely there will be repetition and template-like action, but somehow I think the next book will be enjoyable nonetheless, and that is more than I can say for some series. Renko seems genuine: not brilliant, but smart and persistent; a bit of a wiseacre, but without a streak of meaness; lucky, to be sure, but I'd rather have that than some superman who beats or shoots all comers. I'm glad I came back to this series, and look forward to the next volumes.
August 22, 2026
“You know, there’s a North Pole and a South Pole. There’s another place called the Pole of Inaccessibility. Once it was thought that all the ice in the Arctic Sea turned around one point, a mythical pole surrounded by wheeling floes impossible to cross.” (217)
Published in 1989, eight years after its debut predecessor, Gorky Park, Investigator Arkady Renko returns aboard the Polar Star in the Bering Sea, caught in the waters between the USSR and the USA in a thriller that drips with Soviet intrigue in an unparalleled time in the history of the Cold War.
I think that the actual political context of the day in which Polar Star was written is played out as the novel progresses. 1989 is remembered as a Revolutionary Year, what with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and within the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev’s era of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Incredible changes that would see the ultimate collapse of the USSR and the reemergence of multiple republics no longer under Soviet rule.
“Thinking in new ways. What does that mean?” Gury asked. “The old ways meant Brezhnev - “. “No,” Arkady corrected him. “They may mean Brezhnev, but you don’t say his name. Brezhnev no longer exists, only the problems of old ways, obstructionism and foot-dragging”. (71)
Enter the Polar Star, Russian factory ship working with American trawlers in the Bering Sea, the first hint at political openness on display as the two leading superpowers of the Cold War. However as the book progresses what lies beneath the ocean surface linking Russian and American vessels might betray that openness somewhat.
Re-enter the inimitable (although I see some Harry Hole hints), Investigator (former) Arkady Renko, exiled from Moscow, thrown out of the Party, eking out an existence in Siberia, the last frontier of isolation and horror, a place that puts the cold in the Cold War. We find Seaman Renko on the ‘slime line’ of the Polar Star and one thing we know is that where Renko is, crime and mystery are going to find him. And before you know it, a body is lifted out of the Bering Sea in a net full of fish, the body of Zina Patiashvili, crew member of the Polar Star.
How convenient that someone with experience in investigating is on the ship, and while a disgraced former Party member, another example of openness finds Renko invited to quickly resolve this mystery in the most politically convenient way possible which is absolutely not Renko’s style and is, in fact, and invitation to him to investigate more fully.
From Vladivostok, to the Aleutian Islands, a chain of almost 70 islands belonging to Alaska. Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska is the star of the show, being the port that the sea weary crew are able to disembark for a brief period to rest their sea legs before sailing off into the ice.
Renko is like the proverbial dog with a bone in refusing to accept ‘convenient’ answers to Zina’s death and we are pulled into a tousle of political espionage, smuggling of illegal goods and unrequited feelings.
A great read. And onto the third book (at some point down the track).
“Remember,” Marchuk said, “Lenin’s thought: ‘Bureaucracy is shit!’ “ (19)
Published in 1989, eight years after its debut predecessor, Gorky Park, Investigator Arkady Renko returns aboard the Polar Star in the Bering Sea, caught in the waters between the USSR and the USA in a thriller that drips with Soviet intrigue in an unparalleled time in the history of the Cold War.
I think that the actual political context of the day in which Polar Star was written is played out as the novel progresses. 1989 is remembered as a Revolutionary Year, what with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and within the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev’s era of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Incredible changes that would see the ultimate collapse of the USSR and the reemergence of multiple republics no longer under Soviet rule.
“Thinking in new ways. What does that mean?” Gury asked. “The old ways meant Brezhnev - “. “No,” Arkady corrected him. “They may mean Brezhnev, but you don’t say his name. Brezhnev no longer exists, only the problems of old ways, obstructionism and foot-dragging”. (71)
Enter the Polar Star, Russian factory ship working with American trawlers in the Bering Sea, the first hint at political openness on display as the two leading superpowers of the Cold War. However as the book progresses what lies beneath the ocean surface linking Russian and American vessels might betray that openness somewhat.
Re-enter the inimitable (although I see some Harry Hole hints), Investigator (former) Arkady Renko, exiled from Moscow, thrown out of the Party, eking out an existence in Siberia, the last frontier of isolation and horror, a place that puts the cold in the Cold War. We find Seaman Renko on the ‘slime line’ of the Polar Star and one thing we know is that where Renko is, crime and mystery are going to find him. And before you know it, a body is lifted out of the Bering Sea in a net full of fish, the body of Zina Patiashvili, crew member of the Polar Star.
How convenient that someone with experience in investigating is on the ship, and while a disgraced former Party member, another example of openness finds Renko invited to quickly resolve this mystery in the most politically convenient way possible which is absolutely not Renko’s style and is, in fact, and invitation to him to investigate more fully.
From Vladivostok, to the Aleutian Islands, a chain of almost 70 islands belonging to Alaska. Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska is the star of the show, being the port that the sea weary crew are able to disembark for a brief period to rest their sea legs before sailing off into the ice.
Renko is like the proverbial dog with a bone in refusing to accept ‘convenient’ answers to Zina’s death and we are pulled into a tousle of political espionage, smuggling of illegal goods and unrequited feelings.
A great read. And onto the third book (at some point down the track).
“Remember,” Marchuk said, “Lenin’s thought: ‘Bureaucracy is shit!’ “ (19)
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