The Arkady Renko book that started it all: the #1 bestseller Gorky Park, an espionage classic that begins the series, by Martin Cruz Smith, “the master of the international thriller” (The New York Times). It begins with a triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, … Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything.
A wonderfully textured, vivid look behind the Iron Curtain, Gorky Park is a tense, atmospheric, and memorable crime story. “Once one gets going, one doesn’t want to stop…The action is gritty, the plot complicated, and the overriding quality is intelligence” (The Washington Post). The first in a classic series, Gorky Park “reminds you just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be” (The New York Times Book Review).more
I read this book many years ago and decided to read it again. It’s really good, very unusual characters and plot. Best of all, the beginning of a series. If you like a twist, read it.
My sixth read since originally published. Martin Cruz Smith had not been to Russia when he wrote this. The ominous shadow of the Kremlin, nags at Arkady Renko from the first pages. A brilliant mystery. If you haven’t read Gorky Park, it’s time.
The book was a tad too long, but all of its events were extraordinary, perhaps because they happened inside the Soviet Police. The Marxist justifications for actions and inactions of various apparatchiks are hilarious. Some of the escapes are almost like fantasies. Arkady Renko is a real mensch.
I have read this twice now some years apart and it still is a slam dunk hell of a read taking you into the labyrinth of the soviet crime world and the life of the lead detective who has his own personal demons to deal with. Excellent tale of intrigue, double dealing and politburo manipulation in a power hungry organisation.
A classic! All of Martin Cruz Smith’s are so good, you can’t stand to see them end!
Too long to tell the story. Great writing but dragged out too much.
Read this book years ago and still love it!
too many characters, too hard to track the plot
A spectacular writer/ I’ve read all of his books- this was my favorite, then Polar Star next
A classic masterpiece. The only reason I didn’t give it the fifth star is because it started slowly. But now that I know the character, the second book in the series is moving a little better, but a little slow also. Great characters.
His best book to date
The ultimate review, I read it when initially published and just finished re-reading it. And I’m in the process of re-reading the entire series. Arkady Renko is one of the great characters in fiction, explaining the workings of totalitarian governments, especially communism, and the trials of living with integrity in such bureaucratic individual-crushing systems. He’s also a smart and intuitive investigator. The characters are extremely believable and well-drawn. The plots are ever-interesting and dynamic and Martin Cruz Smith’s writing a treat for readers.
I saw the movie back in the 80’s and then wound up serving in Armenia as a Peace Corps Volunteer for 2008-10. What amazed me was the depth of detail in the settings and the psyches of the participants. The contradictions and ambivalence of the culture is portrayed with much depth. Glad I went back to find the book! Now the movie that I enjoyed so much seems like a Marvel Comic Book.
A 1980 Russian investigator is directed to solve a crime. He’d rather dump it on the KGB; it smells political. But no, they’re leaving him holding the bag…
The mystery is too complicated. The plot takes too many irrelevant turns. The romance makes no sense. And yet…perfect. Not a typical mystery plot at all; much more like a shamamic journey than anything else. I loved the ending.
It is hard to pick just one of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series to recommend – I suggest reading them all. I am still working my way through the last few and dreading the day when I will have caught up. Renko is a fantasically complex and sympathetic character, and a man who has just the worst luck in the world. The novels are an alternately dark and humorous look at the development of the “New Russia”, from the 1990s forward. Gorky Park is set in a period before the break up of the Soviet Union, and each novel advances the story of its main character and his difficult love-hate relationship with the country of his birth. The novels are all exquisitely researched, and with Russia so much in the news currently, they provide a highly entertaining way of gaining insight into the Russian psyche.