lande4981's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? N/A
4.5
vanessakm's review
4.0
I am a little torn on what to rate this. I think this book's predecessor, [b:Polar Star|778285|Polar Star (Arkady Renko, #2)|Martin Cruz Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178266745s/778285.jpg|2640521], was just so good this one might suffer a bit in comparison. Nevertheless, I still remain a fan of Smith's gift with prose, his cast of compelling characters and his ability to make the reader really live in the Russian and German mindsets in the era between the Wall's collapse and the dissolution of the USSR.
The book has multiple story lines that converge. One is Renko's investigation of the murder of an informant. Another is his reaction to hearing his great love Irina (the woman he helped defect in the first book, [b:Gorky Park|762806|Gorky Park (Arkady Renko, #1)|Martin Cruz Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178138027s/762806.jpg|90322]) on Radio Liberty in Munich. The third is the state of Moscow in the twilight of the USSR. The story takes place during August, 1991 in the days leading up to the famous August Coup. The mystery is a typical Cruz Smith labyrinth. My advice is the fewer sittings you can read this in, the better. Of course, once you get past a certain point you won't want to stop.
My main complaint is in the previous book, Renko was living essentially in exile on a factory fishing ship in the Bering sea. Although its ending suggests that he has been forgiven by Moscow, this book opens with him back in his old job as an investigator for the City Prosecutor with no mention of how he got from there to here other than a few asides about how he is considered rehabilitated by the Party. It does lead to one very funny misunderstanding between Renko and his new Boss at a murder scene.
Despite any quibbles, I can't give this book less than four stars. Other than the aforementioned qualities I love about Smith, this book had a great ending.
The book has multiple story lines that converge. One is Renko's investigation of the murder of an informant. Another is his reaction to hearing his great love Irina (the woman he helped defect in the first book, [b:Gorky Park|762806|Gorky Park (Arkady Renko, #1)|Martin Cruz Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178138027s/762806.jpg|90322]) on Radio Liberty in Munich. The third is the state of Moscow in the twilight of the USSR. The story takes place during August, 1991 in the days leading up to the famous August Coup. The mystery is a typical Cruz Smith labyrinth. My advice is the fewer sittings you can read this in, the better. Of course, once you get past a certain point you won't want to stop.
My main complaint is in the previous book, Renko was living essentially in exile on a factory fishing ship in the Bering sea. Although its ending suggests that he has been forgiven by Moscow, this book opens with him back in his old job as an investigator for the City Prosecutor with no mention of how he got from there to here other than a few asides about how he is considered rehabilitated by the Party. It does lead to one very funny misunderstanding between Renko and his new Boss at a murder scene.
Despite any quibbles, I can't give this book less than four stars. Other than the aforementioned qualities I love about Smith, this book had a great ending.
jimbowen0306's review
3.0
I'm sorry, but I couldn't really get into this book. It's set in Russia and Germany in 1991, when the Soviet Union has started to cruble (the attempted coup happens during the book), and Germany has been unified. That in and of itself makes the book feel dated.
What I didn't like about the book was the core story. It is the third Arkady Renko book, the first, called Gorky Park caosed a bit of a sensation because of its' depiction of Russia at the time. This book is no Gorky Park, however, and deals with Renko's rehabilitation and gets back to Moscow, as an investigator, and investigates what happens when the car of a Russian money lender explodes, with the lender inside. The death of the lender leads Renko to Germans smugglers (not good), Chechens (even worse) and his own corrupt police force as it teeters on the end of collapse (the worst).
The thing I don't like about the series is that you get the sense that there's a lot of back story from Gorky Park going on here that you're missing out on (I read that book close on 20years ago, and can't remember much about that story). If you can remember the story, or don't mind the feeling you're missing something, you'll probably like the book better than me.
What I didn't like about the book was the core story. It is the third Arkady Renko book, the first, called Gorky Park caosed a bit of a sensation because of its' depiction of Russia at the time. This book is no Gorky Park, however, and deals with Renko's rehabilitation and gets back to Moscow, as an investigator, and investigates what happens when the car of a Russian money lender explodes, with the lender inside. The death of the lender leads Renko to Germans smugglers (not good), Chechens (even worse) and his own corrupt police force as it teeters on the end of collapse (the worst).
The thing I don't like about the series is that you get the sense that there's a lot of back story from Gorky Park going on here that you're missing out on (I read that book close on 20years ago, and can't remember much about that story). If you can remember the story, or don't mind the feeling you're missing something, you'll probably like the book better than me.
jimbowen0306's review against another edition
3.0
I'm sorry, but I couldn't really get into this book. It's set in Russia and Germany in 1991, when the Soviet Union has started to cruble (the attempted coup happens during the book), and Germany has been unified. That in and of itself makes the book feel dated.
What I didn't like about the book was the core story. It is the third Arkady Renko book, the first, called Gorky Park caosed a bit of a sensation because of its' depiction of Russia at the time. This book is no Gorky Park, however, and deals with Renko's rehabilitation and gets back to Moscow, as an investigator, and investigates what happens when the car of a Russian money lender explodes, with the lender inside. The death of the lender leads Renko to Germans smugglers (not good), Chechens (even worse) and his own corrupt police force as it teeters on the end of collapse (the worst).
The thing I don't like about the series is that you get the sense that there's a lot of back story from Gorky Park going on here that you're missing out on (I read that book close on 20years ago, and can't remember much about that story). If you can remember the story, or don't mind the feeling you're missing something, you'll probably like the book better than me.
What I didn't like about the book was the core story. It is the third Arkady Renko book, the first, called Gorky Park caosed a bit of a sensation because of its' depiction of Russia at the time. This book is no Gorky Park, however, and deals with Renko's rehabilitation and gets back to Moscow, as an investigator, and investigates what happens when the car of a Russian money lender explodes, with the lender inside. The death of the lender leads Renko to Germans smugglers (not good), Chechens (even worse) and his own corrupt police force as it teeters on the end of collapse (the worst).
The thing I don't like about the series is that you get the sense that there's a lot of back story from Gorky Park going on here that you're missing out on (I read that book close on 20years ago, and can't remember much about that story). If you can remember the story, or don't mind the feeling you're missing something, you'll probably like the book better than me.
abookishtype's review against another edition
4.0
At one point in Red Square, by Martin Cruz Smith, one of Arkady Renko’s temporary partners turns to the battered detective and asks, “Renko, do you ever feel like the plague?” (248*). At this point, Renko has been attacked a couple of times. His partner in Moscow has been killed. A couple of witnesses had been killed after talking to him. And, oh yeah, the Soviet Union is going to collapse any day. Renko spends most of this book in Munich and Berlin, so there’s a real chance that his country won’t be there when he returns...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
imalwayswrite's review against another edition
3.0
Arakdy Renko is back in Moscow and working as an investigator once again. While investigating the death of a black market speculator, he runs up against various Russian mafias. During the course of his investigation, he travels to Germany and comes across stolen artwork.
Renko is his usual resourceful self and although he has his job back, he isn't a cool, slick detective. Still, he gets the job done.
Renko is his usual resourceful self and although he has his job back, he isn't a cool, slick detective. Still, he gets the job done.
nigellicus's review
5.0
I grew up with my parents getting a succession of Cold War spy thrillers from the library every two weeks, where the evil agents of the Soviet Union enacted arcane and incomprehensible plots against The West that often resulted in a climactic and suspenseful climax involving the threat of global thermonuclear war. It tends to shape your perceptions a little, and I got into the habit of reading the last page of these books to see if the world survived, perhaps hoping to read auguries of our likely future, and mostly the spies and the soldiers of the West saved the day. Though not always.
Anyway, Gorky Park comes along, a police thriller set in Russia with Russian characters and a Russian hero and apparently nothing to do with global thermonuclear war and it felt like an anomaly. I never read it, just in case the world sneakily blew up halfway through, but I saw the film. Russian life from a Russian POV as portrayed by a western author. Weird.
So I recently rewatched the film on Netflix and that spurred me to order up Red Square from the library, since at some point in the intervening years I did read Polar Star. And... wow.
Though written near enough to contemporaneous with events, this has the feel of a historical thriller that engages in carefully and meticulous world-building to recreate a lost period - the sights, sounds, smells and lives of Russia after the fall of the Wall, with the people wretched and starving, queuing endlessly for food and vodka, gangs on rise and gangster hypercapitalism revving up to its various excesses.
Arkady Renko, back from exile in Siberia, now with his own team. When an informant is murdered horribly one night at a black market he finds himself pushing against all the usual sorts of official and unofficial resistance, even rediscovering the voice of his lost love. Renko follows the tangled bloody trail with dogged determination, all the way to a climax on the steps of the Moscow White House during the coup.
This is so astonishingly well-written, it's almost mesmerising. I'm definitely getting the rest of the books in the series, and might even loop back to the first two. Its possible the world will blow up before I get to the end, or perhaps that's just another silly childhood fear.
Anyway, Gorky Park comes along, a police thriller set in Russia with Russian characters and a Russian hero and apparently nothing to do with global thermonuclear war and it felt like an anomaly. I never read it, just in case the world sneakily blew up halfway through, but I saw the film. Russian life from a Russian POV as portrayed by a western author. Weird.
So I recently rewatched the film on Netflix and that spurred me to order up Red Square from the library, since at some point in the intervening years I did read Polar Star. And... wow.
Though written near enough to contemporaneous with events, this has the feel of a historical thriller that engages in carefully and meticulous world-building to recreate a lost period - the sights, sounds, smells and lives of Russia after the fall of the Wall, with the people wretched and starving, queuing endlessly for food and vodka, gangs on rise and gangster hypercapitalism revving up to its various excesses.
Arkady Renko, back from exile in Siberia, now with his own team. When an informant is murdered horribly one night at a black market he finds himself pushing against all the usual sorts of official and unofficial resistance, even rediscovering the voice of his lost love. Renko follows the tangled bloody trail with dogged determination, all the way to a climax on the steps of the Moscow White House during the coup.
This is so astonishingly well-written, it's almost mesmerising. I'm definitely getting the rest of the books in the series, and might even loop back to the first two. Its possible the world will blow up before I get to the end, or perhaps that's just another silly childhood fear.
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