Customer Reviews
Good book, just not as good as what's gone before - By: Pete, 16 Oct 2008 
"Gorky Park" - Great convoluted murder mystery setin the Soviet Union. It's a bit overlong. The film version is a simplified travesty.
"Polar Star" - My favourite of the books. It's a bit more like a traditional murder mystery as it has everyone trapped together on a fish processing ship.
"Red Square" - Perhaps the most inventive of the books. I always thought it was a great idea what the red square of the title actual is, & what it does.
"Havana Bay" - Arkady goes to Cuba. This was the first of the books that I read. If I read itin chronological order I might like it a lot more. As it was, I felt utterly confused by the book as it had two alien cultures meeting each other, & a lot of backstory. I enjoyed it enough to read the others so I think it must be a good book.
"Wolves Eat Dogs" - Another excellent setting. This time Arkady Renko goes into modern day, semi-deserted radioactive Chernobyl. I thought this was probably the most purely enjoyable book of the series as the first two or three feel quite weighty even if they're not.
"Stalin's Ghost" - It's probably the lesser of the six books but considering the quality of the previous novels, that's not really a critiscism. It's fairly short & not half as labyrinthine as the earlier books. I'm also slightly puzzled by the logic of it:
*OBSCURELY WORDED SPOILER*
I don't quite understand why the men had to be killed, instead of paid off or intimidated, for their silence; & why they would go to such lengths if he was only considered to be a paper candidate to begin with?
Maintaining a fine standard - By: Faustino, 09 Sep 2008 
Martin Cruz Smith's thrillers featuring Arkady Renko are at the top of the tree, & "Stalin's Ghost" maintains the high standard. However, I'd recommend reading its predecessor, the superb "Wolves Eat Dogs", before you read SG.
Well-written, but the plot could have been stronger..... - By: johnverp, 28 Jul 2008 
I like Martin Cruz Smith's writing & I have enjoyed prior novels with Senior Investigator Arkady Renko as the lead character.
In common with the prequels, the book is instructive on lifein Russia & contains some rich observations. I liked lines like "as he was leaving Moscow & driving into Russia.....".
The plot is not all that deep but takes Renko to Tver & very nearly sees him killed. I found the book to be populated with strange scenarios, relationships & interactions as Renko tries to solve a couple of mysteries. The relevance of a couple of Americans who played bit parts still escapes me & the Stalin's Ghost anglein the metro seems to have done more for others than it did for me.
Here too, Renko struggles with his own demons & his relationships with his adopted son & partner. To get the most out of this book, I suspect a reader would need to have built a strong relationship with Renko from prior novels.
For whatever reason, I judged this book first as crime novel & I didn't feel it was as strong as other Cruz Smith books I have read. 7/10
Pleasantly surprising - By: JT, 17 Jul 2008 Having never read a Martin Cruz Smith book, but having been impressed by the film of Gorky Park I actually bought this bookin desperation. I was travelling back from Istanbul to the UK via Munich & had run out of books to read before reaching Istanbul airport. A quick trawl of the bookshop persuaded me to purchase Stalin's Ghost.
What impressed me was the quality of the writing as much as anything. Phrases like "Time nibbled away at the afternoon" & "Night crouched outside the casino" show a real talent for writing. Add to this a densely plotted thrillerin modern Russian & it was an excellent page-turner.
I finished itin "one" go - Istanbul to Munich, 4 hoursin Munich, Munich to Manchester & then a 25-minute queue for passport control. I read the last page walking through the baggage reclaim section. The fact that I was really tired (early start, long day, two time zone changes) underlines the quality of the book - I could not stop reading it. The author has a clear eye for the detail of post-communist Russia & the spectre of Stalin pervades the novel.
I'll probably buy the other Renko books now, perhaps even Gorky Park - having seen the film it will be interesting to see how the book holds up.
"In Arkady's experience, when the snow melted, bodies would be discovered. In Moscow, that was spring." - By: Mary Whipple, 13 Jul 2008 In his sixth Arkady Renko novelin twenty-six years, Martin Cruz Smith continues the character development of the aging Renko, a complex police investigator with an inherent honesty that serves as a barrier to advancementin contemporary Moscow. With the downfall of communism, Russia is now filled with corrupt politicians, organized crime lords, police acting as killers for hire, & a pervading uncertainty about the future. With every man for himself, it is no wonder that Renko, at the mercy of higher authoritiesin the force & unable to investigate the corruption he sees, has developed a healthy cynicism & pragmatism about life.
As the Moscow winter wanes, a mass grave from the mid-1940s is found at a construction site, obviously a place for the disposal of those executed under Stalin's rule, with the help of Renko's father, one of Stalin's trusted deputies. No modern investigation results, & no one is surprised. The inaction is all part of lifein this city where the past & the present come togetherin a whirlpool which sucks the life out of its citizens. When the ghost of Stalin is seen wandering the subway, Renko is assigned to this low level case. As many ordinary citizens long for the "good old days," Stalinism is on the rise, & Police Inspector Nicolai Isakov, a killer for hire, is running for public office on a Stalinist platform.
A wartime "hero" for his actions as a Black Beret during the Chechen war, Isakov has never received medals or promotion for his behavior, & Renko is curious about why. When the other Black Berets who served with Isakov begin to die violent deaths, Renko begins a surreptitious investigation & finds himself fighting for his life. His personal relationships are not improved when his lover, Eva, begins sleeping with Isakov, & Zhenya, the twelve-year-old street orphan to whom Renko has offered a home, disappears, presumably to hustle at chess.
Cruz Smith's immensely satisfying plotting grows naturally from lifein Moscow & its values & mores (for good & for evil), & when dramatic & gory scenes of violence arise, they do so within the context of a setting fully developed sociologically & historically. The characters are individualized & empathetic at all levels, & Arkady, who has continued to grow & change over the course of twenty-six years, still hopes that goodness will triumph, despite the country's current problems. Even secondary characters, like Zhenya become fully rounded, their motivations clear. The occasional black humor & Arkady's sardonic observations keep the reader engaged, even as the author raises questions about the future of Arkady & others like him who hope for a long-term justice. Mary Whipple
