Martin Cruz Smith (1942 to 2025) was a prolific author of mystery and suspense fiction, publishing over 30 novels. He was best known for his 11-book series featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko, who was introduced in 1981 with ‘Gorky Park’ and last appeared in ‘Hotel Ukraine’. ‘Gorky Park’ was made into a successful Hollywood movie starring William Hurt.
List of my reviews
Arkady Renko series
- 1981 Gorky Park
- 1989 Polar Star
- 1992 Red Square
- 1999 Havana Bay
- 2004 Wolves Eat Dogs
- 2007 Stalin’s Ghost
- 2010 Three Stations
- 2013 Tatiana
Standalone novels
- 1986 Stallion Gate
- 2002 Tokyo Station
List with plot summaries
Arkady Renko series
1981 Gorky Park – Introducing Russian/Soviet detective Arkady Renko, and the case of the three faceless corpses found in Gorky Park, in the heart of Moscow, who turn out to be victims of John Osborne, the slick American smuggler of priceless live sables.
1989 Polar Star – In the first Arkady Renko novel, Renko had clashed with his own superiors in Moscow. Now he is forced to flee across Russia, turning up some years later, working on a Soviet fish factory ship in the Bering Sea. Here, once his former profession becomes known, he is called on by the captain to solve the mystery of a female crew member whose body is caught in one of the ship’s own fishing nets. Who murdered her? And why?
1992 Red Square – After inadvertently helping the Russian security services in the previous book, Arkady is restored to his job as investigator in Moscow. It is 1991 and the Soviet Union is on the brink of dissolution so his bosses are happy to despatch the ever-troublesome Arkady to Munich, then on to Berlin, to pursue his investigations into an art-smuggling operation – to be reunited with Irina (who he fell in love with in Gorky Park) – before returning for a bloody climax in Moscow set against the backdrop of the August 1991 military coup.
1999 Havana Bay – Some years later, depressed by the accidental death of his wife, Irina, Arkady is sent to Havana, Cuba, to investigate the apparent death of his old adversary, ex-KGB officer Colonel Pribluda. He finds himself at the centre of a murderous conspiracy, in an alien society full of colourful music by day and prostitution and voodoo ceremonies by night, and forced to work closely with a tough local black policewoman, Ofelia Orosio, to uncover the conspiracy at the heart of the novel.
2004 Wolves Eat Dogs The apparent suicide of a New Russian millionaire leads Arkady to Chernobyl, the village and countryside devastated by the world’s worst nuclear accident – and it is in this bleak, haunting landscape that Arkady finds a new love and the poisonous secret behind a sequence of grisly murders.
2007 Stalin’s Ghost The odd claim that Stalin has been sighted at a Moscow metro station leads Arkady to cross swords with fellow investigator Nikolai Isakov, whose murky past as a special forces soldier in Chechnya and current bid for political office come to dominate a novel which broadens out to become an wide-ranging exploration of the toxic legacy of Russia’s dark history.
2010 Three Stations In the shortest novel in the series, Arkady solves the mystery of a ballet-obsessed serial killer, while the orphan boy he’s found himself adopting, Zhenya, has various adventures in the rundown district around Moscow’s notorious Three Stations district.
2013 Tatiana – is Tatiana Petrovna, an investigative journalist who appears to have jumped to her death from the 6th floor of her apartment block. When Arkady investigates her death he discovers a trail leading to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Coast and a huge corruption scandal which will involve him in love and death amid the sand dunes of the atmospheric ‘Curonian Split’
Standalone novels
1986 Stallion Gate – Set in 1945 at Los Alamos, during the development of the first atomic bomb, Stallion’s Gate blends real historical figures, namely J. Robert Oppenheimer, with fictional characters, namely Sergeant Joe Peña, a Native American soldier, former boxer, and jazz pianist, recruited from military prison to work as Oppenheimer’s driver and secretly spy on him for security chief Captain Augustino. The novel contrasts the instrumental, western mindset of the physicist and the army, with the values of Native American culture.
2002 Tokyo Station – Set in Japan, during three key periods — 1920s Tokyo, 1937 Nanking, and 1941 Tokyo— culminating just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The novel covers Harry Niles, an American raised in Japan – con man, nightclub owner, fixer, and spy – as he moves through its criminal underworld and high society. As war approaches, pressure intensifies: enemies close in, alliances shift, and escape becomes urgent!
Books & Boots 