Martin Cruz SmithReviews

For a while there I was rather unhappy with the books I had been reading and then last month there were some very good ones. Rose is the best yet! The coal mine, the characters, the mystery, the love story all combine to weave the most incredible tapestry.

How in the world could Martin Cruz Smith know so exactly what being in an English coal mine in 1872 would be like? Yet you can not imagine that it would be other that what he has described.

Rose surprised me. I picked it up first because of the author. I have loved everything I have read by him so far. Then I got it for the cover, which I thought was beautiful and mysterious but gave no clues whatsoever what the book was about. I was very amazed to find that a book, even a mystery, that focused on a coal mine would hold my interest, but I could not put it down. Every character was so real.

This is a book to be re-read. I highly recommend it.

I had not read any of the Arkady Renko series since Gorky Park some 40 years ago. It was fun to catch up with Arkady after this long break. This was an enjoyable read and I recommend it to those who have not followed Arkady's adventures. I can't speak for the readers who have read every book in the series but I think they'd like it, too. Anyway, I think I'll go back and start reading from the beginning of Arkady's adventures!

Was really looking forward to this book as loved Child 44 and thought that Gorky Park would be a great read. I was very disappointed with this novel I felt the plot and the characters were very flat and story just seems to plod along.

A good plot, but not well executed--I wish someone else would develop this better. The writing jumps without warning from the 1800's to the late 1900's. The major portion of the beginning was just throwing at us names of famous Native American leaders and warriors, and Civil War era generals, and their real or fictional encounters. [return]One good piece is when He Who Yawns (Geronimo) complains that the united Indian nations are ordering his people around the same as the US Army did, when they just want to stay in their own land.[return]Smith also makes a politically correct assessment of the Indian nations of being able to maintain their all tribal government because they had a tradition of all people contributing to the social welfare of the nation and of not taking more than on needed. I liked the section where settlers first made mockery of the native practice of taking care of the land they farmed, but later when the Depression/Dust Storms hit, were envious that the Indian Country was the only area not suffering. There is even a quote for bibliophiles like us (o,r rather, satirizing us.

It's been a long time since I read one of these books. Renko is, not surprisingly, disillusioned with the workings of the police force in Moscow, and is about to resign when he is drawn into the case of a prostitute to dies with no outward sign of a reason for her death. Renko is forced to resign when he continues his investigation. Meanwhile, a young woman Maya is looking for her young baby who was taken from her on a train. The stories dovetail nicely, the portrayal of modern Moscow is deep and depressing.

Arkady Renko's mean-spirited boss has temporarily demoted him to desk duty. Renko is a skilled and tenacious detective in Moscow's Office of Prosecution, where competence matters less than deference to one's superiors. Arkady's adopted son, a prodigy named Zhenya, makes his living playing chess for cash in Gorky Park. When Zhenya's friend—a member of a pro-democracy group—is murdered, Arkady is assigned to investigate the homicide. He is also working for free on behalf of a gangster, Fyodor Abakov, who is concerned about the disappearance of his daughter, Karina.

"Independence Square," by Martin Cruz Smith, is biting in its condemnation of murderous dictators who live in luxury while their sadistic minions inflict immense pain on innocent civilians. In the course of his inquiries, Renko meets Elena Osmanova, a talented violinist who was Karina's roommate. Arkady and Elena join forces to find Karina and, in addition they hope to identify who is behind the assassination of protestors who dare to speak out against the Russian government.

Smith's prose is richly detailed, atmospheric, and darkly humorous. The author takes us to Moscow, Ukraine, and Crimea before the current war began, and provides background information that sheds light on the book's plot. Arkady and Elena must tread cautiously, because anyone deemed sympathetic to Putin's enemies is likely be interrogated, if not tortured and executed. Arkady Renko is a heroic yet unassuming man who generally gets to the bottom of whatever case he is investigating. As jaded as this veteran sleuth is, however, he is shocked by the grim truths that come to light in the concluding chapters of this fascinating and timely novel.

I read - and loved - Gorky Park. It seemed like such a finely constructed literary thriller. It was a mistake for me to return to the Renko series expecting the same from such a distant sequel. This one feels so hurried, and so poorly thought through. I won't talk about the denouement except to say that it was shockingly dismal; all I'll say is that it doesn't feel right for a writer to first introduce a problem, then have the characters experience that problem, and then for the problem to be ushered aside, all within approximately ten pages - but to have it happen twice in the same book is even worse.½

Yes, confusing, yes, long-- but what I found most interesting is the picture of Russia. How could life have been (or be?) so different there? Basic assumptions so counter to democracy. And while all forms of government have problems, and the Americans in this book are examples of capitalism taken too far, this picture is chilling.

It happens again and again, it seems to happen to all of the masters of their craft Azimov, LeCarre, Herbert, Penny, and now Martin Cruz Smith. Trading on a brand, without producing a novel worthy of that brand. I highly recommend his earlier works, give these later works a pass.

Brought Russia to life. The investigation of some murders but also about coping with life on a totalitarian state. Made contemporary by having the Ukraine as a pivotal setting.

A fast-paced, well-written novel set in and around Los Alamos, New Mexico in the final preparations before Trinity, the first successful test of the atomic bomb. Real-life figures Oppenheimer, Groves, Gold and Fuchs are mixed in with many fictional characters, the lead being Army Sergeant Joe Peña. The author makes Joe do a lot of heavy lifting: he's Native American and grew up in the area so can serve as a liaison between the Army and the local Native communities, and taught a teenage Oppenheimer how to ride horses. Joe's also a former professional boxer, a jazz pianist, son of a renowned Native potter, and attracts officer's wives to his bed like moths to a flame. This makes him a perfect candidate to be an informer for the head of security at the installation who wants Oppenheimer to revealed as a Soviet spy at all costs.
There's some beautiful writing here in descriptions of the landscape and weather, some great fight scenes and depictions of the Native communities and their suspicion that having the Army and Los Alamos as a neighbor may not be the best thing for their long-term viability. Joe's being caught between two worlds provides enough conflict to make the book exciting without the added villainy of the security chief. While Joe is a great character, he gets placed at every pivotal scene to the point that it strains credibility. The book's ending is thrilling but somehow unsatisfying.

The story follows an elderly Arkady Renko who is traveling all over the Crimean and Ukraine just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is searching for a disappeared girl, and trying to solve a number of political murders on people involved with the opposition.
A well written, relatively simple little story, the kind a master storyteller may write late in her career. Excellent writing and worldbuilding, but very little complexity in plot and storyline.
In that way it reminds me of Agents running in the field, John le Carres penultimate outing.

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Cruz Smith's tenth Arkady Renko novel, Independence Square, moves us from the forests of Siberia in the previous book back to Moscow and as the subtitle says, to Ukraine. This is a book written about events happening now.

Renko is asked by someone he knows, Fyodor Abikov, to find his missing daughter, Karina. He is worried and although Renko is side lined to a desk job, he takes this case on privately. There are many dead bodies in the solving of this conundrum.

Karina is a member of an anti-Putin group known as Forum and plays in a string quartet. Her flatmate Elena also plays in the same quartet and sees her on television in Ukraine standing behind the Governor. Renko heads off to Kyiv with Elena to provide a plausible story in order to cross the boundary between the two countries. Once there they track her down and find out her reasons for disappearing. It's just that neither of them believe her.

All of this takes place against the annexation of Crimea and Forum's protests are hassled and beaten by members of the Werewolves, a biker gang that helped in the annexation and so are now untouchable. Smith is convincing in describing the 'war' Putin is fighting agaist and and all opponents.

Yes, Arkady thought, a war was exactly what it was, but a war against perceived as well as real, internal opponents and external enemies. It was Stalin's Great Terror updated for modern times, with disinformation, legal machinations, indiscriminate violence. Bloodshed was a way of proving loyalty.
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The story descends into a persecution of Tartars who had already been made homeless by the removal of them from Crimea.

This was how pogroms started, by marking out an enemy and ushering in violence.
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Whilst we don't have magic or folklore in this book as we did in the Siberian Dilemma, we do have dolphins guarding the waters of Crimea, preventing boats from leaving and I was so unsure about this that I googled it. It is true. They are trained for defence duties.

You couldn't make it up!½

I’ve stopped being surprised by terrible reads which are way overhyped, and deluged with five-star ratings. By the same token I’m no longer surprised by very good reads either ignored completely, or rated too low. I read this novel as a teenager when it first came out decades ago, and gave it another read recently.

It is a very entertaining read in many ways, and while by no means a masterpiece, it held up fairly well. Nightwing is very reminiscent in many ways of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mystery novels. The atmosphere is very similar, in fact, right down to the Four Corners location and the mysticism of the Navajo and Hopi Indians. There is also the same social commentary in regard to the exploitation of the tribes for the resources on Indian lands. Mainly, however, this is an old-fashioned thriller marred to some degree by an okay but certainly not great ending.

Most readers who like Jim Chee will like the Hopi protagonist, Youngman. Most readers who enjoy the Leaphorn/Chee novels will find a great deal to like here, in fact, though it is a switch in genre from the Hillerman series. Perhaps other reviewers who haven't read (or don't like) the Hillerman mysteries, or were expecting another Gorky Park type of work from Cruz were surprised by this earlier work, and it lessened their enjoyment of this old-fashioned, lean and involving story.

Nightwing certainly isn't perfect, but it has many good moments to recommend it. I rounded up to four stars rather than down to three because the atmosphere overcame the conclusion for me. Others have gone into the plot, which you can read in the book description, so I’ll refer you to that on this occasion. If you don't like Hillerman, however, you won't enjoy this, as it has the same feel as that series, but moved sideways into another genre. A good book to curl up with on a stormy night. It won't bore you, it's just not one which will blow you away.

The Siberian dilemma is if you fall in the water, what should you do? If you climb out you will die within 30 seconds because of the cold and if you stay in the water you will die in 5 minutes because of the cold. What to do? Well, the answer is do something. You will die anyway and the doing may well lead to unseen events that may mean you don't die. So climb out of the water. Well in Arkady Renko's world doing something always leads to unseen events.

In The Siberian Dilemma, Renko goes searching for his girlfriend who is in Siberia following Mikhail Kutsenov around in order to write an article for the newspaper. She has been gone for a month and hasn't returned when she said she would. This desire to visit Siberia is then tainted with work when he has to pick up a prisoner and deliver him to a prison, also in Siberia.

When he gets there, strange goings on at the oilfield, a couple of murders and being shot at all mean that he starts to investigate what is going on. In order to help him out, he meets Bolot who calls himself a factotum, someone who does all kinds of work, to help him out. Things get messy and Bolot who knows how to survive in the cold, who is a shaman and who can get things when he needs them turns out to be essential.

This is book nine in the Arkady Renko series and is a world away from book one which was a gritty, realistic look at life in Moscow with Renko as a flawed detective. Here we have bears, magic and love. It's not quite what the series started out as but I did enjoy it as a break from reading other books. These books are a comfort read for me, easy and quick and I will stay up late at night to finish them!

Other than multiple tours of Chernobyl, this is not a very interesting book.

I'm repeatedly surprised that I like Martin Cruz Smith's so well. The arcane Russian detective, plodding through another mystery that few others are willing to even recognize as a crime. But he draws me in every time.

Oops - she road it with ease. 191

Another well-paced, economical story of Arcady's latest imbroglio. I have a hard time getting my head around how fast he forms his attachments to women, but there it is, every time. It isn't like a teenage crush or a first love, but more practical and, at least this time out, more empathetic and as a result of propinquity. The real villain is not hard to spot, nor to understand, but there is no "justice" not that there is in Russia. Ever.½