Unraveling the Mysteries of Martin Cruz Smith
Exploring the Intriguing World of Arkady Renko, from Gorky Park to Independence Square
One of my favorite genres of fiction is mystery/crime, in which an investigator investigates a crime, usually a murder, and uncovers clues to reveal the party or parties responsible.
At the top of my list of personal favorite authors is Martin Cruz Smith.
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I don’t believe Martin Cruz Smith is a big, well-known name in the world of detective novels, but he stands at the top of my list of favorite crime novelists. While his name may not be familiar to many people, one of his first works, Gorky Park, will remind you of a great movie starring William Hurt as chief investigator for the Soviet Militsiya (military police) Arkady Renko and the story of the grisly killings of a trio of young people, including an American, in Moscow’s Gorky Park. The movie also starred James Coburn and Brian Dennehy.
Gorky Park, the novel, was released in 1981, and the film followed two years later. I’ve always wondered why none of the nine subsequent Arkady Renko novels have ever been made into movies because any one of them would have spilled beautifully onto the silver screen.
According to Wikipedia, Smith spent some time in Russia in the early 70s, and returned with the idea for the novel, but it took another ten years for him to finish it and get it published. And it hit home in at least one respect. The Guardian said,
“..the book's depiction of contemporary Soviet life was so alarmingly accurate, it was soon banned in the Soviet Union" and "became popular with dissident [Soviet] intellectuals."
Gorky Park was the novel that got me interested in reading more from Martin Cruz Smith. A second Arkady Renko novel, Polar Star, came out in 1989. Three years later, Red Square followed.
Here’s a trailer for Gorky Park, the only Arkady Renko novel to make it to the silver screen:
The Arkady Renko Novels
Here are the nine Arkady Renko novels, and they’re all worth a look:
Gorky Park. New York: Random House. 1981
Polar Star. New York: Random House. 1989
Red Square. New York: Random House. 1992
Havana Bay. New York: Random House. 1999
Wolves Eat Dogs. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2004
Stalin's Ghost. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2007
Three Stations. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2010
Tatiana. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2013
The Siberian Dilemma. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2019
Independence Square. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2023
USSR and Russia have changed drastically over the years, and Smith's skill in showing the change in Renko and the country's landscape is impressive. From the Glasnost of the first few novels to the corruption of the 2000s and beyond as the world changes, it is a vivid and important backdrop to the fascinating mysteries he creates.
For instance, the follow-up to Gorky Park, Polar Star, shows Renko hiding out on a fishing trawler from the KGB, who wants to kill him for uncovering corruption at high government levels.
In Red Square, the existing social and economic structures of the Soviet Union are breaking down, and Renko has been reinstalled as an investigator. Moscow is overrun by organized crime; his lead investigator is killed in a horrific fireball, and eventually, Renko is framed for another death. It’s a whirlwind mystery.
There are a total of ten Arkady Renko novels, and over the years, the stories have gotten a bit shorter, and reviews are not as glowing, many of them saying that the later novels don’t have the exciting twists and turns as the earlier works. I can’t say I disagree, although I’ve enjoyed all of the books. I would say that the best of the lot are the first five: Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square, Havana Bay, and Wolves Eat Dogs.
Wolves Eat Dogs is a fascinating work. It takes place in Russia and Ukraine in 2004, during the post-Soviet era, when Russia changed from a communist to a capitalist state. In one vivid part of the novel, Renko traipses around the “dead zone” near the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant disaster.
Early Life
Smith was born in Pennsylvania in 1942. Check out his website, and you come across these tidbits about his early life:
“It helped that my family was given to long odds and high hopes. My father was a jazz musician. My mother was a nightclub singer. They met at the '39 World's Fair, where she represented New Mexico.
“We moved around. My father played at the Albuquerque nightspot depicted in 'Stallion Gate'. In an El Paso club, the owner flashed a .45 pistol at my father whenever he started playing bebop. I was around four, my brother Jack a year older, when we lived next to the winter quarters of a circus, which accounts for my lifelong fear of being eaten by a lion.
“Not that we weren't bloodthirsty creatures ourselves. When Jack and I got hold of a decapitated rattlesnake we swung it over our heads and played tag. Finally we tied a string to the rattler, hid in the bushes and gave the snake a tug as someone with groceries ventured into our trap. When the snake 'struck' the effect was spectacular. Then we ran for our lives.
“Appalling behavior, of course, and totally thrilling. I don't remember being caught but even if we had it would have been worth it. As Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us is material." Or words to that effect.
“I've sorted through boxes of my material to make your visit worthwhile. I don't reread a book of mine after it's been published. All I see is shortcomings and errors. The gap between what I intended to accomplish and what I settled for is a yawning abyss. But I do enjoy the material because they still, for me, carry the excitement of discovery.”
In his twenties, Smith worked as a journalist and began writing fiction in his early thirties, writing a pair of western novels under the pen name Jake Logan. He’s written sci-fi novels, thrillers, speculative fiction, and more. “Gorky Park” was his breakthrough novel and was at or near the top of the NY Times bestseller list for months upon release.
I haven’t read everything Martin Cruz Smith has written, but I have read all of the Arkady Renko novels at least twice and a few others of his along the way, all of which have been superbly written and thoroughly enjoyable. “Stallion Gate,” and “Rose,” are a couple of my favorites. Check Smith’s full bibliography on his Wikipedia page here.
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But to my mind, Arkady Renko is Smith’s greatest literary character. Renko is Chief Investigator for the Moscow militsiya, and a member of the KGB describes Renko this way:
“You have unreal expectations… You overestimate your personal powers. You feel isolated from society. You swing from excitement to sadness. You mistrust the people who most want to help you. You resent authority even when you represent it. You think you are the exception to every rule. You underestimate the collective intelligence. What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right.”
And in a 2007 review of “Stalin’s Ghost,” a New York Times article gave this description of Renko:
“Deep down Renko is a patriot. He loves the promise of Russia — its poetry, music and people — even though he is routinely battered and emotionally scarred. That's also why he's so often disgusted with the operatic corruption and indignities that swarm around him, and why he loathes the stifling bureaucracy that he is part of yet somehow can't bring himself to leave.”
I can’t help but wonder how other Renko adventures might have turned out had they been made into movies, given that Gorky Park was so good.
If you’re looking for a great author and a fascinating character, Martin Cruz Smith’s creation of Arkady Renko jumps off the page in a million ways.