About the AuthorMartin Cruz Smiths novels includeGorky Park,Stallion Gate,Polar Star,Stalins Ghost,Rose,December 6,Tatiana,andThe Girl from Venice. He is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize, a recipient of Britains Golden Dagger Award, and a winner of the Premio Piemonte Giallo Internazionale. He lives in California. what products are in high demand Red Square: A Novel
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Brilliant!By Paul IngallsThis is a beautifully written book, more so because it has no literary pretension. Red Square is written as entertainment, and yet it is wonderfully literary, full of rich atmosphere, multi-faceted characterization and intelligent dialogue. To read it is to steep yourself in the cynical, contradictory, dysfunctional world of Soviet Russia, as seen through the character of criminal investigator Arkady Renko, a man simultaneously compelled to rebel against a corrupt system while being psychologically incapable of divorcing himself from it. It is this kind of contradiction that gives Renko his depth, and it is the wonderful dialogue Smith writes for him that gives him his appeal. Renko is the kind of person who never says anything that has only one meaning. When a customs agent at an airport remarks to him that he must be anxious to go home, he responds in his typically enigmatic way, I am always anxious when I go home. Renko is always the smartest person in the room, and always the person least invested in having people know that. He is someone who prevails not because he is stronger or more intelligent than everyone else, but because he understands his shortcomings better than his opponents understand theirs. Meanwhile, Smith peppers his prose with human insight and poetic description. Renko realizes that theres a restaurant beyond a hedge, for instance, when he hears the chatter of cutlery from the other side. As for plotting, yes, theres a plot. You have your KGB agents, your Russian mobsters, your fanatic Communists and your corrupt officials. Most of them end up dead, some as the result of particularly unpleasant experiences. There are a number of surprises and plot twists, a thread of romance and a smidgen of sex. What this book is really about, though, is a fascinating, complicated character who, in the process of making his way through a world that is painfully familiar to him, reveals a world that is refreshingly alien to us.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Martin Cruz Smith At His BestBy K. M. LangleyAs a fan of all the Renko novels, I first read this book upon its initial publication. There is nothing quite like the combination of thrills, intrigue and geopolitics in these books, with a healthy dose of humor to boot. The characters are well-drawn and thoroughly believable, to the extent that I found myself rooting for minor characters to thrive (or survive, as the case may be). Len Deighton's Bernie Samson thrillers are the only similar multi-book triumphs that even come close. Start with Gorky Park and go on to Polar Star (my personal favorite) and then this book and you'll be very glad you did.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. More Renko...more entertainmentBy CreamcityboyWhen a fiction book forces you to fact check a historical era, the author has succeeded imbuing reality into his work. Smith is a master at detailing the hopelessness of the failed Russian state in 1991, and the hopefulness of Germany after the fall of the Wall. The story is a thriller/mystery with intertwining story lines. Arkady Renko is like a man drowning in the absurd waters of the Soviet sea, but with a heart determined not to be pulled under. The powers that remain in Russia, government and criminal alike, hate Renko. Yet he survives to unravel the tangled skein of this story.Smith uses all his considerable skills to draw Renko so real I expect to meet him on the street someday. The writing is almost poetic at times as Smith paints the vivid contrasts between Moscow and Berlin of 1991. I am reading my fourth Arkady Renko story as I write this; enough said.