Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel
by Martin Cruz Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Martin Cruz SmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-03
ISBN: 0743276736
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Pocket Books
Accessories:
- December 6: A Novel
- Wolves Eat Dogs (Arkady Renko Novels)
- Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel (Arkady Renko Novels)
Book Reviews of Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel
Book Review: The Haunting of Arkady Renko
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the better rediscoveries that I've made this year has been the novels of Martin Cruz Smith and his Russian inspector, Arkady Renko. In this, the sixth of the Renko series, we get to find out quite a bit more about Renko and his past, as well as some tantalizing hints for the future.
At the opening, Arkady Renko and his teammate, Victor, are meeting with a woman about murder. It's not a murder that Zoya Filotova saw, but rather that she wants them to murder her husband, who is evidently a brute of a man, and working hard to flitch every ruble she makes. It's an interesting case, and one that opens up a real nightmare for Renko.
For at the same time, a drunken woman has slammed a cleaver through her husband's neck during an argument. The team that has caught the case are the star performers in Moscow's investigative office, Detective Nikolai Isakov and his buddy, Marat Urman. Both of the men served in the bloody wars with the Chechens, in the same unit, and Isakov came out of the war a hero. Now he's involved with far right politics, and even worse, Renko has an even more personal score -- his lover, Eva, was mixed up with him some time ago, and there have been plenty of snide rumours that the affair is still ongoing.
To top it all off, it seems that in this New Russia of capitalist opportunity, a spectre is haunting the Metro. For Joseph Stalin has been spotted in the subways, waving to the passengers as they pass by. The political higher-ups are not at all happy about this, especially since the late dictator is starting to be remembered as a benevolent leader in the bad old Communist days by the ultraconservative factions. Again, it's Renko who has to uncover the truth of it all.
There's a would-be filmmaker who's also a pornographer; an old chess master who is helping Zhenya, the young boy that Renko has informally adopted; a matchmaking service, and finally, the riddle of a tattoo with the words "TVER," tigers and mountains -- despite the fact that the city of Tver is in a flatland without tigers or mountains. And this time, this just might be the case that will be the end of Renko, as we find out.
Whew. This is one heck of a novel, with chases over brittle ice, motorcycles, some more backstory about Zhenya that only served to make me more curious, street gangs, a decadent Russia that makes the Soviet Union look tame, and the even older Tsarist system a paradise, and all sorts of other goodies. What really got to me was that we get to have a very intimate look at the childhood of Arkady Renko, and the mystery of his parent's relationship and the tragedy that changed his life forever. This one really is haunting to read, and I could understand even more as to the relationship between Renko and Zhenya.
As with the previous novels in the series, author Martin Cruz Smith simply does not slow down the pace from start to finish. As each piece of the mystery is revealed, I found myself enthralled with the story, wanting to find out what happens next. And most of all, it's the character of Arkady Renko himself that is the most interesting -- he's a man who is very human, unlike most heroes in thrillers -- he loves a bit too much, he hurts, he takes a beating and feels it, and he has an inner, incorruptible core that has a strong sense of honour and justice that simply will not give up. Considering all of the other policemen that crowd the shelves of the local bookstores, I do have to say that Renko has become my favourite. The reader gets to know why he acts the way that he does, and what he wants -- and in the never-ending world of heroes that resemble Timex watches, I found myself actually liking Renko for who he is.
One of the big surprises of this one were the Diggers, those who are excavating the remains of both Russian and German soldiers outside of the city of Tver, and seeing that they are returned to the appropriate families and their records updated. There's an important reason to this, and I found myself very much moved by this part of the story. The Diggers are volunteers, and they spend countless hours trying to give the ceaseless dead some dignity. As to the historical reason of why this is important, the reader will discover in the story.
And there quite a few dangling threads from this novel that I hope will get fleshed out in the next novel from Martin Cruz Smith, The Golden Mile. The new Russia is fascinating to read about, and the author has done a considerable amount of research and invention to flesh out his characters and their deeds. Unlike many other thrillers, the setting feels right, and the characters are complex and compelling to read about, even the ones that are clearly corrupt and wicked. To me, that's one of the signs of a damn fine novel, and I hope that Smith will continue these stories for some time to come.
One twitch to the novel, and it's a minor one, is that the map in the front of the book of the Moscow Metro, and is labeled in Cyrillic. Fortunately, I've got enough skill with Russian to untangle it, but I suspect that other readers will find it very confusing. Still, it's not a huge problem, but it did help to visualize some of the events of the story.
As with all of the Arkady Renko novels, while this is primarily a stand-alone, I do recommend that they be read in order. There are plenty of events that happen in previous novels that have a bearing on the actions in the current story, and while the story can be enjoyed as it is, there is also a very subtle delight to being able to connect the dots as it were.
Five stars. Happily recommended.
Summary of Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel
Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating. Decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko's quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.The investigation leads to the fields of Tver outside of Moscow, where once a million soldiers fought. There, amidst the detritus, Renko must confront the ghost of his own father, a favorite general of Stalin's. In these barren fields, patriots and shady entrepreneurs -- the Red Diggers and Black Diggers -- collect the bones, weapons and personal effects of slain World War II soldiers, and find that even among the dead there are surprises.
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