Moscow lies deep under snow, and Arkady Renko is called in to handle a delicate matter: passengers riding the last metro of the night have reported seeing the ghost of Stalin on the platform edge. Not everyone, it seems, likes the fact that Stalin is dead . . .
But in the midst of a blizzard nothing is as it first appears to be. Renko's girlfriend Eva and his adopted son, Zhenya, seem to be slipping into danger. The owner of a matrimonial agency wants her husband killed. An innocent `Russian Bride' employs a garrotte. A chess grandmaster wanders into Renko's life and leads him into the line of fire. Diehard Communists gather to sing along with Stalin. `Red Diggers' uncover secrets buried for half century in a desolate forest and Renko discovers ghosts that have been waiting for him all his life . . .
As Russia swings more and more to the right, Renko is more and more out of step. Not only an original and deeply humane thriller, Stalin's Ghost is also a wonderful evocation of the emerging New Russia.
Praise for Martin Cruz Smith:
`Cruz Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' Mail on Sunday
- ISBN10 1585479195
- ISBN13 9781585479191
- Publish Date 1 July 2007 (first published 12 June 2007)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Center Point Publishing
- Edition Large type / large print edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 382
- Language English