Arkady Renko
10 primary works • 13 total works
Book 1
They lay peacefully, even artfully, under their thawing crust of ice, the centre one on its back, hands folded as if for a religious funeral, the other two turned, arms out under the ice like flanking emblems on embossed writing paper. They were wearing ice skates.
Pribluda shouldered Arkady aside. "When I am satisfied questions of state security are not involved, then you begin."
It did indeed become a triple murder investigation for Chief Investigator Arkady Renko. Three corpses had been found in Moscow. But why the horrific mutilations? And why had they been buried in the snows of Gorky Park?
`The thriller of the 80s' Time
`Straight to the top of the international thriller class' Guardian
`Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . a genuinely frightening, genuinely original vision . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
All night earthmovers tore at the old city and dug widening pools of light to raise a modern, vertical Moscow more like Houston or Dubai. It was a Moscow that Pasha Ivanov had helped to create, a shifting landscape of tectonic plates and lava flows and fatal missteps . . .
Pasha Ivanov, one of Russia's richest oligarchs, is lying dead on the pavement outside his luxury high-rise apartment in Moscow. His death, it seems, is a straightforward case of suicide. Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, however, has never been one to take evidence at face value and there's something puzzling him that he simply refuses to ignore: a mountain of salt found in Ivanov's wardrobe . . .
Renko's investigations take him to the notorious exclusion zone, the area around Chernobyl deserted and forgotten for almost two decades. "The Zone" is a place of mystery, danger - and sometimes - unimaginable beauty. When the body of Lev Timofeyev, Pasha Ivanov's former research partner, is discovered in a contaminated cemetery, it is only the beginning of Renko's journey into this labyrinthine netherworld of crime - and an investigation that is about to uncover some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets.
Book 6
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
Book 7
As a train pulls into Yaroslav Station, Moscow, a teenage girl - Maya - wakes to an unimaginable horror. Her baby has been taken . . .
Increasingly disillusioned with the workings of Moscow's Prosecution Service, Arkady Renko is teetering on the brink of resignation when he becomes drawn into a strange new case. A prostitute has been found dead in a trailer in Three Stations - a dark, notorious part of the city - without a mark on her. Soon Renko will find that the girl is linked to the extravagant Club Nijinsky and, as he is drawn into the extraordinary world of Moscow's super-rich, that nothing is quite as it seems.
Meanwhile, Maya also wanders Three Stations, searching for her baby. Her only ally is a young man, Zhenya - Renko's own troubled ward - who is drawn to her cause and will guide her through Moscow's dark underbelly. But neither Zhenya nor Renko realize that Maya herself is being hunted. And those seeking her will stop at nothing to silence her . . .
Book 8
Book 9
'Makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin’ Independent
Investigator Arkady Renko, described as ‘one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction’ by USA Today, finds himself travelling deep into Siberia when journalist Tatiana Petrovna disappears on a case.
Journalist Tatiana Petrovna has disappeared. Arkady Renko, iconic Moscow investigator and Tatiana’s on-off lover, hasn’t seen her since she left on a case over a month ago. No one else thinks Renko should be worried – Tatiana is known to disappear during deep assignments – but he knows her enemies all too well and the criminal lengths they will go to keep her quiet. Given the opportunity to interrogate a suspected assassin in Irkutsk, Renko embarks on a dangerous journey to Siberia to find Tatiana and bring her back.
Renko finds Siberia to be a land of shamans and brutally cold nights, oligarchs wealthy on northern oil and sea monsters that are said to prowl the deepest lake in the world. With these forces at work against him, Renko will need all his wits about him to get Tatiana out alive.
From the revered author of crime classic Gorky Park comes the brilliant ninth novel featuring the iconic Arkady Renko.Praise for Martin Cruz Smith
'The story drips with atmosphere and authenticity – a literary triumph' David Young, bestselling author of Stasi Child
'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' Val McDermid
‘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
'Smith was among the first of a new generation of writers who made thrillers literary' Guardian
'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times
