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    Gorky Park
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    Gorky Park
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    Gorky Park
    Ebook580 pages11 hours

    Gorky Park

    By Martin Cruz Smith

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    THE NOVEL THAT STARTED IT ALL - ARKADY RENKO NOVEL #1

    'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' Val McDermid

    'Makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin’ Independent
    ***
    Three bodies found frozen in the snow. And the hunt for the killer begins…

    It begins with a triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything.

    A wonderfully textured, vivid look behind the Iron Curtain, Gorky Park is a tense, atmospheric, and memorable crime story.

    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

    ‘Cleverly and intelligently told, The Girl from Venice is a truly riveting tale of love, mystery and rampant danger. I loved it’  Kate Furnivall, author of The Liberation

    ‘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

    ‘Martin Cruz Smith’s Renko novels are superb’ William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateAug 15, 2013
    ISBN9781849838221
    Author

    Martin Cruz Smith

    Martin Cruz Smith’s novels include Gorky Park, Stallion Gate, Nightwing, Polar Star, Stalin’s Ghost, Rose, December 6, Tatiana, The Girl from Venice, and The Siberian Dilemma. He is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize, a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and Britain’s Golden Dagger Award, and a winner of the Premio Piemonte Giallo Internazionale. He lives in California.

    Read more from Martin Cruz Smith

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    Reviews for Gorky Park

    4/5

    53 ratings40 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A compelling mystery story.
    • 3/5
      Arkady Renko, a police investigator in Soviet Russia, is called to Gorky Park where three mutilated bodies have been found buried in the snow. This begins an investigation that will threaten his entire future. He's being followed by the KGB who seemed very interested in the case but don't want to be responsible for it. While trying to identify the bodies he meets a mysterious American who is involved in the fur trading business. Everyone seems to have a hidden agenda, including Renko's wife, closest friend,and his superiors at work. Renko makes a series of deductions that place him in serious jeopardy.

      I found the mystery to be very confusing, slow paced, and rambling. I did like Arkady who seemed like a great character. He's a smart, decent guy, struggling to do a good job. It's not pleasant being a policeman in Soviet Russia. The story is bleak but I did enjoy the insight into Soviet culture. I've heard the later books in the series are much better.
    • 4/5
      I've been wanting to read this book for a very long time so it was disappointing t0 find that it wasn't quite as enjoyable as I'd hoped. Some characters were well fleshed out and Smith was great at describing the locale, making it easy for readers to visualize their surroundings, be they a Russian General's dacha or a dingy New York hotel room. What did bother me was its pacing and it's labyrinthine conspiracy where it seems that almost everybody was colluding with everyone else. For a book with only 365 pages it seemed to go on forever. I will probably read more Arcady Renko books but it may be a while. ✭✭✭½
    • 3/5
      I came to this with little expectation, although I had heard good things, I tried to keep an open mind. Easy to access in many ways, I think it appears not only dated but jaded as well in the modern era. The setting was well described as was the feeling of Soviet Communist society, I just didn't get the rush along with the story that a good thriller needs. At times plodding, and very conservative, at others showing signs of only engaging the reader in a limited way. This didn't work for me & I am unlikely to be reading any more of Arkady Renko's adventures
    • 5/5
      Chief Investigator Arkady Renko has to figure out how & why three dead bodies wound up frozen under the snow in Gorky Park, Moscow. Trying to solve their murders seems to lead him from one heap of trouble to the next. I didn't get into this quite as quick as I had expected, but once things started heating up I had trouble putting it down. I enjoyed it for the most part. I tried to keep from being irritated by the prejudices in it, and the antisemitism, giving Smith the benefit of the doubt that he was merely attempting to reflect a prevalent Russian attitude of the time; it was a bit much, though, and I hope that's toned down more in the rest of the books. Aside of that, I was pleased with the book. Once the ball was rolling everything unfolded nicely, kept interest high, good twists, realistic characters, good stuff.
    • 4/5
      Detective novels, police procedurals, whatever you call them, are not my cup of tea. However, I really, really liked this one. Well written and unique.
    • 4/5
      I just reread this and was struck by the authors' grasp of the difficulty of living day by day in the former Soviet Union and his protagonists ( Arkady Renko) ability to struggle on, while not losing his humor or sense of irony.
    • 3/5
      I struggled with this book so much. I don't know whether it's just how I am at the moment - unable to remain focussed on anything - or whether the book just didn't interest me. I ended up re-reading a lot of it because I found I'd read bits and just didn't taken it in. In the end I just felt I was going through the motions.It's sad really, I've got a few Arkady Renko books, and I feel like I'm not going to read them for ages (until the experience of this one has worn off at least!).
    • 4/5
      If there ever, ever were a book that should have ended sooner, this is it. Gorky Park is, for 80% of its span, a first-rate murder mystery set in an exotic, almost other-planet-like setting, i.e. Moscow in the early 1980s. The story kicks off with a brutal slaying of three ice skaters in the eponymous park, with Arkady Renko -- who's one of the most well-drawn police detectives I've ever encountered -- assigned to untangle the case and keep himself out of the clutches of his duplicitous supervisors and colleagues, plus the KGB.The period and location detail here are remarkable; I visited the USSR in the 1980s myself, and reading this felt like flashbacks. The greyness, the ridiculous yet menacing bureaucracy, the desperation. Smith would have had five stars for sure if he'd just ended the book when the time was right. Instead, he takes our hero on a totally implausible junket to New York city, of all places. This silly ending is downright painful to read after the sustained excellence of the bulk of the book.Recommended nevertheless!
    • 5/5
      Top notch police procedural/thriller and an introduction to Soviet detection
    • 4/5
      The second part was a surprise (it wasn't in the movie version) & one of the best parts of the book for me.
    • 5/5
      I've probably read this 1/2 dozen times and it never gets old. Arkady is the most true to life character I've ever read. His implausibility and reluctant drive to set things right makes him very sympathetic and believable. Supporting players are unique and there are no throw away characters. The murder and conspiracy is perfectly done and Arkady is faced with many dangers. Atmosphere in both time and place comes through clearly and totally - I really feel likeI know what it's like to be in communist Russia. Top notch.
    • 5/5
      My first experience of Detective Arkady Renko and a pleasant surprise to find a great thriller with seemingly authentic Russian locations making it different to the usual crime novel. I've since read two more Renko books, which indicates that I rate this author!
    • 4/5
      Three bodies, buried in the snow of Moscow's Gorky Park, and at first taken to be casualties of common violence or the weather, turn out to have every trace of their identities obliterated -- papers, fingertips, faces. For Arkady Renko, a common police homicide investigator in Moscow, this unusual case begins all too familiarly as a jurisdictional squabble with the KGB. Renko is a bit of a misfit, and definitely ideologically unsound. Son of a famous WWII general, he would have an easier time of it if he were better at the Party line. Instead, he noodles along in his low-status job, asks too many impertinent questions, and is generally viewed as a failure, especially by his wife. His early conduct of the Gorky Park case is designed to provoke the KGB into taking the matter off his hands -- instead he has a persistent feeling of being watched, and even managed.
    • 5/5
      This book is a classic who-done-it. The book opens with a triple homicide with all evidence removed, even to the removal of the victim's identity (I'll not give anything away. It is too good of a story.). The book details the Soviet investigator's dogged search for the killer. What I love about this book is that he solves the mystery about halfway through the book. The rest of the book deals with the fallout of his discovery. I love it when an author recognizes life is not neat when it comes to justice. The second half of the book was even more riveting than the first. During the investigation, I could piece together from the clues Smith expertly drops throughout, so that I solved the case about the same time as the investigator. But during the second half, I was just as out of control and lost as the character as to the ultimate resolution. Brilliant! I haven't read a better book with this ability to turn me upside down. Most mystery books are formula enough to have the endgame guessed before it is over. With this one, I was completely surprised right up to the very last sentence. Don't watch the movie. Read the book. It is a lot better. They had to cut out a lot. Another coup for Smith was his incredible description of Cold War Soviet life. It is so detailed, it is hard to believe he hadn't spent years in the Soviet Union. The fly leaf said it took him eight years to write Gorky Park. Wonderful book.
    • 4/5
      The author introduces the reader to crime fighting in the USSR. In a land of subversion, and deceit, our hero is an earnest, truthful, and non malleable cop. The book captures the nuances of Soviet, and Russian humor. I was literally laughing out loud in the middle of a crime novel. It was fantastic. The characters are richly drawn, and tell the tales of living in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. I will certainly add him amongst my must reads: Harry Bosch, Lucas Davenport, Elvis Cole, and Jack Reacher.
    • 3/5
      Book Description “Brilliant . . . enough enigmas within enigmas within enigmas to reel the mind.” –The New Yorker A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything. “Once one gets going, one doesn’t want to stop. . . . The action is gritty, the plot complicated, [and] the overriding quality is intelligence.” –The Washington Post “Reminds you just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be.” –The New York Times Book Review “An unbelievable achievement . . . vivid, witty . . . completely fascinating.” –Boston Herald American “Gripping, romantic, and dazzlingly original.” –Cosmopolitan

      My Review This was a very difficult book to read. It started off very slow with long descriptive passages and not too much dialogue. Not until halfway through did I start to get interested in the story because of the bogged down writing of Martin Cruz Smith. I will give the author another chance because I feel like his books can only get better and I know people who have enjoyed his books. The ending was actually the best part of the story and tied things up pretty good. I do want to read more of Smith's books about Arkady Renko as I find him a rather unique investigator. I would recommend this book to those who would like to learn more about living in Russia during this period of the book.
    • 5/5
      This first of Smith's series about Arkady Renko may be the best, although it has been very interesting watching the character's growth through the years through the fall of the Soviet Union to the growth of a chaotic then authoritarian new Russia. Red Square would be my second favorite in the series.
    • 5/5
      Three people are murdered in Gorky Park and Arkady Renko is the Russian Special Investigator sent to solve the crime. His wife is leaving him and he just wants to be able to hand the case over to the KGB and get back to his regular life. The KGB don't want it. The story twists and turns to American where the crime is eventually solved.The story was fast paced and entertaining, although some of the Russian names were a bit difficult the pronounce. I will be looking forward to the next installment in "Polar Star"
    • 3/5
      A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: there corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Arkady is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident, for whom love he may risk everything...
    • 4/5
      I Read it, liked it but forgot the plot after all these years. This was his first book tht I remember and a surprise best-seller.
    • 4/5
      A Refreshing tale that is Spellbinding! Martin Smith created a story with all the right essentials for a super suspense filled mystery. There is romance, companionship, death (brutal mine you; faces mutilated, fingerprints removed), corruption and violence, betrayal and it all takes place in Russia. Then you combine the story with an author that can write a tale that is fresh and spellbinding then you have super novel. In my opinion this is still one of the best mystery novels out on the market today.
    • 4/5
      Well paced thriller, a knotch above many others, being better written with good characterisation. The plot line wasn't what I expected, so kept me off guard all through the book. However, I did find the central premise that smuggling of some breeding sables was some important and valuable that it would lead to the murders and the involvement of the KGB and high levels of Soviet goverment a little surprising and a tad implausable.
    • 5/5
      I don't like detective fiction that much, as I don't like genre writing in general. However, Cruz Smith's style matches his substance - the story is compelling, but the way in which it is delivered is masterful. He captures the atmosphere of communist Moscow so perfectly, and the characters are so noir, that I couldn't help loving this book.
    • 4/5
      Not a big fan of detective novels, but this was excellent.
    • 4/5
      This satisfying mystery has multiple virtues. The basic trajectory of the plot - a investigator's entire life is effectively destroyed, piece by piece, by his heroic pursuit of truth - is a common cliche; but Gorky Park makes it plausible, fresh, and even hopeful. I have no idea whether Smith's depiction of late 1970s Moscow is accurate, but that's really beside the point: the novel's rich and claustrophobic setting feels real, and allows the story to unfold credibly. Smith keeps the story taut, but weaves in great dialogue, perceptive comments on human nature, and splendid minor characters. I agree with other reviewers that the last 90 pages or so do not hang together well - they carry the themes of entrapment and loyal sacrifice, built through the rest of the book, to their logical conclusion, but they lose the magic and clarity of the other chapters. Still, a more realistic ending - one confined to Moscow - would probably have finished off Inspector Renko, ending this series after the first volume.
    • 5/5
      Arkado Renko, a Moscow police investigator, is introduced in this complex tale of murder, intrigue and Sable smuggling. Most of the action takes place in Moscow, where three mutilated bodies are discovered in Gorky Park. Renko wants the KGB to take over the case, as it may have state security implications, but a former nemesis, Major Pribluda, insists it is a job for Renko. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes clear that the authorities do not want any inconvenient findings, especially any revelation that foreigners may be involved. Renko’s marriage is failing, and he becomes obsessed with Irina, a witness in the case. Renko’s determination to investigate thoroughly - along with his failure to toe the party line - are endangering his career. However, it is his life (and those of his closest colleagues, and Irina) that is in the greatest danger, as mysterious and conflicting forces conspire to thwart the investigation. These include a New York policeman (related to one of the victims), a powerful American businessman and the KGB. As always, Cruz Smith’s research is meticulous, the background convincing, and the characters fascinating in this well crafted novel.
    • 4/5
      Reading this novel reminds me how different the world is in some ways - I remember when the Soviet Union seemed an institution that would never go away - and yet how much the same things still are. Mr. Smith creates a sense of the foreign, at least for me, in a character that lives a life I can only sort of imagine. And the detective work is compelling.
    • 5/5
      Written in 1981, this book has had something of a cult status as one of the first popular entries in the international mystery/thriller genre. It is the first in the Arkady Renko series, the second being published much later, in 1988.Arkady Renko is a chief investigator in the Moscow militia, the police section of the MVD. As opposed to the KGB, which investigates cases related to security, the militia are usually concerned with domestic violence, drunkenness and the occasional murder. Moscow, under communist rule, is ostensibly one of he safest cities in the world, since crimes that don’ fit the socialist definition of acceptable are merely defined out of sight. But Renko’s job is usually fairly dull.Until 3 bodies, clearly homicides, are found in Gorky Park, a popular amusement center in Moscow’s heart. The KGB shows both an unusual interest and a complete lack of willingness to step in and investigate these murders, particularly odd since one of the victims is most likely a foreigner. Renko, who smells a rat, is determined to make a case that will force the KGB to take the case off his hands.The plot is excellent, building up in tension and with enough twists to keep the interest high. Set in 1977, Russian life under Brezhnev was not as bad as in the Stalinist era, but was still highly regimented and repressive; dissent was not allowed, although the mass murders and purges of the Stalinist era were gone. But rigid allegiance to the party line was necessary for any kind of decent life, and obligatory for career advancement. Smith ,as part of the story, shows what daily life for Muscovites was like—the hardships, the lack of decent consumer goods, the regimentation—and it is very well done.What is a very nice surprise is that 27 years later, the writing is still good—not dated, but taut and spare, portraying both the mood of the average Soviet citizen and the lives they were forced to lead and an excellent plot line. Even given the events over the past 3 decades, the story line does not seem outdated at all—merely a Russian police procedural set in a particular era, which I think is an achievement. His characters seem almost contemporary, and are well-drawn.Almost 30 years old, this is still a good read. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      “Gorky Park” by Martin Cruz Smith is an incredibly well written Soviet-Era, dour, hard-boiled detective novel with reams of insight into the human character and the pain of simple existence in a world of blight and misery. Even though at times Mr. Smith’s dogged hero, Arkady Renko, is easily reminiscent of a Camus’ Mersault than a gritty noir detective, Mr. Smith balances this with femme fatales, evil men, espionage, conspiracy and murder. On the other hand, the final few scenes in New York just didn’t work for me, and came across as drawn out and lacking.