Red Square: A Novel (Arkady Renko)

This 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 there’s a restaurant beyond a hedge, for instance, when he hears “the chatter of cutlery” from the other side. As for plotting, yes, there’s 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.

“Red Square” by Martin Cruz Smith is one of Smith’s Arkady Renko series. It is a police investigator story set in Moscow, Munich and Berlin during the final days of the crack-up of the former Soviet Union in the summer of 1991. There’s lots of killing, blowing people up, car wrecks, chases, stabbings and other murderous mayhem, all of which surrounds a kind of ridiculous love story between Arkady and Irina (and Max). There are the usual number of near-misses, serious injuries and hand-wringing intrigue, including double-cross episodes and lots of strange names to work your memory muscles over. There’s plenty of ethnic racism toward just about everyone but especially at Chechens, overt negativity about life in Russia, jealous contrasts between East and West, and overall a grand abundance of way too many pages in a story that should have ended long before it did. It’s too long with too many twists and turns, too many miraculous escapes and too many characters. The in-depth look at the differences between Americanized Western Europe and the disastrous results of 50 years of Communism in the East are stark and for the most part realistic. There is no humor as well there might not be in a story such as this. In sum, it was a very American story. Nonetheless, I liked the writing, I liked Arkady and his dilemmas, and I admired the intricate scenarios and the extensive travelogue-style visits to the 3 cities. As police detective stories go, this one is quite good. And yet, I could not help but compare author Smith to the Norwegian great contemporary writer, Jo Nesbo, who writes about similar people in Norway and has his own series of detective stories (the Harry Hole series). Smith is no Nesbo. However, I will try another by Smith. One learns, interestingly enough, about art and art history, as well as life in pre-Putin Russia. The words “Red Square,” it seems, stand for much more than the well-known plaza in front of the Kremlin. All-in-all I give it a 4.4, rounded down to an Amazon 4. It was entertaining, if a bit gruesome and at times just silly.

I have been a bit under the weather this summer and so I have done a lot of reading. I read Gorky Park years ago and enjoyed it as well as the film adaptation. Since this is a series, I thought I'd better read the Arkady Renko books in order. I must admit I was a little let down by Polar Star, and it certainly didn't prepare me for Red Square. This is an astonishing suspense novel. I hate to say, but it is surprisingly good. The locales are so well rendered, I really got a sense of Moscow, Munich and Berlin. The characters are fleshed out and the dialogue worthy of an Eastern bloc Elmore Leonard. There is a grimness to the story, the crimes and the places, but it is tempered by the black humor and ultimate likability of Arkady Renko. Martin Cruz Smith is a gifted writer and never so confident as with this book. The pacing is breakneck. I didn't want to put this one down... and I didn't want it to end. If that tattooed girl in Sweden leaves you cold (like that series left me), read this book. If you like hardboiled crime fiction, read this book. If you like simply good writing, read this book.

I’m just floored by Martin Cruz Smith. I was stunned when I read Gorky Park. Smith’s ability to describe and use the nuanced, personal aspects of Russian life: the way the daily stresses of the opaque official double-life affect actions and lives – it was amazing, not to mention the intricate plot, the sharp writing, the great characters, the tension, etc. Smith is a master. I still hold that Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is the greatest spy/mystery/thriller/detective novel ever, but I place Gorky Park right after it – ahead of any of P. D. James’ novels. And now I’ve read Red Square. And it’s almost as good as Gorky Park. How did Smith manage any of this? The level of research and imagination just floors me. The highly specific descriptions of very isolated locales, of inner offices, of dachas, of old barns, crummy apartments, neighborhoods, black markets, vehicles – it’s just drenched with authentic Russian ambiance. Millions of details – how did he do it? Le Carré had far more access than Smith to the places he wrote about, but he never managed to hit this level of highly specific, intimate detail. I will read all of Smith’s books. He’s very close to the best. Of course, the ending gets a bit hairy, and one or two bits hit about a seven on the old unbelievability index. Smith really doesn’t need to push it that far. It ever-so-slightly cheapens the book. But this is a quibble. Other writers should beg to have their books cheapened up to Smith’s level. Five stars.

Red Square is a brilliant crime thriller with plenty of exciting, page turning action scenes. The story is set in the days leading up to the attempted coup d'etat in the Soviet Union in August 1991; a period of political and economic change and social unrest. The plot opens with the gruesome murder of Rudy Rosen, a banker to a number of Russian Mafia gangsters operating in Moscow ... and one of Inspector Arkady Renko's informers. Now I should mention that there are a few gruesome murder scenes in this story so if you are at all squeamish, you may want to skip over a few paragraphs from time to time as the descriptions of the murders leave little to the imagination. The plot becomes increasingly complex as Renko's investigation into Rudy's murder unfolds. In addition, while the story starts a little slowly, the pace of the novel picks up dramatically once Renko's investigation takes him to Munich and Berlin and back to Moscow for its very dramatic conclusion. I particularly liked two other aspects of this novel; it's characterisation and the atmospheric descriptions that give it its credibility. Many of the characters in this novel are incredibly lifelike and you can easily imagine them as real, if somewhat unpleasant, individuals. The dialogue is also very realistic. However, it is the emotional aspects of Renko's character that shine through in this novel with his unresolved conflicts concerning his famous father and his undying love for Irina, a woman he had helped escape from Russia to the West and who now reappears in his life. One minor aspect of this story I found a little less credible though is Renko's seemingly superhuman powers of recovery from some life-threatening injuries he acquires in the course of his investigations. The settings are very atmospheric, particularly when portraying the differences between living standards in Germany and Russia at that time. Overall, I found this a terrific thriller but would definitely recommend that if you are not aware of the social and political situation in the Soviet Union around this time, you may want to familiarise yourself of them via a search on Wikipedia or Google to fully understand the final scenes for this story.

The weakest of the Renko novels.

Well written, really gives the reader a sense of place and time. I especially like the character of Arkady Renko, the russian investigator from Moscow. It leaves you with a feeling that you have actually visited the places the character visits in pusuit of his enquiries, during the cold war era. It reminds me of Philip Kerr's german investigator from Berlin, Bernie Gunther, they both have had hard, tough lives but manage to retain some empathy for their decent fellow men. Good plot and keeps the interest and intrigue going until the end.

story a bit drawn out, slow moving