Tatiana: An Arkady Renko Novel (Arkady Renko Series Book 8)

Once again Martin Cruz Smith gives one a glimpse of what a fascist state look. Written before Russia’s imperialist war in Ukraine, his description of the corruption of the Putin gangster state gives some insight into what is happening in Russia today.

This is my eighth review of a Renko novel, and it goes without saying that it gets five stars. It's slimmer than we're used to, but I have to assume that's because of the author's illness. As far as I understand, he now writes everything through his wife's hands, which must be awkward and time-consuming.A Martin Cruz Smith novel is always based on solid research, and this one is no different, although you get the sense that MCS no longer does the same level of research as he used to. I'm sure by this point his wealth, fame and connections afford him the opportunity to simply go and poke around Kaliningrad (or wherever) as much as he likes, rather than launching an exhaustive research project. And it's too bad, because Tatiana lacks the same level of lived experience, the density of Russian life, that the earlier books had. I mean, you can quanitify it -- Gorky Park was 400w/page for 400 pages. Tatiana is barely 300w/page for 290 pages. That density contained some of the most beautiful writing MCS has every produced. Now, the books are more spare, closer to standard detective capers or mysteries.All that said, it's still head and shoulders above most detective books, but it's not GP or PS or RS or HB.Key element in this novel is a puzzle, one that Arkady can't decipher (for various reasons). If you're a keen Renkologist, you can probably figure out who *can* decipher it. Anyway, Renko leaves centre stage fairly often in this book, which is something MCS doesn't usually do.Well worth the time. On to the next one.Review by: Vincent Gardner, author of Crazy People - 13 tales of highly dubious social value.

Martin Cruz Smith introduced Chief Inspector of the Soviet Militsya, Arkady Renko, in the dark, brooding thriller, Gorky Park, way back in 1981. Renko was a textbook lesson in the long tradition of police procedurals, but more so for the use of forensic science in crime investigation - who can forget the scene with the professor, the maggots, and the human skull - long before CSI was a household acronym and a staple of television and novels.In 1983 a movie adaption of the Gorky Park hit theaters, with William Hurt playing Renko and a memorable and magnificent performance by Lee Marvin as a charming, chilling, predatory American businessman. I watched it again last year and it has held up better than most 80s movies. That's why it took me by surprise that I had missed the release of Tatiana by a year. I'm a longtime fan after all. I know Smith has sold a boatload of Renko novels, but reading him still feels a little like discovering a hidden artistic gem before the rest of the world discovers such a superb talent.Maybe it's just the math. Tatiana is the eighth Renko novel - the detective's fans get one about every four years. Contrast that to Lee Child's Jack Reacher franchise. There have been nineteen full-length novels in seventeen years - plus another seven short stories Child uploaded for eBook consumption. That is brand new Reacher material and mayhem every nine months on average since Reacher debuted in The Killing Floor in 1997. (Note to self as novelist: no more two year breaks between series titles.)But Smith can be forgiven because his novels flow easily, despite demanding the reader to follow the complex, nuanced, often bleak, and always quixotic story lines and psychological journey of Arkady Renko from the malignant pathology of the Soviet era in its final death throes, through the euphoric - but illusory - hope of perestroika and the collapse of a wall and evil empire, to the rise of unrestrained oligarchies, led by unrestrained billionaires with the full cooperation and assistance of the modern Russian nomenklatura, just as corrupt and pathological and malignant as its Soviet forerunner.Renko is the son of a Soviet General who was nicknamed "The Butcher." Renko's beautiful, gifted, sensitive mother opted out of life with the butcher when she committed suicide. But she left her child in the home to survive on his own, a child that would become a man with enough of his mother in him to prove a disappointment to his father at every turn of his tortured police career. How could a man with Renko's intelligence and connections so undermine himself - and his father's legacy - by becoming a detective, but not content with that, to relentlessly fight a system of corruption? How could he not understand something so simple and obvious as the Russian reality that some crimes are not meant to be solved?If you like your suspense thrillers wrapped up neatly in a box, with a bow and ribbon on top, Renko isn't for you. After all Arkady lives with a series of failed relationships - beginning with Irina, the love his life, introduced in Gorky Park - bosses and higher ranking officials that hate his meddlesome ways - his refusal to play by the rules - solved cases that change nothing, and a bullet lodged in his brain that could kill him at any moment. He's had his chances to escape his self-erected labyrinth, most easily through compromise, but even with offers to emigrate to the West - something his many enemies (and some friends) would welcome - but he persists. He is Russian. This is his life and he accepts it.Tatiana is a great read, offering a glimmer of hope that Arkady might finally experience happiness and hope in Tatiana - the book and the woman - but as is the case with all things Renko, life is never simple or easy - and anything else I might say would constitute a spoiler to readers. Oh, and there is that bullet still nestled precariously in his brain.Tatiana stands on its own - but I recommend you start at the beginning of the Arkady Renko series, Gorky Park.If Smith's history of literary output stays true to form, you'll have four years to catch up with the man who when told the KGB drive better cars than his, answered: "Ah, but they don't always take you where you want to go, do they?"

I love the atmosphere created by a Cruz Smith. I also feel good about being gently educated. I learned more about amber and a Russian enclave than I thought possible.

This was my second book by Martin Cruz Smith, and yet again his writing drew me into the story, not knowing what was around the corner. However the beginning does give clues about Tatiana which should have been further in the story. But its like most stories it has the what, why and where parts beautiful put together. I am now looking forward to reading more of his work and enjoying the story as it unfolds.

Bought this book by mistake. Didn't realise it was written in Spanish. However, I was able to pass it onto a neighbour who hailed from Spain who enjoyed it very much.

Although delivery and product very good condition, I couldn't listen to the story as language was so very bad right from the start.

Great read

A great book, wonderful to listen to when driving