The second part was truly a surprise.

It wasn't present in the movie version, which made it all the more special for me.

This aspect of the book added an extra layer of depth and excitement.

It took the story in a direction that I didn't expect, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

The details and the way it was written made it one of the best parts of the entire book.

I found myself completely immersed in this section, and it made me appreciate the book even more.

It was a pleasant deviation from what I was used to seeing in the movie, and it allowed me to experience the story in a whole new way.

Overall, the second part of the book was a real gem and a memorable addition to the narrative.

In 1980, a Russian investigator was assigned to solve a crime. However, he was reluctant to take on the task as he suspected it had political implications and would rather pass it on to the KGB. But unfortunately, they left him to deal with it alone.

The mystery at hand was extremely complicated. The plot took numerous irrelevant turns, making it difficult to follow. Additionally, the romance element in the story seemed to make no sense. And yet, despite all these flaws, the story was perfect. It was not a typical mystery plot at all. Instead, it felt much more like a shamanic journey. The ending was particularly captivating, leaving a lasting impression on the reader. I found myself completely engrossed in the story and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

Overall, this was a unique and engaging read that defied expectations and offered a fresh perspective on the mystery genre. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something different and exciting.

Din recenzia de pe Blogul FanSF:

''Ce mi-a plăcut la Arkadi Reanko a fost modul cum a fost construit de autor. Acesta n-a încercat să-l facă un supraom cu o viață fericită, plin de bogăție și cu femei care-i cad la picioare din cauză că este cel mai strălucitor anchetator al Rusiei. Ba din contră, nevasta îl înșală și bagă divorț de el din cauză că el refuză întruna să devină corupt ca să-i poată asigura ei condiții mai bune de trai. Se îndrăgostește de un dușman al poporului care nici nu știu cum de scapă de gheara KGB-ului atât de mult timp. Ii șicanează pe cei din KGB, dar scapă mereu datorită protecției oferite de mentorul său, Nikitin, și de procurorul-șef, Iamskoi. Este mucalit, ironic, nu acordă o atenție prea mare discuțiilor care i se par lipsite de importanță. În schimb, se dovedește a fi un copoi cu nas extrem de fin, care merge până în pânzele albe pentru a-și rezolva cazul, în ciuda tuturor avertismentelor pe care le primește pe parcurs''.

Mai multe, aici: http://wp.me/pz4D9-2mc.

3.75 Stars - Gorky Park is an action-packed thriller that reads smoothly and takes the reader on a thrilling journey filled with plenty of twists and turns. The fact that it was written during the height of the Cold War adds an extra layer of urgency and tension to the story.

What makes this book truly stand out is the author's unique writing style. It creates a sense of mystery and intrigue that keeps the reader hooked from start to finish. The protagonist is well-developed, but there is still a sense that there is more to discover about them. I always had the feeling that there was something lurking in the shadows, something foreboding and dangerous.

Overall, Gorky Park is a strong work of fiction that can easily be devoured in one or two sittings. It's a great choice for anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller, and it's sure to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Arkady intently studied the agent. This was a truly unique kind of man that he had never come across before. The face appeared human enough - the brows furrowed, the lids blinked, and the lips moved in a seemingly appropriate manner - but Arkady couldn't help but suspect that within the skull, on the cortex of the brain, there lay a uniform pattern of spirals.

Arkady simply shrugged and then drank the whiskey in one swift swallow. "Why is the glass so small?" he inquired.

"It's a form of torture designed by priests," Kirwill responded.

This was an outstanding read. It took me far longer to complete it, solely due to my extensive traveling through Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it to anyone seeking an engaging and thought-provoking story. The characters are vividly drawn, and the plot keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It's a must-read for all fans of mystery and adventure.

I was truly looking forward to this book. I had loved "Child 44" and had high expectations that "Gorky Park" would be an excellent read.

However, I was extremely disappointed with this novel. The plot seemed rather uninteresting and lacked depth. The characters also appeared to be very flat, without much development or complexity.

The story just seemed to plod along at a slow pace, without any real excitement or tension. It failed to capture my attention and keep me engaged throughout.

I had hoped for a thrilling and captivating mystery, but unfortunately, "Gorky Park" did not live up to my expectations. It was a letdown compared to "Child 44" and left me feeling rather dissatisfied.

This is a highly enjoyable crime thriller that takes readers on an exciting journey.

The engaging main character, Arkady Renko, is set against the unusual backdrop of pre-fall of the Berlin Wall Moscow. The story is filled with shadowy KGB complications, equally shadowy Americans of various kinds, and Russian dissidents. All of these elements combine to create a twisty-turny adventure for Arkady as he investigates a triple-murder in Gorky Park.

There is romance, action, and some gritty "dialogue confrontation" scenes with other main characters. However, there is a mild spoiler. The fact that you find out who did it fairly early on means that the focus shifts to why and also if/how they will be caught. This ended up being somewhat drawn-out/overlong and a bit formulaic/unsatisfying.

These are only minor criticisms though. Overall, this would have been a five-star read if I had been reading crime fiction back in 1981. It's a great book that offers a unique and exciting look at a different time and place.

This novel was originally published in 1981, almost 36 years ago.

I believe that I once attempted to read the book, perhaps shortly after its publication, but I didn't finish it. I truly wish I had read it then. Reading it today, I find it is a bit dated.

The author indeed demonstrated talent in describing scenes in the story. Whether it's in Moscow, a Russian dacha, or a dingy New York hotel room, you could vividly visualize it and feel as if you were right there. However, what I found hard to believe was the level of corruption and conspiracy. Basically, it seemed like everyone was involved.

Arkady Renko, a chief homicide investigator, is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow. Their faces and fingertips have been cut off. It's a cold case, and no pun is intended. The victims had been buried in the snow and only revealed when the snow started to melt. Renko is smart and sensitive, but he is also a victim. His wife doesn't love him and is having an affair, and his superiors use him. Life in the Soviet Union is like an insane asylum. In the Soviet Union, dissidents are labeled as mentally ill and forcibly treated with psychotropic drugs. Renko exposes corruption and dishonesty wherever he finds it, including among influential and well-protected members of the elite, regardless of the consequences. The consequence is that he finds himself described by a KGB agent as mentally ill.

"You have unreal expectations… You overestimate your personal powers. You feel isolated from society. You swing from excitement to sadness. You mistrust the people who most want to help you. You resent authority even when you represent it. You think you are the exception to every rule. You underestimate the collective intelligence. What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right."

I had a difficult time deciding how many stars to give this book. At times, I found myself engaged in it and the story. But other times, it seemed to drag, and I just wanted it to end so I could move on to the next book. Maybe in 1981, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, I would have been more deeply into the book. Today, though, it just felt outdated. In my humble opinion.

Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park (1981) kicks off a series set in the Soviet Union, starring Arkady Renko, a homicide investigator with the Moscow city police. This is an extraordinary work as it offers readers a distinct look into the challenges a detective faces in a police state.

For instance, and this makes for a remarkable departure from the typical policier, Renko initially attempts not to solve his case. Instead, he aims to find evidence of foreign involvement or some sort of conspiracy that would enable him to pass the whole troublesome matter onto the KGB. The vodka-fueled beatings he usually deals with are straightforward, but these three frozen corpses in Gorky Park – two men and one woman, shot dead with their faces and fingertips removed to prevent identification – are an entirely different story. This is certain to attract the attention of his superiors, and that kind of attention is precisely what Arkady Renko does not want.

One of the highlights of Smith’s book is his portrayal of the Soviet bureaucracy: suspicious, hypocritical, deceptive, and self-deceptive, filled with outdated beliefs and worn-out traditions, always ready to betray the loyal and the naive for the sake of “the institution.” Now, what exactly did Smith’s description of this society bring to my mind? The Republican Party? The Roman Catholic Church? Well, yes, those too, but they weren’t precisely the institutions I had in mind. And then it dawned on me: Smith’s Soviet Union reminded me of John le Carre’s “The Circus,” his fictionalized depiction of British Intelligence in the post-WWII world.

In 1979, John Le Carre completed the final volume of his highly regarded “Karla Trilogy” (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People), in which he details the culture of the British Spy Network. (And quite a bit about the Soviet Union as well) Two years later, Gorky Park was published.

Le Carre, a genius writer, transforms his cynical view of the “circus” of spies into a metaphor for an even greater deception: humanity itself. Martin Cruz Smith, while not a genius, is a proficient thriller writer who knows how to learn from a master. In Gorky Park, he has presented us with an excellent mystery that, although not an indictment of humanity, is also a memorable portrayal of the Soviet Union in decline.

Anyone not giving this the highest rating should perhaps read it again.

Back in 1979, when I was an undergrad economics student at Indiana University in Bloomington, one of my professors had just returned from a trip to the USSR. He couldn't stop ranting about how the USA had nothing to fear from that third world "shit hole" where people queued up for toilet paper. I blame the American military industrial complex for promoting this lie about the Soviet threat.

I read "Gorky Park" by Martin Cruz Smith when it first came out and loved it. Now, as part of my new fitness program, I'm doing a lot of brisk walking as my doctor said it would balance out my crazy amount of cycling. I hate walking and running, but if I have to, I want to make it count. So, on my walks, I've been listening to audiobooks. Unfortunately, I haven't found much in French and Spanish to improve my language skills, but I have plenty of English books. I've been listening to "Gorky Park" on my recent walks, and I have to admit that I didn't fully appreciate this book the first time around. The author's writing skill is evident in every paragraph.

I don't think the author had visited the Soviet Union before writing the novel, yet he seems to have completely captured the communist mentality. Maybe he served in the American military, where this extreme form of sycophantic careerism is the norm. The Soviet anti-hero in the book, Arkady Renko, is a police investigator who is almost reluctantly drawn into a murder investigation. He has no use for the communist party or its perks and promotions for the elite. Arkady hates the system, yet ironically, he is the best communist in the story, right down to the crappy Soviet cigarettes he smokes. The story in "Gorky Park" takes a backseat to the descriptions of Soviet life and the characters. But that doesn't mean the story is lacking; it's just that the protagonist steals the show in almost every passage.

There are countless memorable scenes in the book, and one of my favorites is when Arkady visits a friend who has just bought a new Soviet-made washing machine that he waited ten months for. "Very highly rated," his friend tells him, to which Arkady replies, "And not in the least bourgeois." Arkady is definitely not bourgeois, not in the least, and he continues to be unimpressed by the washer.

Misha had stuffed four underpants into the spin dryer. At that rate, Arkady estimated, moving laundry from the agitator tub to the spin dryer and on to the communal clothesline, a week's wash could be done in... a week.

The machine is a total piece of junk, and as he is showing Arkady how it works, it goes berserk and is on the verge of exploding before Arkady has the sense to pull the plug.

'A little problem, love,' Misha said. 'The washer isn't quite working.' 'That's all right. We can still show it to people.' She seemed genuinely content.

Don't ask me why - it's a long story - but on Sunday morning, I speed-read a chick lit novel called "Something Borrowed" that was apparently a bestseller and is now a movie. This book is hands down one of the worst pieces of crap I have ever read. I challenge anyone to find one paragraph that shows any writing skill, let alone a decent plot. The entire book reads like a run-on sentence written by a spoiled suburban teenager, which is probably not far from the truth. "Gorky Park" is probably classified as a thriller by librarians, but it completely transcends the genre. It was popular and, like the ridiculous chick lit novel, was made into a film, but the difference in artistic merit between these two books is staggering.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

A triple murder occurs, and Arkady Renko, the son of a Soviet Hero, is assigned to the case.

He attempts to hand it over to his KGB colleagues, but they show little interest.

Renko must solve the case, especially since one of the victims is an American, which usually gives the KGB reason to interfere.

So, he has to not only solve the case but also save his marriage and protect his own life from the wrath of the Soviet State.

This is an old thriller set in the dark days of the Iron Curtain and the great Soviet Union.

Our hero, Renko, is Russian but not a loyal party member.

It doesn't matter if he solves the case as he gradually discovers that he was never meant to because some Party members have other plans.

Arkady Renko, the chief investigator for the Moscow militia, is like a one-man Don Quichote, seeking justice for the three dead people in Gorky Park.

The victims, two men and a woman, were shot and had their faces and fingertips cut off to prevent identification.

His story takes place in a Russia that is at least as corrupt as anything the West has to offer.

This beautifully written tale in Communist Russia shows how the wheels of justice slowly grind its citizens into the ground.

Arkady Renko is a wonderful character who feels like a real person in the pages of Cruz Smith's novel.

At the original release, I read the book as it gave a face to the world behind the Iron Curtain.

Now, many years later, the thriller stands out as an original and very good one.

For the reader who enjoys an adult thriller set in a darker time, you'll find yourself wondering what has changed from the Soviet Union to Putin's Russia.

If only there were Russian men like Arkady Renko! What a hero he is!

Martin Cruz Smith, although creating an incredibly wonderful Russian man in Arkady Renko, truly grasps certain aspects of Soviet Russia. Just thinking about it makes me feel nostalgic.

Are you about to take a plane ride? If you haven't read this book yet - go right now! Buy it! I guarantee that you won't regret it.

This character of Arkady Renko is so captivating and the story set in Soviet Russia is full of details and atmosphere that draw you in.

Smith's writing is masterful in bringing this world to life, making you feel as if you are right there experiencing it all.

Don't miss out on this amazing literary experience. Get your hands on the book and embark on a journey through Soviet Russia with Arkady Renko.

It's a read that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.