Smith masterfully portrays the mirror image reality of Soviet society where Moscow Senior Homicide Detective Arkady Renko dwells.

As part of the MVD, his team investigates domestic crimes, while the infamous KGB is supposed to monitor foreign threats and crimes involving foreigners. Theoretically, that's how it should work. However, the reality is a complex web of overlapping government authorities with secret ad hoc alliances and inevitable deadly betrayals. Just like Tolkien's "one ring to rule them all," KGB interests dominate and penetrate all departments.

Arkady is acutely aware of this reality when he is forced to submit to KGB Major Pribluda's intrusive inspection of a grisly crime scene in Gorky Park. Three frozen, faceless bodies are accidentally discovered. The time of death is sometime that winter, the victims' identities are unknown, and the cause of death is execution-style gunshot wounds. The mutilations and public setting are unusual for a typical Moscow homicide. Both Arkady and his assistant, Detective Pasha Pavlovich, understand the delicacy of their situation. If they uncover evidence of KGB involvement, which they both strongly suspect, their lives will be in danger. Arkady is a rare breed in this society. He is not only highly competent but also conducts his investigations with tenacity regardless of the consequences. One such investigation, known as the Kliazma River Incident, recently put him on a collision course with the feared KGB official Major Pribluda. Arkady's position becomes even more precarious when his superior, Moscow Chief Prosecutor Andre Iamsky, declines to refer the case to the KGB and insists on updates of Arkady's progress.

Smith transforms the faceless corruption of the Soviet institutions into vivid personal encounters. The third member of his investigating team is a newbie, Detective Fet, a KGB informant. They work in close proximity to Chief Investigator of Special Cases Chuchin, a despised colleague. The "special cases" Chuchin works on are political dissidents targeted for criminal convictions through a network of shady informants. One of these informants, a man named Golodkin, seems to be involved in Arkady's case.

In this world, even making a simple phone call can be a problem. Arkady is cut off mid-conversation with the forensics chief, Lyudin. The explanation is ordinary. It's 4:20, and the switchboard operators are shutting down service in anticipation of their 5:00 quitting time. The black market thrives because thieves and fences are more active. For example, Forensics chief Lyudin will pad his requisitions list for the tests Arkady authorizes. The surplus will be sold on the black market. Arkady knows all of this. He is a pragmatist. Corruption is common, but competence is not, and Lyudin is an astute and thorough technician.

Smith brings a plethora of secondary characters to life. Mikhail Mikoyan and Arkady have been friends since childhood. Mikoyan is now a prosperous defense attorney, thanks to the customary under-the-table payments his clients make. He scolds Arkady for refusing to cultivate the "right" connections. Nevertheless, he exudes a joie de vivre that is charming. Arkady's father, the General, is repulsive to both the reader and Arkady. His nickname, "the Butcher of the Ukraine," is an appropriate summary.

Irina Ivanova, on the other hand, strikes a discordant note. She is a key to the investigation but refuses to cooperate. She knew all three victims, and a tape places her on the fringes of a crowd of aspiring internationalist party-goers centered around a prominent and well-connected American importer of Russian furs. Arkady falls in love with her. I simply couldn't understand this romantic obsession. In the film, much of her unpleasantness is toned down, and the relationship is built on an intense foundation of protectiveness. My husband had a useful suggestion. He interpreted Arkady's love as a projection of his feeling for Russia. A passage in the book supports this equivalence with "Mother Russia." Arkady is at Mikoyan's house, decorated with artwork and artifacts. "He looked at an ikon. It was of a Madonna, a Virgin. The Byzantine face, especially the eyes gazing back, reminded him not of Zoya, nor of Natasha, but of this girl he'd met at Mosfilm. 'To Irina.' He raised his glass." (p.59)

Unfortunately, I saw the film "Gorky Park" some time ago and only now got around to reading the book. Knowing the outcome in advance diminished much of the suspense for me. The movie had a tighter plot and excellent acting. The book excels in depicting an atmosphere of political paranoia and presenting the conflict between Arkady's personal integrity and the society that surrounds him. Smith has created in Arkady a memorable character who will appear in many later books that follow the contemporary transitions in Russian society.

**40th Anniversary Re-Read**

Review of the Simon & Schuster UK paperback edition (October 2021) of the original Random House hardcover Gorky Park (Arkady Renko, #1) by Martin Cruz Smith (February 1981)

[4.5 rounded up]

Gorky Park holds a special place in my reading history. It was one of the first novels I bought in hardcover when it was initially released in 1981, a somewhat luxurious purchase back then. Another such acquisition was Smiley's People (1979) by John le Carré. Both novels had a significant Soviet Union element and a nod to my heritage country of Estonia. In Smiley's People, General Vladimir's Estonian spy network was more prominent, while in Gorky Park, there was only a brief mention of "traitorous Estonians".

When I saw that a 40th Anniversary edition was available, with an Introduction by Lee Child and a Q&A Afterword interview with author Martin Cruz Smith, I was eager to re-read it. The paranoid and cynical portrayal of a detective operating in a totalitarian state was masterfully done. The atmosphere of the Soviet Union was well constructed, which we learn from the Afterword came through Smith's own experiences and research. He spent almost a decade writing the book while also having a career under various pseudonyms.

However, the weakest part of the book is arguably its ending. It feels artificial and forced in hindsight. Without going into spoiler details, the situation seems unlikely, especially with the FBI and KGB acting in cooperation. One wonders if the editors at the time insisted on a particular ending to create a mixed "happy ending". Still, overall, it was a strong suspense thriller and a worthy re-read. It launched Cruz Smith's career and inspired other "lone competent detective working within an authoritarian state" sub-genre series. The movie adaptation in 1983, directed by Michael Apted and starring William Hurt and Lee Marvin, also added to its popularity. The filming locations in Helsinki and Stockholm substituted for Moscow. A trailer for the film can be viewed on YouTube.

One of my all-time favorite noir novels is a story that I keep returning to. The first time I read this book, I mistakenly thought it was just typical American triumphalism over the Soviet Union. However, I was wrong. The USA is depicted as a place where it's a bit easier to breathe, but it's still dominated by the rich and powerful, just like the Soviet Union.

Arkady Renko, a prosecutor's investigator for homicide in Moscow in the late 1970s, is called to a murder scene in Gorky Park, Moscow's favorite place to briefly forget the world. There, three bodies with their faces cut off and fingertips sheared have been lying for several months. He desperately tries to get out of the case, suspecting that the victims were killed by the KGB, whose Major Pribluda is an enemy of Renko. But the case clings to him like a friend in need of a loan, and Renko is forced into intrigue and lies in order to either do his job or avoid it.

Suspicion falls on a visiting American businessman, a fur dealer, whose aura of money and power makes the drabness of Moscow seem even duller than it really is. But while this seems like the perfect excuse to pass the case over to the KGB, Renko is still stuck with it.

Gorky Park is a book about power, about the nature of those who have it and what they can do to those who don't. The details of everyday life in Moscow are fascinating, and the murder is gruesome enough to excite those who enjoy that sort of thing. However, these are ultimately secondary issues. Martin Cruz Smith's book is about what it's like to live in a world where the rich and powerful can get away with almost anything - and he's not just referring to the Soviet Union.

NB: For an essay that perfectly explains why I enjoy noir fiction, see Raymond Chandler's The Simple Art of Murder. Chandler describes a world where gangsters can rule nations and cities, where hotels and restaurants are owned by men who made their money from brothels, and where a screen star can be a mob informant. It's a world where a judge with a cellar full of bootleg liquor can send a man to jail for having a pint in his pocket, and where the mayor may condone murder as a means of making money. In this world, no one can walk down a dark street safely, and witnesses to a hold-up will quickly fade back into the crowd rather than testify. It's not a pleasant world, but it's the one we live in. Certain writers with tough minds and a cool spirit of detachment can make interesting and even amusing patterns out of it. In everything that can be called art, there is a quality of redemption. The detective in this kind of story must be a man of honor, a complete and common man yet an unusual one. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

The thing is, although this book has some flaws.

For instance, it goes on for too long, and there is a vast coincidence that Arkady's father holds one of the crucial clues. Also, we encounter yet another beaten-up middle-aged loner with whom a young beauty falls in love.

However, despite these drawbacks, this is still easily a 4-star book.

MCS expertly nails the atmosphere of snowy, repressive Moscow in the 1980s. At that time, history still looked back to Stalin, World War II, and the siege of Leningrad.

In the present day of the story, corruption is rampant, dissidents are persecuted, and the Cold War may still be lingering. But greed manages to make some surprising allies.

The discovery of three bodies in Gorky Park is just the beginning of a complex conspiracy that will lead Renko all the way to New York.

MCS writes beautifully, with a confidence and style that elevates this book well above the typical genre.

Moreover, the character of Arkady Renko has been created in such a way that he seems to personify the struggles of Russia.

The story is melancholy, exciting, and has a tremendous sense of time and place.

Overall, it leaves the readers eagerly anticipating volume 2.

Between watching the ‘80s era Soviet spies in FX’s The Americans, and tensions running high over Russian activity in the Ukraine, it almost seems like the Cold War never ended. In fact, due to a European consulting firm being brought into my workplace, I’m seeing Russians all over my building. One can only hope things don’t reach a point where I have to take to the hills and go all Red Dawn. Wolverines!!

With all this red scare stuff going on, it seemed like a great time to revisit this old favorite. It’s the early ‘80s and three bodies have been found under the snow in Moscow’s Gorky Park. Their fingertips have been removed and their faces peeled off to prevent identification. Militia chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko discovers an enemy of his from the KGB on the scene, showing an interest in the bodies. This can only mean trouble. As he reluctantly begins to investigate the murders and realizes that one of the bodies was an American, Renko wants nothing more than to dump the case on the KGB. He’s pretty sure they killed those people anyway. However, Renko soon finds himself embroiled in schemes that may mean he’s the only one who gets punished for trying to be a detective in a society that doesn’t want to admit that crime exists at all.

The hook here is that it’s a mystery set in the Soviet Union. Even though that era has come and gone, it’s still incredibly interesting to get this peek behind the old Iron Curtain. Martin Cruz Smith didn’t just give us a procedural of how Soviet cops worked. He also provided a view of an entire country living under a system where covering your own ass had become an art form and logic rarely entered into it. It’s kind of like working for a corporation, only a corporation can’t ship you off to Siberia if you rock the boat too much. (Or at least they can’t yet. I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas….)

Even though this has plenty of Soviet political intrigue and an international aspect to it, this doesn’t feel like a spy story. That’s mainly because of Arkady Renko. During this reread, I found myself comparing Renko to one of my favorite fictional detectives, Matt Scudder. They’re both pragmatic men who don’t see the point in fighting a system that’s inherently corrupt. But there’s a quiet streak of idealism in both that believes some crimes have to be answered for. Renko is stubborn, with a sly talent for screwing up the plans of powerful people. There’s a great worn down but not beaten element to the character.

Smith also had excellent timing when he created Renko. Through the next several decades, he could use his detective to give us mysteries that are also glimpses of what it’s been like for Russians through the fall of the Soviet Union and the aftermath today.

A captivating murder mystery unfolds, predominantly set in the bustling city of Moscow. The snow-covered ground in Gorky Park has yielded a grisly discovery - three bodies, frozen and devoid of faces. Arkady Renko, a dedicated member of the Moscow militia, embarks on a mission to solve this perplexing case. What he soon discovers is that this is no ordinary investigation. Renko finds himself深陷于 a complex and convoluted web of conspiracy, corruption, espionage, murder, and the smuggling of something [spoiler removed].

I am quite familiar with the 1983 film based on the novel. As a result, I already knew who the culprit was (and the reason behind it) before delving into the book. Nevertheless, the reading experience was still enjoyable. I was able to focus more intently on the characters and their motivations, rather than simply following the twists and turns of the actual story. There are also numerous differences, both minor and major, between the book and the movie, and an entirely new part that is absent from the film, which made the reading truly worthwhile. Will I read the other books in the Arkady Renko series? Most likely. He is an intriguing character, especially when compared to other Moscow police officers. [3½ stars]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

So this is a spy novel.

Sorta. It has elements of a spy story, with its setting during the Cold War and the various intrigues and secrets that are revealed.

So this is a love story.

Kinda, as long as you ignore the fact that the romance sub-plot feels a bit contrived and is totally more of a Hollywood type love plot. You know the kind they throw in because they think women like them, but the female lead really isn’t necessary at all. The romance seems forced and doesn't add much depth to the overall story.

It’s about the Cold War and Capitalism. The book delves into the political and economic tensions of that era, exploring the ideological differences between the two superpowers.

It’s a fun listen that’s for sure. Don’t let how long it took me to finish it influence you. Audio books always take me awhile (mostly because I leave them when I’m falling asleep). The narrator does a great job of bringing the story to life, making it an enjoyable experience.

Much better, much better, than the movie. The movie may have had its moments, but the book is able to capture the essence of the story and the characters in a more detailed and engaging way.

I have a deep affection for a detective who is messy and flawed, and Arkady is precisely that.

Arkady is not your typical, polished detective. His appearance might be disheveled, with a hint of chaos in his mannerisms. But it is precisely these imperfections that make him so endearing and unique.

He approaches cases with a different perspective, unhindered by the traditional rules and norms. His flawed nature allows him to think outside the box and come up with solutions that others might overlook.

Despite his messiness and flaws, Arkady has a sharp intellect and a keen eye for detail. He is able to piece together the most complex cases, following the tiniest of clues.

In conclusion, I love Arkady, the messy, flawed detective. His imperfections make him human, and his intelligence and determination make him a force to be reckoned with in the world of detective work.

The strength of this book lies in the fact that the author has so vividly captured the people and society of the Soviet Union during that era. It is this aspect that makes it a very good book, deserving more of a 3.5 rating than just 3 stars.

Arkady Renko, the hero of the book, is also a very compelling and intelligent character. He is not overly heroic or overly smart, which makes him feel more like a real investigator from those days.

This book is original and holds great importance in the genre of crime books. It offers a unique perspective on the Soviet Union during a particular time period and presents a captivating story with a believable protagonist.

Overall, it is a book that is well worth reading for those interested in crime fiction or in learning more about the Soviet Union.

This was a face-to-face book club pick.

After reading 116 pages, unfortunately, I found myself losing interest.

I'm certain that his second book is bound to be better.

However, I just can't seem to understand what it was that made this particular book so highly regarded.

Perhaps it's a matter of personal taste, or maybe there are elements within the story that I'm simply not grasping.

Nonetheless, I remain hopeful that the author's second offering will prove to be more engaging and captivating.

Maybe it will offer a fresh perspective or a more compelling narrative that will draw me in and keep me hooked from start to finish.

Only time will tell, but for now, I'll continue to search for that next great read that will reignite my passion for literature.

This book is truly outstanding.

It展现出了坚韧不拔的品质，让我不禁希望自己能多读一些这个系列的作品。

我一定要把它添加到我的Goodreads书架上。

每一页都充满了精彩的情节和深刻的人物刻画，让人沉浸其中，无法自拔。

作者的写作风格独特，文字流畅，使得整个故事更加引人入胜。

我强烈推荐这本书给所有喜欢阅读的人，相信你们一定会被它所吸引。

无论你是喜欢冒险、悬疑还是爱情故事，这本书都能满足你的需求。

不要犹豫，赶快把它加入你的阅读清单吧！

I rarely read mystery novels because for a lazy person who gives up thinking,

it's really a bit of a struggle to think about the causes and consequences.

However, this one is a rare detective novel set in the Soviet Union.

The reviews from all sides are very good, and there is also an e-book, so I bought it and read it.

The last book I read with a similar background was "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" in college,

but now I can't remember what it was about.

Originally, I just planned to put it aside and read it when I thought of it,

but when I checked the conversion effect and flipped through a few pages, I just started reading it!

Although I read it all day long, it took me a whole day to finish it.

The first part, Moscow, takes up about 70% of the space and describes the oppressive atmosphere under Soviet rule.

There is also the malfunctioning of the national ruling machine and the operation of various black zones, which is quite in place.

The detailed description of Moscow makes people wonder if this was really written by an American during the Cold War.

Or did I think too shallowly about the exchanges between the two major camps during the Cold War?

The second part, Shatura, also writes well about the friendship between the KGB major and the people's police captain protagonist.

It shows that the KGB officers are not completely inhumane, and even have a bit of a mutual appreciation with the protagonist.

The third part, New York, is not very well received. The transition is a bit生硬.

Is the sable really so important that the FBI and the KGB can mobilize to hunt down a person to the ends of the earth?

Especially for the Soviet Union, the sable fur accounted for such a high proportion of foreign exchange earnings that the KGB general also had to care about it.

I don't know if it's true?

The ending is not like the detection of a mystery novel as I thought (watching too much Conan? XD).

It's more like the climax at the end of a police action movie, but it ends in a very melancholy open ending.

The sables have all run away, the protagonist is still in New York, his lover is determined to stay in the United States, but he wants to return to Russia.

The protagonist's divorce from his ex-wife is actually not described much.

Instead, the relationship with the (dissident in the eyes of the Communist Youth League) college student who was expelled is written more deeply.

However, overall, the flaws do not overshadow the virtues. Reading this kind of book in the post-Cold War era has a novel feeling of disorientation in time and space.

I don't know if the second part will be translated into Chinese.

I really want to know how the protagonist finally returned to the Soviet Union.

I hope that Linking Publishing will continue to publish the subsequent volumes.

The style of this book translated by two people is a bit inconsistent.

In the previous chapter, it was said that Alma-Ata actually sounds similar to Alamar,

but in the next chapter, it is still translated as Alma-Ata.

Moreover, there are a few more typos, especially in the latter half of the book.