Polar Star - (Arkady Renko) by Martin Cruz Smith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

He made too many enemies. He lost his party membership. Once Moscow's top criminal investigator, Arkady Renko now toils in obscurity on a Russian factory ship working with American trawlers in the middle of the Bering Sea. But when an adventurous female crew member is picked up dead with the day's catch, Renko is ordered by his captain to investigate an accident that has all the marks of murder. Up against the celebrated Soviet bureaucracy once more, Renko must again become the obsessed, dedicated cop he was and solve a chilling mystery fraught with international complications.

Review Quotes

"Impossible to put down . . . a book of heart-stopping suspense and intricate plotting, but also a meticulously researched, ambitious literary work of great distinction."--The Detroit News

"Martin Cruz Smith writes the most inventive thrillers of anyone in the first rank of thriller writers."--The Washington Post Book World

"Gripping . . . absorbing."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Thrilling."--Associated Press

"Absolutely haunting."--Cosmopolitan

"Polar Star joins the still-narrow shelf of novels of crime that transcend the form and, in the name of entertainment, illuminate their time."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"In the full rush of the chase, Smith and Renko still seem irresistible."--Time

"Exciting . . . vital and believable . . . Arkady himself is a major creation, even more interesting than he was in Gorky Park. . . . The book is full of interesting information and alert and witty social and political observation."--The Boston Globe

"[Polar Star] is that very rare thing, a piece of literature that walks like a page-turner. . . . What really holds you in this book is the idea that you're almost experiencing what it's like to live over there."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Pungent with suspense and violence . . . In this sequel, we meet a more complete and complicated Renko with qualities of courage, fear, wit, self-doubt and intelligence. . . . Smith's prose can be graphic and primal."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"An old-fashioned mystery that relies on tight plotting, suspense, interesting cops and robbers, and uncertainty of the outcome. Polar Star is Martin Cruz Smith's best novel--and one of the best mysteries of the year."--Houston Post

"Arkady is what makes Polar Star work. He's a brilliant creation and, combined with Smith's talents as a scene setter and developer of characters, the novel emerges as every bit the triumph the fans of Gorky Park are sure to demand."--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"The characters are vivid, the setting is realistic, the plot is intelligent, the writing is lucid. There are ample helpings of intrigue, violence, suspense, passion and homespun Russian wisdom. Simply put, Polar Star is an undeniably entertaining adventure story."--San Jose Mercury News

"Smith has again exhibited a masterful hand in creating a follow-up to Gorky Park that never falters in its steadily increasing tension. Throughout the novel, he has a firm grip on his characters and plot. Here is a rare novel of suspense whose literary qualities are consistently upheld."--The Chattanooga Times

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