∎ PDF Red Square Martin Cruz Smith 9780006472575 Books

Red Square Martin Cruz Smith 9780006472575 Books

Download As PDF : Red Square Martin Cruz Smith 9780006472575 Books

Red Square Martin Cruz Smith 9780006472575 Books

As a fan of all the Renko novels, I first read this book upon its initial publication. There is nothing quite like the combination of thrills, intrigue and geopolitics in these books, with a healthy dose of humor to boot. The characters are well-drawn and thoroughly believable, to the extent that I found myself rooting for minor characters to thrive (or survive, as the case may be). Len Deighton's Bernie Samson thrillers are the only similar multi-book triumphs that even come close. Start with Gorky Park and go on to Polar Star (my personal favorite) and then this book and you'll be very glad you did.


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Red Square Martin Cruz Smith 9780006472575 Books Reviews

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.
When a fiction book forces you to fact check a historical era, the author has succeeded imbuing reality into his work. Smith is a master at detailing the hopelessness of the failed Russian state in 1991, and the hopefulness of Germany after the fall of the Wall. The story is a thriller/mystery with intertwining story lines. Arkady Renko is like a man drowning in the absurd waters of the Soviet sea, but with a heart determined not to be pulled under. The powers that remain in Russia, government and criminal alike, hate Renko. Yet he survives to unravel the tangled skein of this story.

Smith uses all his considerable skills to draw Renko so real I expect to meet him on the street someday. The writing is almost poetic at times as Smith paints the vivid contrasts between Moscow and Berlin of 1991. I am reading my fourth Arkady Renko story as I write this; enough said.
Fast delivery. Super price for the hardcover. Intricate plot as always in these Renko novels... figuring out what all the characters are really up to is damn near impossible, but you "ride along" with Arkady trusting he will figure it out in due time as he dodges daggers. These are novels you'll return to and read again... just to test if your perceptive skills are gaining ground in life. Thus I keep them all in hard copy.
Not as good as Gorky Park, but then there isn't any book that can ever be. I like this one as much as Wolves Eat Dogs, if that helps.

Cruz Smith is an engaging writer; his Arkady Renko books set the right mood and tone. The descriptions and dialogue are just right, never overdone. The mysteries are typically not unraveled right away, or so easily. His greatest skill is letting you know everything Renko knows and making the book just as readable and just as much fun to read once you and he have figured it out.

Great condition hardcover, for a great price.
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.
As a fan of all the Renko novels, I first read this book upon its initial publication. There is nothing quite like the combination of thrills, intrigue and geopolitics in these books, with a healthy dose of humor to boot. The characters are well-drawn and thoroughly believable, to the extent that I found myself rooting for minor characters to thrive (or survive, as the case may be). Len Deighton's Bernie Samson thrillers are the only similar multi-book triumphs that even come close. Start with Gorky Park and go on to Polar Star (my personal favorite) and then this book and you'll be very glad you did.