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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another riveting Arkady Renko tale..., April 30, 2005
Red Square is the third Martin Cruz Smith mystery in the Arkady Renko series. After Polar Star, Renko finds himself back in Moscow and restored to his former position as an investigator. The Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse, and five or six different groups of Russian Mafia are vying for control in Moscow. One man, Rudy Rosen, is a tie to these many groups as he serves as a "banker" to them all. He also is an informer for Renko. When Rosen is brutally murdered, Renko has the difficult job of trying to find the killer.
Renko's search takes him from Moscow to Germany, where the possible suspects include gang members, the KGB, a Russian businessman and even a Russian prosecutor. There are many shady situations in Russia as communism begins its freefall, and the waters are definitely clouded. But Renko is extremely intelligent and also, very observant. Through hard work and perseverance, the waters start to clear for him.
Reading about this period of Russian history is always fascinating. It is also interesting to read how Radio Liberty (sponsored by Americans) broadcast out of Germany. This was the only way Russians could discover what was really happening in the USSR.
My only complaint about Red Square is that it seemed rather disjointed for the first one hundred pages or so. It was often difficult to keep characters straight and to follow the plot. But things really picked up halfway through, and the remainder of the book was riveting. I couldn't put it down.
So while I think Red Square fell just a little short of Gorky Park and Polar Star, it is still a fine effort by Cruz Smith.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Again, tops by Smith., March 11, 2001
The title is a play on words, and things have really changed in Arkady Renko's Moscow. He's an Investigator again; he has been rehabilitated. His concerns are the different mafias that rule the city's underground (and plenty of the above-ground) trade, and a radio program from Germany that connects him to his past. There are "bankers" in this new Moscow, and trade is in full swing. There are Audis, markets, chemical bombs, and charming Party-members who look like movie stars and get along with Americans because Americans love people who look and act like they do. The murder of a Jewish banker-informer takes Arkady and his partner to the outskirts of Moscow, to a collective farm that has not done much farming, to a Volvo ("a compact, well-made car" as Arkady thinks while looking for his partner) and to Stalin's villa. From there, right before the August putsch, Renko will go to Germany after the trail of the Russian mafia, after "Red Square," after the voice he listens to on the radio every night, alone in his apartment. Full of intrigue and with a great plot, "Red Square" is also the most romantic of the Arkady Renko novels. Again, where so many of the genre writers fail miserably, Smith soars: the love between Arkady and Irina is poignant, believable, adult, and a bit childlish at the same time; the dialogues are realistic; the description is never trite or tired, but vital and fresh. Once again, Smith proves that he is not only a good genre writer who can churn out a superior mystery novel, but a great writer, period. In Arkady Renko he has created a person, not just a character, and his prose flows with ease. In "Red Square" Smith mixes the reality of the August coup and the barricades with the story of Arkady and Irina, and the pursuit of the truth regarding the deaths of an informant, a policeman, an affable Trabant-lover, and the smuggling of art. A Russian in Germany, a poor man from a poor country in a rich country not known for its hospitality to others, the real victors and the real losers from World War II, all this is part of the intricate but rewarding story of "Red Square." Whatever else Martin Cruz Smith decided to do with his detective in the next novel ("Havana Bay," most of which I did not approve of), he created a very tough-to-follow act with his Renko trilogy: genre novels, detective stories, that are well-written and presented with respect to the reader. These are true rarities in the crowded, low-quality mystery shelf. "Red Square," like "Gorky Park" and "Polar Star" before, stands out as top writing by a top writer.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mystery and History By a Master of Mood and Suspense, April 14, 2002
Although Havana Bay has been out a few years now, its predecessor Red Square and the two previous Arkady Renko mysteries should never be forgotten. Martin Cruz Smith is a master of place and mood. He is absolutely convincing that he's personally been in the places he describes and has absorbed the atmospherics of the setting. With a background of deprivation and impending chaos, the predominant mood of this book is suspense. Arkady himself is never safe, even when working the murders at hand with his own staff. Every sentence contributes to the feeling that only one's mental alertness and puny physical skills stand between survival and disaster. It would be a serious understatement to refer to a "crime" in this book. As the Soviet Union dissolves and, with it, law and order, the spoils of the former Communist state are being gobbled up by the most nimble of the mafias. Among these, the most vicious are the Chechens, but every neighborhood of Moscow has spawned its own. Where is there not crime? As the story opens, Arkady has been reinstated as investigator in good standing in the Moscow police. Once he has launched a murder investigation in the normal course of his duties, however, he is forced to continue, not so much in the name of justice, of which there is very little hope, but to keep a step ahead of palpable threats to his own career and safety. With action taking place in Russia and Germany, Red Square will appeal to readers with a taste for spy fiction. Although this book is fiction, it describes Russia in the turmoil of USSR collapse as well as any piece of non-fiction could. Creating a new society in Russia will be one the great events of the early 21st century. Smith takes you there, to be present at the conception.
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