Customer Reviews

Stalin's Ghost (Arkady Renko)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For more than a quarter of the century, Martin Cruz Smith has made his readers experts on Renkology. In fact, Arkady must be the most loved Russian made of ink. At least, he is for me. So I am willing to forget a couple of flaws in the last two novels. In fact I could forgive any flaws. I would still enjoy a Renko novel even if Arkady recited Moscow's phone book for 300 pages. So, here are a couple of thoughts on Stalin's Ghost.

FOR RENKO LOVERS : You will find all Smith's trademarked nihilistic, ironic and laconic gems of dialogue that have been keeping you awake at 3 am and unproductive at the office the next day. You will find the excellent supporting Russians, Chechens, chess grand masters, devoted detectives, all orbiting Renko. They are all unique, they all speak wise and they never ever seem ersatz. You will also read some poigniant chapters about Arkady as a child. And you will discover that Arkady can even waltz.
However an Arkady novel every year is different from an Arkady novel every 5 years. Don't expect the complicated plots of Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square and Havana that secure second, third and nth readings. This Arkady looks more like a mini series. Think of an analogy. If Godfather I and II were adopted into a TV series (with the director and all of the original casting) it would still be great but it wouldn't be... the same.
I don't want to ask the writer to wait for 5 years until he delivers the book that even Pribluda would canonize. I am very happy with one Renko every year, adding to his belly scars from Gorky Park and his butchered back from Red Square a strangulation and a shot in the head. Long live Arkady. 3 ½ stars.

FOR RENKO BEGINNERS : Start chronologically. First read Gorky Park. Then re-read it. Then take ten days off and read the other 5 novels. As you read, keep reminding yourselves that you are the luckiest people of all since, what you will be enjoying in 10 days, took some others 25 years.

FOR RENKO HATERS : There are no Renko haters in our universe. Only in his.

He hates him much that would upon the rack of this tough world
stretch him out longer." King Lear, Act IV, Scene 3.

I have read and very much enjoyed Martin Cruz Smith's previous Arkady Renko novels. Renko's erratic career path as a police inspector has seen him survive, barely, the apparatchiks of the Soviet regime in "Gorky Park". He survived the USSR's imminent demise in "Polar Star" and the emergence of bloody cowboy capitalism, Russian-style in "Red Square". In "Wolves Eat Dogs" Renko operated in a Russia dominated by an elite group of billionaire oligarchs who fed like vultures, even upon the radioactive ruins in the Ukraine and Belarus created by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. Now, in Smith's new novel "Stalin's Ghost", Renko lives in a Russia in which the dislocations caused by the last twenty-five years have left many Russians feeling nostalgic for the security and certainty they felt under Stalin. Stalin's ghost may or may not be vexed by being placed upon the rack of this tough, brave new world that is Russia but his presence is most certainly still felt.

An article in "Foreign Affairs" magazine in January 2006 contained a poll by a Russian polling organization indicating that as late as 20003, 20% of Russians would vote for Stalin if he were to return to life and run for President. The sentiment forms the thematic undercurrent for Renko's latest investigations. Renko is ordered to investigate the alleged appearance of the ghost of Stalin at a Moscow underground (subway) station. This appearance, real, imagined, or fraudulent seems connected to the Senate campaign of one Nikolai Isakov. Isakov is a former member of the Russian army's elite "Black Berets" and a `hero' of the last Russian campaign against Chechnya. Isakov is the candidate of an ultra-nationalist ticket who urges a return to the greatness enjoyed by the USSR in its glory days and is quick to invoke the name of Stalin in support of that campaign. Renko's investigation is complicated for a number of reasons. Isakov happens to be a police investigator who has also managed to win the affections of Renko's love interest, Eva, who during the course of the novel leaves Renko for Isakov. During his investigation into the ghost, Renko also comes across a series of murders which may or may not be connected to Isakov's alleged heroic acts in Chechnya.

These three plot lines: the investigation into Stalin's ghost; the personal dynamic amongst Renko, Isakov, and Eva; and the murders of Isakov's Black Beret colleagues gradually converge until they meet in a nicely dramatic conclusion.

"Stalin's Ghost" is a welcome addition to the Arkady Renko series. Smith's plotting and writing is first-rate. I think Smith has shown over the years that he has developed not only a real feeling and affection for his creation, Renko, but also for Renko's homeland, Russia. It would be very easy for a western writer to dip into stereotypes about the old USSR and the new Russia but Smith writes without disdain in my opinion and that is always a plus. He doesn't paint a rosy picture but, grim as it is, Smith is not condescensing about Russia or its people. Smith is also a realist. We don't get happily ever after endings for Renko but the endings Smith creates are, nevertheless, very satisfactory.

If I had to point a critical finger anywhere, I would suggest that in "Stalin's Ghost", Renko's ability to survive countless attempts to put him in an early grave, once verging on the miraculous seems to be a bit more of a stretch than I've seen in previous Renko novels. Basically, Smith came close, in my opinion, to losing some of that practical grounding that marked his earlier Renko efforts. Ultimately, that is a relatively minor quibble as Smith did not go `over the top' to the point where it detracted from the plot. This is particularly true for someone like me, who has developed quite an attachment to this fictional character over the years.

"Stalin's Ghost" is an excellent piece of fiction that transcends any categorization of it as a piece of genre writing. I think any reader should enjoy Smith's latest saga in the life and times of Investigator Renko. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig (4.5 stars o/o 5).

I've read four of the five previous books in the Arkady Renko series, and while some are more successful than others as thrillers, each takes the reader into an interesting part of Soviet/Russian modern history. So it was only a matter of time before Chechnya appeared as part of a Renko plotline. In this sixth installment, the increasingly creaky Renko doesn't actually go to Chechnya, but the breakaway republic looms in the shadows at the heart of the book. Instead, the story stays mostly in Moscow, with a trip to Tver (a nondescript small city about 150km NW of Moscow).

The story begins with Renko and his partner Victor investigating a murder-for-hire scheme that may involve two fellow detectives, Isakov and Urman. These two served in OMON (aka the Black Berets, a militia special forces outfit perhaps best known in the West for their ineptitude in the Beslan hostage crisis) in Chechnya, and are certified war heroes. At the same time, Renko is told to look into alleged sightings of Stalin on a metro platform. These plotlines dovetail, as Renko quickly discovers the Stalin sightings to be a stunt organized by two American political consultants working for the fringe ultranationalist party Isakov is running as candidate for. A third thread involves the deaths of several of the men who served under Isakov in Chechnya. A fourth plotline involves Renko's relationship with the Ukrainian doctor Eva (from the previous book in the series), who also happens to have a history with Isakov from Chechnya. A fifth plotline involves the chess prodigy street kid whom Renko is semi-foster parent to.

All of becomes a bit much, as the plotlines interweave to the point of excess. As always, Renko doggedly pursues the truth against the orders of his superiors, and even against his own best interests. He appears especially detached in this outing, and there's a good deal of backstory given about his relationship with his father, who was a favorite of Stalin. It's certainly not a bad book, but it lacks the focus and deep texture of some the previous in the series.

"Hit me", said a parrot.
That was after young Zhenya unnecessarily let old Platonov win the blitz chess match.
In the somewhat surreal ambiente of modern day Moscow our good old friend Arkady Renko goes out searching for enemies again. He is so good at it.
Martin Cruz Smith rises to great form with this 6th volume in the Renko saga. I liked them all, maybe the previous one about Chernobyl a bit less, maybe the one in Cuba a bit less, but this ghost story is as good as Gorky Park. With Renko you don't always really know what case he is working at and what he wants to prove and what he intends to do. You find out in the process and somehow MCS gets away with keeping you in the dark.
Most other crime authors I would not let do this, somehow this one knows how.
You better have a rough idea about soviet history and about post-soviet Russian history, otherwise this plot will be lost on you. The plot is about Chechnya and Russian politics in modern times, resp. the violent consequences of the same. And not to forget Arkady's tormented private life. An honorable man with high ethical standards, but not always a very wise man and not always his own friend.
High suspense level. High language level.

Stalin's Ghost is a real page turner. I could hardly put it down when my eyes grew heavy at 2 a.m. No one writes about Russia like Martin Cruz Smith, and in Stalin's Ghost you will see past, present, and future of that volatile country combined in a marvelously powerful way.

Arkady Renko is back in Moscow, but his life is at a low ebb. Renko's relationship with Eva (whom he met in Wolves Eat Dogs) is being destroyed as she's drawn into living with Detective Nikolai Isakov. Zhenya, Renko's surrogate son, has stopped coming home, and Renko can't find him. Prosecutor Zurin wants nothing to do with Renko: He has a terrible habit of investigating too much!

Matters take an unexpected turn, however, when Victor accidentally picks up a phone call at the police station from a woman who wants to hire a hit on her husband. Could it be that the police are committing crimes and then covering their tracks through a cursory investigation? Soon, Arkady and Victor are meeting with the prospective client and getting the job.

Out of nowhere, Zurin decides that Renko should take over the politically sensitive investigation of reported sightings of Josef Stalin in a subway station where he used to come during World War II air raids. On the way to the station, Renko stumbles on a building crew that finds a mass grave under Supreme Court. Where are all the bodies buried?

Renko is surprised to find that his sexual rival, Isakov, is also involved in investigating the Stalin sighting . . . but seems to be doing a poor job of it. Following up with Isakov, Renko also finds that other investigations are going peculiarly. What's the agenda here?

Gradually, we learn that Isakov is in a parliamentary race based on his reputation as a Russian hero during the second war in Chechnya. Naturally, Renko can't let it go at that and pursues the truth . . . no matter where it leads. In the process, he learns some important truths about Eva, Zhenya, Isakov, and Stalin. All roads lead backward in time to reveal those truths. Renko will be in mortal danger from remorseless killers throughout the story. You'll be haunted by his experience, I'm sure.

The book is filled with wonderfully evocative metaphors for Renko's investigative work, usually presented in terms of digging up the past in some physical form or by digging through one's mind to employ old knowledge to solve current problems. The book literally drips in bloody looks into the dark infamy of Stalin and those who served him, including Renko's father. You'll get the idea that Stalin wasn't an exception in the Russian character, but rather an extreme expression of the desire to hold power and gain advantage at any cost.

I found it hard to imagine how this book could have been plotted or developed any better. It's a remarkable thriller built around the imagery of a tiny light of goodness against the pervasive darkness of evil.

Readers should be aware that some of the characters in STALIN'S GHOST are transplants from WOLVES EAT DOGS, Smith's last Renko vehicle. I read it, and it still took me a while to figure out who they were.

The novel is about right-wing patriotism, the idea that Russia would be better off if they reverted to Stalinistic leadership. Some American political advisers are doing their level best to sell their candidate, Nikolai Isakov, a former Black Beret and hero of the war in Chechnya, as a strong Stalinistic leader.

These political machinations involve subway denizens who report seeing Stalin's ghost. The Moscow prosecutor assigns Renko to investigate the sightings, mostly to get him out of his hair. Meanwhile, Renko's lover, Eva, who knew Isakov in Chechnya, seems to have left him for the charismatic Black Beret. His ward, the chess-playing Zhenya, is also missing.

Zhenya is an interesting character. In some ways he's your typical teenager, more interested in a reported Loch Ness type monster than he is in Renko's cases; at other times he's a chess genius who has a Grand Master on the ropes until his long-lost father intrudes. Renko is able to track Zhenya through Grand Master Platonov, who runs a sort of chess school. Platonov adds some comic relief to an otherwise brutal story. He's given some of the best dialogue in the novel. Renko's drunken partner, Victor, also adds humor at times. Believe me, you'll need it as there is a riveting scene where Renko is almost strangled and another where he is shot in the head.

History is also a character in STALIN'S GHOST. Isakov and his American advisers try to use the fields of Tver outside Moscow, where over a million soldiers fought, to push their candidate over the top. This was supposedly the place where thousands of Russian soldiers were executed by the Germans. Red Diggers and Black diggers comb the fields for artifacts. The Red Diggers are patriots. The Black Diggers sell the artifacts on the Internet. Meanwhile, Renko is suspicious of Isakov's involvement in another atrocity, the execution of fourteen Chechnyan rebels, which has been portrayed as a heroic stand by the Black Berets. But now some of Isakov's Black Beret compatriots are turning up dead.

All in all, STALIN'S GHOST is a step up from WOLVES EAT DOGS, which was set in Chernobyl. Renko always seems to be more interesting when he's on his home ground in Moscow.

Having read the Arkady Renko series, I have to say, that Stalin's Ghost was not my favorite. It wasn't bad, but for me not the best. Arkady is again back in Moscow, delving into a case that isn't his own, against the advice of his partner, love interest and boss. What happens is a trail that continually leads back to two detectives Isakov and Urman. Is Arkady interested because he wants justice or because his girlfriend is cheating on him with Isakov? This story cleverly interweaves WWII Russian history, which I thought was the best part of the story. The scenes in which Arkady remembers his father and his mother were particular highlights in a rather grim story. Unlike other story lines there wasn't any tension or suspense or great mental stretches to figure out the mystery. In fact the whole climax of the case is rather disappointing when we find the real reason for the cover up of a "military skirmish." The love affair that Arkady continues with Eva, is particularly annoying. It drags and never gives the reader a reason to root for the two of them to be together. At some points you just feel like shouting "Just dump her already" In fact I think his partner Victor says as much. In much the same manner his relationship with the street urchin Zhenya lacks a reason for the reader to be interested. This was the most depressing version of Renko, he comes back from the dead basically twice in an over the top way, not typical of Cruz Smith's writing. I would have much perferred the sleek, taut, edgy writing of past novels rather than the bloated type larger than life, unbelievable Renko experiences.

The dialogue is golden, the scenes are taut, the overall feel of the backdrop is cold, dry and gritty. There's one exchange between Renko and his girlfriend near the beginning that aches with reality and beauty. The dialogue is that good. But Smith does little to pave the way for new readers of Renko. You have to work to keep track of the characters and their roles. This is not breezy, easy reading unless you know Renko's world. Smith sets up scenes with a few brush strokes and off you go. Just a note of caution in case this might be your first Renko-related expedition. You might be better off to start at the beginning.

Fans of Martin Cruz Smith's irascible inspector Arkady Renko will appreciate another grim tale of crime and corruption Russian-style, spun with that oppressively dark cloak of Russian culture that Smith has uniquely mastered. Never one to take authority to seriously, Renko's previous transgressions between the pages of Smith's novels have had him exiled on a Soviet factory ship or slogging through the radioactive wastelands of Chernobyl. This time around, with the iron curtain raised and the ghosts of the Cold War replaced with the haunting legacy of Chechnya, our hero Arkady finds himself assigned to the unenviable task of tracking down the apparent ghost of Joseph Stalin, subway-style. This soon spirals - not so predictably - out of control in a suspenseful and engaging thriller wrapped in the skeletons of wartime atrocities new and old, as well as a fascinating portrait of a post-Soviet Russia struggling with a new democracy.

As always, Smith's fiction takes the reader down a much more stylish, intricate and complicated path than the average crime thriller. Characters and settings are richly drawn, right down to Renko's odyssey from Moscow to Tver, a city of the swampy plains northwest of Moscow, the "Russia with no Mercedes, no Bolshoi, and no sushi", where thousands of dead Russian and German soldiers lay buried in mass graves, attracting scores of "diggers" to unearth them for proper burial, or for profit. And as always, Smith's Renko is much more than the cardboard pretty boys of the typical best sellers, all too human in his weaknesses, and in this episode, taking more hits than a Christmas piñata. In fact, the abuses, both physical and mental, suffered by Renko in "Stalin's Ghost" stretch even the bloodied standards of our perpetually downtrodden inspector.

In short, pop fiction about as good as it gets: intelligent and hauntingly addictive as layer upon layer of credibility build, the prize of research that is not simply thorough, but subtly placed as well. Don't wait - treat yourself to the year's most clever page turner so far - and get the hard cover now.

Martin Cruz Smith's "Stalin's Ghost" finds Russian Senior Investigator Arkady Renko back on the job in Moscow, investigating a murder for hire scheme and sightings of long-dead dictator Stalin's ghost at a Moscow Metro station. At the same time, Renko juggles failing relationships with Eva, the woman he met in "Wolves Eat Dogs" and with Zhenya, the young, homeless boy chess genius he has befriended.

All clues seem to lead back to Nikolai Isakov and Murat Urman, now Moscow homicide detectives but formerly Black Beret special operations soldiers who served in the Chechnya War. Isakov, Eva's once and future lover, is running for public office from Tver, a rural area outside Moscow, as a war hero. Strangely, the soldiers with whom Isakov served in Chechnya keep turning up dead. Renko's efforts to investigate draw attempts on his own life and banishment to Tver from his politically sensitive boss, Prosecutor Zurin.

In Tver, Renko finds a city living on its past as an heroic battleground of the war with the Nazis. He encounters traces of another ghost, that of his own father, a general in Stalin's Army. Finally, he finds Isakov, running for office by exploiting Tver's heritage, and Eva, now with Isakov.

Renko will be strangled, shot, and buried alive in his search for the truth, but the stubbornly conscientious investigator will persevere to the conclusion of his case. Along the way, Martin Cruz Smith will entertain us with his witty and often ironic style and his dead-on characterizations of modern Russia and of some of its more unique inhabitants. "Stalin's Ghost" is less complicated a mystery than previous Renko novels; the focus is much more on Renko as a human being. Long-time fans of the franchise will find this a rewarding read.