Isolated on an arctic ship, Cruz Smith’s detective is even more heroic
What? If you read only one thriller by Martin Cruz Smith, it’s not Gorky Park, one of the biggest hit thrillers of the last 40 years and the basis of that great movie with William Hurt? No, not even one of Martin Cruz Smith’s books set in Moscow. Polar Star is the Cruz Smith novel with the greatest tension and the biggest challenges to his hero, Arkady Renko.
After Gorky Park, Renko goes into self-imposed exile gutting fish in the frozen Arctic Ocean. On the creaking Polar Star he uncovers a murder that becomes a bigger conspiracy. By putting Renko on the isolated ship, Cruz Smith highlights his heroic and honorable qualities. The same traits he showed in Gorky Park and which have carried him marvelously through six subsequent novels.
Cruz Smith has some wonderful Renko novels. Which is your favorite? Let me know.
Write a thriller: How Don Winslow propels a plot around its Midpoint
Have you read his latest book Tatiana ? I haven’t yet
While Tatiana really doesn’t compare so favorably to what he was writing a decade ago (Wolves Eat Dogs is one of his best, and soon after that he came up with Stalin’s Ghost, which was great), it’s still better than almost any other thriller you’ll see. Renko is great, of course. After Polar Star, my favorite might be Havana Bay. Did you read that one?
No I haven’t. I’ll put it on my to read list.
Enjoy! By the way, of Cruz Smith’s non-Renko/non-Russian thrillers, the best is Tokyo Station (which I think might be published these days at December 6…)