Tatiana (The Arkady Renko Novels)

A tale of two cities: Moscow and Kaliningrad. A dark story of modern Russia. 'Noir' doesn't come near describing the mood. Consider this description of a discouraged senior journalist: he had decided that he was too old to die.This could be Arkady Renko's last act. I read somewhere that the author has health issues. That would be a shame. Arkady has been the most consistently readable serial cop since he premiered in Gorky Park.This new story begins in Kaliningrad, now a Russian city on the Baltic Sea, home of the Baltic fleet, formerly called Königsberg, where Kant taught. It starts with a picturesque murder on the beach. It involves translation, interpretation, encryption. Or maybe just mnemonic cues for a multilinguist?Title heroine Tatiana is a trouble making journalist who enters the narration after her death by alleged suicide. She has been putting her nose into every dangerous subject in the country, from the Chechen war to terrorism to gangsterdom to arms smuggling to real estate speculation to rape of natural resources to election fraud to government corruption and embezzlement. She knew that somebody would kill her sooner or later.Similarly dead, though from different causes, is a gangster boss, whose son is now trying to take over the helm of the empire, after having graduated from an American business school. There is competition in the market.Arkady, as usual, goes his own way. He doesn't buy the official suicide explanation. On the other hand, he couldn't care less who blew off the gangster's head. Will he never learn to play by the book? He isn't even authorized to investigate anything in Kaliningrad.While the build up of the problems and questions is the main strength of this novel, it suffers from a standard weakness of the crime fiction genre. Problems are usually more convincing than solutions. Looking at the plot as a whole, I am less enthusiastic than during the first two thirds. The real world is rarely neat and tidy. Crime fiction writers are obliged by convention to solve their cases. Plot lines need to be tied up, otherwise the book is criticized for leaving open questions.This story would be better with more open endings.

It arrived in good condition, brand new, no folds or tears. Very happy with purchase.

Martin Cruz Smith can be a great novelist. “Gorky Park,” “Red Square,” and “Rose” are wonderful novels, full of quirky secondary characters whose pursuit of their personal goals both drives and impedes the main action, forcing the lead character to struggle to realize his own goals. Each of these three novels is also a love story, and the love story feeds the action at the same time that the action both interferes with, and also feeds the love story.“Tatiana” is not in the same class as these three novels. Since it’s by Martin Cruz Smith, it’s okay, but it’s nowhere near great.Tatiana (the novel’s eponymous heroine) has been either murdered or has committed suicide, depending on whom you believe. Of course, Arkady Renko believes Tatiana was murdered, and his investigation of her death drives the action. For the first 75% of the book we never see Tatiana, but this is all well and good since the victim in a murder doesn’t really need to be onstage except as a corpse. But to have a murder victim (who also becomes the protagonist’s love interest) first appear in person on page 214 (out of 290) necessarily means that the love story is severely truncated – so much so that when Renko and Tatiana finally fall into bed together, the reader’s reaction is not, “at last!” but rather, “huh?”At the beginning of the book Renko is involved with Anya, a Moscow reporter who works on criminal cases. At first Anya seems a little distant, but then she disappears as if she fell down a well – thus freeing Renko to take up with Tatiana (when she finally appears). Renko is typically hard on the women he becomes involved with, but Anya's disappearance sets some kind of record for speed and lack of explanation.The author again employs the device (which he used in “Red Square”) of having Renko listen to the heroine’s voice (recordings here, radio broadcasts in “Red Square”). But while this made perfect sense in “Red Square” -- since Renko was in love with Irina Asanova, who had left Russia and become a broadcaster with Radio Free Europe, it works less well here. Why does Renko obsessively listen to tape cassettes recorded by Tatiana? He’s not pursuing clues. He’s not pursuing anything. He just listens. And he must listen, because he later identifies Tatiana (who is not dead but hiding by pretending to be someone else) by her voice. But the lack of any real reason for him to listen to the tapes weakens the plot device – even aside from the fact that the author has used it before.In short, “Tatiana” is okay, but not great. If you’re stuck in an airport and need a book, go for it. If you have any choice in the matter, give this one a miss.

After the [IMO] disappointing "Three Stations" "Tatiana" a return to form for Martin Cruz Smith and his creation, Moscow investigator Arkady Renko. This time Renko finds himself investigating the apparent suicide of a Moscow journalist that he alone believes to be suspicious; and of course he's right as there's much more to Tatiana Petrovna's fall from a sixth floor window of a block of flats than meets the eye as the trail leads Renko from Moscow to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, home of Russia's Baltic Fleet.Once again nothing is as it seems, not all the baddies are bad and not all the goodies are good, and like so many of its predecessors the story is perhaps a little over complex, although not as complicated as some of the earlier books, as Cruz Smith weaves a complex web of lies, deceit, murder and corruption in Putin's new Russia that's not too dissimilar to the lies, deceit, murder and corruption of the old Russia . As ever MCS's writing is wonderfully evocative in particular as he describes the mysterious landscape of shifting sand dunes that hide the starting point of the trail, the murder of a translator whose notebook everyone wants but nobody can read. There is though less unnecessary descriptive verbiage and more action this time around and for that it is in my opinion an easier and better, but more exciting read than most of the books since the excellent "Polar Star" and that's why it's four stars from me [an opinion that I know not all reviewers will share].Next up book number nine "The Siberian Dilemma " and the last in the series, at least to date.

Corruption is a running theme in the Arkady Renko novels and in this one perhaps more so than the earlier entries. Although Arkady is as astute and dogged as ever, I found the underlying storyline in Tatiana less enthralling than I have come to expect from Smith.What I did enjoy were the many references to the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk. Hard to believe that this was twenty years ago. I remember being captivated and horrified at the time. The event, to my mind, typifies the brutal image that Russia presents to the outside world. The Russians refused numerous offers of international help at the time of the sinking and, of course, by the time they capitulated, it was far far too late.I liked the nub of the story but taken as a whole, I found this one of the weaker books in the Renko series.

Yes, a good read, much of the story set in a location that has not featured much in popular reading matter, non-descript Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, East Prussia; Immanuel Kant, the Red Army (1945) and Michael Palin (New Europe, 2007) may have been the last visitors. Solid detective work by ever-principled Arkady Renko, never letting heavy hints or Threats From Superiors and Other Agencies to drop the case sway him from getting at the facts and The Truth. Nevertheless, TATIANA lacked ... well, 'something.' I felt I had read through it more quickly than usual, as though the story was a bit 'thin.' I still find the detailing and characterization in POLAR STAR and RED SQUARE hard to beat ...

As I have grown older, so has Arkady Renko which only adds spice to an already simmering stew. If he's older and slower physically, his brain, nudged daily by the possibility the lodged piece of metal within will kill him off is still working overtime.He hasn't changed overmuch. His love life remains at odds with his job, his sort-of-adopted son is wayward yet there when needed and Victor, his usually drunken sidekick still magaes to stay alert when needed.This is a well constructed story, beginning twofold with the disappearance of a multilingual interpreter near Kaliningrad and the burial of a high-powered crime boss whose son believes he has every right to carry on where his father's death left the business in mid-air.The fact these two events are linked and the fact that Renko isn't really involved until a missing body somewhat connected to the crime boss's criminal activities, show how a brilliant author can bring it all together.We know Arkady is a stubborn old bear, like a dog with a bone if I may mix my metaphors so the missing body intrigues him. Unlike many police crime thrillers, Renko's boss is usually on his side, if only to get rid of him, so he his given free reign to delve further into this mystery.The emptiness of Kaliningrad is portrayed with a wealth of atmosphere. Renko's acceptance under sufference, of the new Russian regime is constantly niggling him. Not much has changed in Russia- only the names. It remains corrupt, dominated by a dictator and run by self-serving politbureau types who have never emerged from their old roots. This remains so in the book and it's welcome relief that Arkady Renko can bring some sense of reality to this world - at a cost. I sense retirement or worse looming and when it happens we shall have lost one of the most consistently entertaining detectives currently in print.

I am completely biased so perhaps this is not the most constructive review but to me all of the Renko books are so intriguing and enjoyable; Russia, Renko and all the characters and places involved. To me it is a complicated pleasure like a good wine, a devious chess problem or a great photograph, to be savoured. Frankly I am not so bothered about the plot but it was as good as usual to me and more importantly allows another slice of Renko magic from MCS. Hopefully they will keep on coming.