I think we’ve all been waiting for another Gorky Park for the atmosphere of that far outshone the plot. Now we have its equal with the backdrop of Chernobyl. The portrayal of the scale of the disaster and its aftermath is mind-numbing. Oh, we have suspected suicide, mysterious informers, more deaths, a fleeting romance, the Russian Mafia and, of course, the weary, cynical, out-of-favour Moscow investigator Renko, but it’s the setting that really steals the show here. The explanation for the killings and how they were carried out could have been more intriguing but my expectations had been roused to such a level that it would have been almost impossible to satisfy them in this truly atmospheric read.
Don't miss the latest book in the Arkady Renko series, THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA by Martin Cruz Smith, ‘the master of the international thriller’ (New York Times) – available to order now! AN ARKADY RENKO NOVEL: #5 'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' Val McDermid 'Makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin’ Independent *** The iron curtain has fallen and a screen of nouveau capitalism stands in its place. Though the New Russia is foreign to Renko, the corruption and brutality that he encounters are all too familiar. The seeming suicide of one of Russia's new billionaires leads Arkady Renko to Chernobyl and the Zone of Exclusion, the still radioactive site of great catastrophe - a spectral netherworld populated by the corrupted, the obstinate and the reckless . . . Praise for Martin Cruz Smith 'The story drips with atmosphere and authenticity – a literary triumph' David Young, bestselling author of Stasi Child ‘Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' Mail on Sunday 'Smith was among the first of a new generation of writers who made thrillers literary' Guardian 'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times ‘Martin Cruz Smith’s Renko novels are superb’ William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier
