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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Good book, just not as good as what's gone before "Gorky Park" - Great convoluted murder mystery set in the Soviet Union. It's a bit overlong. The film version is a simplified travesty. "Polar Star" - My favourite of the books. It's a bit more like a traditional murder mystery as it has everyone trapped together on a fish processing ship. "Red Square" - Perhaps the most inventive of the books. I always thought it was a great idea what the red square of the title actual is, and what it does. "Havana Bay" - Arkady goes to Cuba. This was the... more info
Maintaining a fine standard Martin Cruz Smith's thrillers featuring Arkady Renko are at the top of the tree, and "Stalin's Ghost" maintains the high standard. However, I'd recommend reading its predecessor, the superb "Wolves Eat Dogs", before you read SG.
Well-written, but the plot could have been stronger..... I like Martin Cruz Smith's writing and I have enjoyed prior novels with Senior Investigator Arkady Renko as the lead character. In common with the prequels, the book is instructive on life in Russia and contains some rich observations. I liked lines like "as he was leaving Moscow and driving into Russia.....". The plot is not all that deep but takes Renko to Tver and very nearly sees him killed. I found the book to be populated with strange scenarios, relationships and interactions as Renko tries... more info
Pleasantly surprising Having never read a Martin Cruz Smith book, but having been impressed by the film of Gorky Park I actually bought this book in desperation. I was travelling back from Istanbul to the UK via Munich and had run out of books to read before reaching Istanbul airport. A quick trawl of the bookshop persuaded me to purchase Stalin's Ghost. What impressed me was the quality of the writing as much as anything. Phrases like "Time nibbled away at the afternoon" and "Night crouched outside the casino" show a real... more info
