Even though this has plenty of Soviet political intrigue and an international aspect to it this doesn’t feel like a spy story, and that’s mainly because of Arkady Renko.

The Washington Post said of Gorky Park that "More perhaps than any other recent work of American fiction, this one conveys a feeling for the Soviet Union, its capital, its moods ands its people.I'm usually OK with this, I love a good forensic crime as much as the next person, but even I found myself wincing a bit at times. Meanwhile, Renko falls in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything . Russians won wars because they threw themselves before tanks, which was not the right mentality for a master criminal.

Arkady Renko, chief police inspector for the People's Militia, is brought in to investigate the deaths of three people found in the snow of Moscow's Gorky Park.The story follows Arkady Renko, a chief investigator for the Moscow militsiya, who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park, a large urban park in Moscow. Before I come around to picking that one up though, there are many books to read and many reviews to share. When a key witness and a colleague are gunned down Arkady tries to save Irina from the same fate, only to learn that he is being framed for a murder of a friend. Most disappointing is the lack of mystery in this thriller, as the bad guy (who, incidentally, wears a black hat) gets identitified early on, and thereafter simply pops up with all the convenience of a jack-in-the-box bogeyman. Renko is intelligent, moody, cynical and at times defiant in his dogged pursuit of the killer's identity, which puts him at odds with a brash, wealthy American fur trader.

R. was home to a brilliant real-life scientist, an archaeologist and anthropologist named Mikhail M. His father, a general in the Great Patriotic War, complains that his son only visits when he wants information. Arkady flees a meeting with Misha before a gang of killers arrive, but is too late to prevent Iamskoy from appropriating the reconstructed head and destroying it. of Russian policemen: the paper shufflers, the time servers, the informers who will squeal on their friends for a promotion, and those dogged men who are trying to do their best at a difficult and dangerous job.Renko exposes corruption and dishonesty wherever he finds it, including on the part of influential and well-protected members of the elite, regardless of the consequences. During this reread I found myself comparing Renko to one of my favorite fictional detectives, Matt Scudder, because they’re both pragmatic men who don’t see the point in fighting a system that’s inherently corrupt, but there’s a quiet streak of idealism in both that believes that some crimes have to be answered for. Oh and also for this weird oxymoron that the book seems to be – it’s actually engaging and frustrating, simultaneously. It did get better and I appreciate that my point of view is different to many others but the end of the book was very welcome.