Product Description

When the corpse of a Russian is hauled from the oily waters of Havana Bay, Arkady Renko comes to Cuba to identify the body. Looking for the killer, he discovers a city of faded loneliness, unexpected danger, and bewildering contradictions. His investigation introduces him to a beautiful Cuban policewoman; to the rituals of Santeria; to an American fugitive and a group of ruthless mercenaries. In this place where all things Russian are despised, where Hemingway fished and the KGB flourished, where the hint of music is always in the air, Arkady finds a trail of deceit that reaches halfway around the world–and a reason to relish his own life again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #442715 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-03
• Released on: 2001-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 352 pages

From Amazon.com
In this fourth book in Martin Cruz Smith's splendid series, an amiable Irish American gangster explains to Arkady Renko what he and the other 84 wanted Americans hiding out in Cuba do with themselves. "We try to stay alive. Useful. Tell me, Arkady, what are you doing here?" "The same," says Renko--and it's true. His life as a Russian cop has become so bleak and lonely that he takes any opportunity to shake things up, even spending his own savings to fly to Havana when an old colleague is found dead--floating inside an inner tube after night-fishing in Havana Bay. Renko sets out to make himself useful in this shabby, fascinating, haunted country whose inhabitants look on Russians with the cold disdain of survivors of a nasty divorce.

As he did so well in Gorky Park, Smith again makes Renko very much a classic Russian hero in temperament and tradition, but also the eternal outsider. He is at times close to the edge of despair--but his trip to Havana restores his natural curiosity and life force.

In this hot Havana, ripe with the fruity smell of sex, Renko keeps his Moscow overcoat on--until an equally idealistic and out-of-place young female cop gets him to loosen up. There's an unusually complex plot, even for the sly strand-spinner Smith. He raises baffling questions: Why would a group of military plotters order illegal lobsters in a fancy restaurant and then not eat them? And his descriptions of Cuban life are dead-on, reminding us on every page what a superb stylist he is. --Dick Adler

From Library Journal
Arkady Renko, drawn to post-Soviet Union Cuba to identify the body of his friend Pribluda, is interrupted while attempting suicide. In this well-engineered abridgment of Smith's latest novel, well read by Stephen Lang, the new Cuba, its reliance on Russia replaced by contempt for everything and everyone Russian, is a land of poverty whose citizens rely on the tourist trade (prostitution, drugs, black market cigars, etc.) for sustenance. There's enough gruesome description of bodies, buildings, and civilizations in advanced states of deterioration here to keep the listener awake, as well as an interesting and involved plot, a smattering of romance, and continued development of the Renko character. Those who already are Renko fans will be pleased with this offering; those unfamiliar with him will need a bit of endurance to get into this audio. The language and descriptions are graphic. It's not exactly a tourist's travelog of Havana; more a reminder of how bad things are in Third World countries. Recommended for adult audio collections.ACliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Martin Cruz Smith continues the adventures of his reluctant hero, Arkady Renko, maverick Moscow policeman, who has been summoned by the Russian Embassy to locate a missing friend. Stephen Lang ably captures Arkady's dark depression and transitions between Russian and Cuban accents as if dancing on the head of a pin. As usual, Arkady is bucking the authorities, and we're along for the ride. E.K.D. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine