Polar Star - Martin Cruz Smith

Murder in the Arctic Circle (362 words)
by vikil - written on 21/09/00, updated on 21/09/00 (Very useful, 43 readings)
Rating:

by years of hard labour and numbing cold takes about half the novel to unwind to his usual razor-sharp, sarcastic self. Despite these drawbacks PS is still miles ahead of most thrillers. After the great sweep of GP Cruz Smith comes with a more sedate, less world changing narrative, with Renk o still a compelling and all too human protagonist, which you just have to meet again. ...

Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith

Russian around in Cuba (1064 words)
by SWSt - written on 13/08/08 (Very useful, 91 readings)
Rating:

bucks the Soviet System. Suddenly, the whole Soviet empire falls and your most popular character is stranded without a purpose. What do you do? Well, if you re Martin Cruz Smith, the solution is simple: invent a pre-text to take your character (Arkady Renko) off to Communist Havana and have him investigate the murder of a Russian there. Problem solved! It s a move which works surprisingly well. Taking a character out of their normal environment is always a risky business. It can alienate established readers by undermining their familiarity with the character, whilst not winning any new ones. With Renko, this is less of an issue. He has always been an outsider. He was a ...

Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith

The crumbling charms of Cuba (491 words)
by vikil - written on 10/08/00, updated on 10/08/00 (Very useful, 34 readings)
Rating:

initial suspicion and resentment towards ‘the Russian’, slowly comes to realise that beneath the shabby façade hides a razor sharp brain and an interesting man. Cruz Smith is excellent in building up atmosphere. He builds and almost tangible picure of the decaying Havana of brightly coloured buildings crumbling to dust, decades-old American cars still going strong, beautifu l girls selling themselves to the flesh hungry tourists and above them all the almost mythical figure of Castro, never mentioned by name but whose presence is everywhere. The usual alienation of Renko ...