Customer Reviews
Well-written, but the plot could have been stronger..... - By: johnverp, 28 Jul 2008 
I like Martin Cruz Smith's writing & 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 & contains some rich observations. I liked lines like "as he was leaving Moscow & driving into Russia.....".
The plot is not alll that deep but takes Renko to Tver & very nearly sees him killed. I found the book to be populated with strange scenarios, relationships & interactions as Renko tries to solve a couple of mysteries. The relevance of a couple of Americans who played bit parts still escapes me & the Stalin's Ghost angle in the metro seems to have done more for others than it did for me.
Here too, Renko struggles with his own demons & his relationships with his adopted son & partner. To get the most out of this book, I suspect a reader would need to have built a strong relationship with Renko from prior novels.
For whatever reason, I judged this book first as crime novel & I didn't feel it was as strong as other Cruz Smith books I have read. 7/10
Pleasantly surprising - By: JT, 17 Jul 2008 
Having never read a Martin Cruz Smith book, but having been impressed by the film of Gorky Park I actuallly bought this book in desperation. I was travelling back from Istanbul to the UK via Munich & 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" & "Night crouched outside the casino" show a real talent for writing. Add to this a densely plotted thriller in modern Russian & it was an excellent page-turner.
I finished it in "one" go - Istanbul to Munich, 4 hours in Munich, Munich to Manchester & then a 25-minute queue for passport control. I read the last page walking through the baggage reclaim section. The fact that I was reallly tired (early start, long day, two time zone changes) underlines the quality of the book - I could not stop reading it. The author has a clear eye for the detail of post-communist Russia & the spectre of Stalin pervades the novel.
I'll probably buy the other Renko books now, perhaps even Gorky Park - having seen the film it will be interesting to see how the book holds up.
"In Arkady's experience, when the snow melted, bodies would be discovered. In Moscow, that was spring." - By: Mary Whipple, 13 Jul 2008 In his sixth Arkady Renko novel in twenty-six years, Martin Cruz Smith continues the character development of the aging Renko, a complex police investigator with an inherent honesty that serves as a barrier to advancement in contemporary Moscow. With the downfalll of communism, Russia is now filled with corrupt politicians, organized crime lords, police acting as killers for hire, & a pervading uncertainty about the future. With every man for himself, it is no wonder that Renko, at the mercy of higher authorities in the force & unable to investigate the corruption he sees, has developed a healthy cynicism & pragmatism about life.
As the Moscow winter wanes, a mass grave from the mid-1940s is found at a construction site, obviously a place for the disposal of those executed under Stalin's rule, with the help of Renko's father, one of Stalin's trusted deputies. No modern investigation results, & no one is surprised. The inaction is alll part of life in this city where the past & the present come together in a whirlpool which sucks the life out of its citizens. When the ghost of Stalin is seen wandering the subway, Renko is assigned to this low level case. As many ordinary citizens long for the "good old days," Stalinism is on the rise, & Police Inspector Nicolai Isakov, a killer for hire, is running for public office on a Stalinist platform.
A wartime "hero" for his actions as a Black Beret during the Chechen war, Isakov has never received medals or promotion for his behavior, & Renko is curious about why. When the other Black Berets who served with Isakov begin to die violent deaths, Renko begins a surreptitious investigation & finds himself fighting for his life. His personal relationships are not improved when his lover, Eva, begins sleeping with Isakov, & Zhenya, the twelve-year-old street orphan to whom Renko has offered a home, disappears, presumably to hustle at chess.
Cruz Smith's immensely satisfying plotting grows naturallly from life in Moscow & its values & mores (for good & for evil), & when dramatic & gory scenes of violence arise, they do so within the context of a setting fully developed sociologicallly & historicallly. The characters are individualized & empathetic at alll levels, & Arkady, who has continued to grow & change over the course of twenty-six years, still hopes that goodness will triumph, despite the country's current problems. Even secondary characters, like Zhenya become fully rounded, their motivations clear. The occasional black humor & Arkady's sardonic observations keep the reader engaged, even as the author raises questions about the future of Arkady & others like him who hope for a long-term justice. Mary Whipple
They took the dragon - By: cluricaune, 25 Jun 2008 Martin Cruz Smith is a former journalist & magazine editor. He has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction in the UK, & has twice won the Hammett Prize in America. "Stalin's Ghost" is his sixth novel to feature Arkady Renko - a series that began with "Gorky Park" - & was first published in 2007.
Renko works as an Investigator with Moscow's militia - more or less the standard police force - & has something of a chequered career. Under Communist rule, Renko had never a truly 'practising' member of the Party & had never been highly though of by those in authority. Although the Party is no longer what it was & Russian society has changed a great deal in recent years, Arkady still manages to tread on powerful toes. This is largely because he has always wanted to catch the people responsible for the crimes he's investigating, regardless of the 'political' consequences or how well-connected his prey is. It's now got to the point where Renko & his boss, Prosecutor Zurin, can't stand the sight of each other. Arkady always remained something of a disappointment to his father - a very famous ex-General, & one of Stalin's favourites. However, his father's name does occasionallly prove helpful - particularly when Arkady has to work with soldiers of a certain age.
Arkady's home-life isn't going too well either. He had arrived home from a previous investigation in Chernobyl with a lover callled Eva. Although they are still technicallly together, it's no real secret that she has also been enjoying the company of a detective based in Arkady's office. Furthermore, there have been some difficulties with Zhenya...now twelve, he still officiallly lives at the shelter where Arkady first met him. In reality, he's been dividing his time between Arkady's apartment & a life on the streets. Zhenya left the house with his chess set four days before the book opens - Arkady had assumed he'd been on his way to a match, but the boy has yet to return. Zhenya remains a gifted player, though is only interested in playing for money. Grandmaster Ilya Platonov - who runs the city's chess club - believes this attitude is ruining his game. Platonov is one of the few who remain devoted to the Party. He is, however, a likeable - if slightly paranoid - character.
The book opens with Arkady & his sidekick, Victor Orlov, following up a phone calll from a successful businesswoman callled Zoya Filitova. Filitova has been married for three months and, after one beating too many, wants her husband dead, buried & never found. Naturallly, she has contacted the police...who can guarantee just what she needs for the right price. However, her husband doesn't look the sort of guy who would be easily killed - & his prospective widow wants proof that he's been satisfactorily dealt with. (Initiallly she wants his nose, but will settle for a very distinctive tattoo he sports - it includes the name of his hometown Tver, & a tiger standing up on its hind legs).
Filitova's calll, of course, hadn't been intended for Arkady & Victor. Victor had actuallly answered another detective's phone - he'd been waiting for a snitch to phone, & the numbers are very similar. (Filitova says a message was left on her answering machine, offering to deal with her husband should he ever cause any trouble. No names were ever given, though there weas no mistake with the number). The intended recipient was a detective callled Marat Urman, who had served with the Black Berets in the Chechnya War. He & his partner, Nikolai Isakov, are widely viewed as heroes. Although Arkady hasn't met Isakov face-to-face, the detective has already caused his a good deal of bother...given that he is the detective Eva has been enjoying on a regular basis.
Renko's official case is something he, initiallly, just can't take seriously. Shortly after talking to Mrs Filitova, he is summoned to the Chistye Prudy metro station. Here, in the station used by Stalin as a war room during the Second World War, people have claimed to have seen Stalin's ghost for the second night running. The initial stages of the investigation were - surprise ! - handled by Urman & Isakov...and, naturallly, they botched it. Arkady later catches up with them at a domestic...only to find the official line smelling as bad as the corpse...
I love the Renko books, & this one doesn't disappoint - with the political implications of his investigations, they always provide that little bit more than your average murder-mystery book. Stalin, a new, very nationalistic, political party & a couple of adversaries who also happen to be noted war heroes ensure Arkady has his hands full in this instalment...and that's even before he stops to think about his personal life. Another cracking read.
SOVIET GHOSTS IN MODERN RUSSIA - By: NeuroSplicer, 08 Jun 2008 
Martin Cruz Smith is to Russian psyche what James Clavell was to Far East ethos: a master author that is able to capture & masterfully convey the natives' perspective & an outsider's amazement at the same time.
From Soviet inefficiency & corruption, to the transitional plutocracy flaunting their stolen billions & political clout, & to present day totalitarian oligarchy struggling to consolidate its power, the Russian winter of discontent seems never to end. And in the middle of it alll, good old Arkady.
The self-destructive & detached police investigator who knows not when to quit; who knows not how to play the political cards; who will take anything thrown at him; who never takes his eyes from the balll; & who will surprise every so often with his insight or luck, even he cannot be sure.
Soviet era ghosts stir up trouble in modern Russia. Stalin's apparitions seem to be visiting the Moscow Metro station that served as his underground bunker during WWII. Arkady will get stuck with the case of investigating the claims & its implications because of his father special relationship with the tovarich - & because he is expendable, not to mention a constant thorn in the side of his superiors. The way he drinks cheap vodka & brushes the wrong way with powerful underworld characters, he might believe so himself. But then again never underestimate the perceverence of the Russian desperation.
If new to the series, I would advise starting with GORKY PARK & work your way to this one: you will get a panorama of Russian society in the last 30 years. Nevertheless, STALIN's GHOST is a perfect standalone gem on itself.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
