Tatiana : an Arkady Renko novel / Martin Cruz Smith.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2013Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover editionDescription: 292 pages : map ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 1439140219
- 9781439140215
- 813/.54 23
- PS3569.M5377 T38 2013
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Bedford Public Library Fiction | Fiction | F SMI | Available | 32500005315016 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Arkady Renko, one of the iconic investigators of contemporary fiction, has survived the cultural journey from the Soviet Union to the New Russia, only to find the nation as obsessed with secrecy and brutality as was the old Communist dictatorship. In Tatiana , the melancholy hero--cynical, analytical, and quietly subversive--unravels a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself.
The fearless reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow the same week that a mob billionaire, Grisha Grigo-renko, is shot and buried with the trappings due a lord. No one else makes the connection, but Arkady is transfixed by the tapes he discovers of Tatiana's voice describing horrific crimes in words that are at odds with the Kremlin's official versions.
The trail leads to Kaliningrad, a Cold War "secret city" that is separated by hundreds of miles from the rest of Russia. The more Arkady delves into Tatiana's past, the more she leads him into a surreal world of wandering sand dunes, abandoned children, and a notebook written in the personal code of a dead translator. Finally, in a lethal race to uncover what the translator knew, Arkady makes a startling discovery that draws him still deeper into Tatiana's past--and, paradoxically, into Russia's future, where bulletproof cars, poets, corruption of the Baltic Fleet, and a butcher for hire combine to give Kaliningrad the "distinction" of having the highest crime rate in Russia.
More than a mystery, Tatiana is Martin Cruz Smith's most ambitious and politically daring novel since Gorky Park . It is a story rich in character, black humor, and romance, with an insight that is the hallmark of a writer the New York Times has called "endlessly entertaining and deeply serious . . . [not merely] our best writer of suspense, but one of our best writers, period."
Map on lining papers.
"In Tatiana, Smith delivers his most ambitious and politically daring novel since Gorky Park. When the brilliant and fearless young reporter Tatiana Petrovna--based on the real-life journalist Anna Politkovskaya--falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow in the same week that notorious mob billionaire Grisha Grigorenko is shot in the back of the head, Renko finds himself on the trail of a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself. The body of an elite government translator shows up on the bleak sand dunes of Kalingrad and the possession he was killed for is nothing but a cryptic notebook with drawings of animals and symbols. A frantic hunt begins to locate and decipher this notebook, a copy of which falls into the hands of Zhenya, the closest thing Renko has to a son--who does not realize that the document will put his life in grave danger. In a fast-changing and lethal race to uncover what this translator knew, and how he planned to reveal it to the world, Renko makes a startling discovery that propels him deeper into Tatiana's past--and, at the same time, paradoxically, into Russia's future. In Tatiana, "the master of the international thriller" (New York Times) draws on his four decades of experience to create the most compelling heroine of his career and the most accurate, damning portrait of modern Russia in contemporary literature, one in which the courageous are never safe, and the corrupt are never content, no matter which side they're on"-- Provided by publisher.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Cryptography, chess, amber wars, and missing corpses combine in this serviceable series entry (after Three Stations) set in modern Russia, with locales alternating between Moscow and the bleak coastal city of Kaliningrad. The suspicious death of a female journalist seems to police investigator Arkady Renko to be related to the murder of a gangster, as well as to some international intrigue. Corruption in post-Soviet Russia apparently still abounds, and listeners do get a sense of a country in which freedom of the press is not a given. Narrator Henry Strozier's gravelly voice and world-weary delivery suits the character of Renko very well, although sometimes in dialog it is difficult for a moment to distinguish among speakers. VERDICT Recommended for libraries where the author is popular, although the stakes in earlier series entries have seemed higher. ["Burnished to a fine sheen, this tale has it all: a high-velocity plot...endearing chess-playing teenagers, patricide, and death-defying Renko, still indomitable despite a scarred and weary hide," read the starred review of the S. & S. hc, LJ 9/1/13.]--Victoria A. Caplinger, NoveList, Durham, NC (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
In Smith's riveting seventh Arkady Renko novel (after 2010's Three Stations), Renko, now a "Senior Investigator for Very Important Cases," looks into the apparent suicide of crusading investigative journalist Tatiana Petrovna, who fell from a window to her death in Moscow. Renko's bosses have no problem accepting the suicide theory, but Renko and his loyal partner and friend, Det. Sgt. Victor Orlov, continue to search for answers. Smith spins a complex plot involving the Russian mafia, a teenage genius struggling to crack the code of Petrovna's notebook, and an excursion to Kaliningrad, the isolated Russian enclave on the Baltic. While Petrovna may be a candidate for sainthood (she's evidently modeled on real-life reporter Anna Politkovskaya), the most intriguing "character" after Renko is contemporary Russia-freer than it was at the height of the cold war, but at least as corrupt and vastly more unequal-into which Smith offers many insights. Agent: Andrew Nurnberg, Andrew Nurnberg Associates (U.K.). (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The more Russia changes, the more it supports Arkady Renko's unremittingly bleak worldview: I'm a cynic. I believe in car wrecks, airline disasters, missing children, self-immolation, suffocation with pillows. And, yet, he soldiers on, a cop perpetually on the outs with his superiors, trying to solve cases that no one wants solved. I have no authority anywhere, Arkady explains, but I like to understand things. But things, in the New Russia, are getting harder and harder to understand. Arkady knows corruption, of course, but the new corruption, from officialdom through the Mob now as powerful as the party ever was leaves even a lifetime cynic shaking his head in wonder and dismay. The apparent suicide of investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna Was she really murdered? Is she even dead? sends Arkady on another of his ill-advised searches for answers, this time taking him to Kaliningrad, an isolated, Mob-dominated city with the highest crime rate in Russia. What Arkady finds there is a grayed-out surreal landscape, postapocalyptic but without an apocalypse, in which the answers he seeks are as elusive as they are lethal. That Smith has kept this series going for more than 30 years, finding through decades of change more and more reasons for Arkady to justify his cynicism, says much about the modern world and much about Arkady's bedrock humanity in the face of snowballing absurdity. If a man believes in self-immolation, Tatiana asks Arkady, what doesn't he believe in? I don't believe in saints, Arkady replies. They get people killed. --Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 BooklistKirkus Book Review
In Smith's latest Arkady Renko novel, the Russian investigator seeks the truth about a young reporter's apparent suicide. Tatiana Petrovna is one of the last occupants of a Kaliningrad apartment building that developers want to raze. When she falls six stories to her death, authorities are quick to rule the tragedy as a suicide. Renko suspects otherwise and gets his boss' permission to look into it. The young woman had been a troublemaker, with a nose for rooting out the corruption widely known to be rampant in Russia, so few people seem to miss her. Renko can't view the body, because police say they are unable to produce it. This certainly won't stop him, though. Fans of his earlier adventures (Gorky Park, 1981; Red Square, 1992) know he's not a flashy fellow, perhaps in part because he walks around with a bullet lodged in his skull. But he is an honorable man, persistent in asking questions, raising doubts and following leads. At the center of the plot is a notebook that appears to be filled with symbols looking like gibberish. Can Renko find someone to decipher it? Sitting on the Baltic seacoast, Kaliningrad is portrayed as a bleak industrial city that's probably on no one's vacation itinerary. The novel suggests a deep cynicism pervading Russian society, where officials and businessmen are expected to bribe and steal. For example, submarines costing hundreds of millions of dollars may sink into the ocean and never resurface since half the money goes to graft instead of craft. Smith is a master storyteller, delivering sharp dialogue, a tight plot, memorable descriptions and an understated hero in Arkady Renko. Anyone who enjoys crime novels but hasn't read Smith is in for a treat. Read this book, then look for other Arkady Renko adventures.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Martin Cruz Smith is a writer of suspense novels. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1942 but grew up in New Mexico and the Philadelphia area. Smith earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.Smith worked for local television stations, newspapers, and the Associated Press. His early work was published under the names Simon Quinn, Jake Logan, and Martin Smith. Smith is best known for a series of suspense/thrillers featuring Investigator Arkady Renko. The first of these books, Gorky Park, was published in 1981 and adapted as a film starring William Hurt and Lee Marvin two years later. An earlier film of his work, Nightwing, directed by Arthur Hiller, was released in 1979. Smith is a member of the Authors League of America and the Authors Guild.
In 2013 his title Tatiana made The New York Times Best Seller List. The Girl from Venice also became a bestseller.
(Bowker Author Biography)