by Martin Cruz Smith

Author Information: Martin Cruz Smith is the author of Gorky Park, as well as Stallion Gate, Polar Star, and Rose, among other novels.  He lives in California with his wife and three children.

Book Description: In his critically acclaimed Gorky Park, Smith created one of the iconic detectives of contemporary fiction, Arkady Renko. Cynical, quietly subversive, brilliantly analytical and haunted by melancholy, Renko has survived, barely, the journey from the Soviet Union to the New Russia, only to find his transformed nation just as obsessed with secrecy, corruption and brutality as was the old Communist dictatorship.

In Wolves Eat Dogs, Renko enters the privileged world of Russia's new billionaire class. The grandest of them all, a self-made powerhouse named Pasha Ivanov, has apparently leapt to his death from the palatial splendor of his ultra-modern Moscow condominium. While there are no signs pointing to homicide, there is one troubling and puzzling bit of evidence...in Ivanov's bedroom closet, there's a mountain of salt.

Ivanov's demise ultimately leads Renko on a journey through Chernobyl's netherworld. The crimes he uncovers and the secrets they reveal about the New Russia, make for a tense, unforgettable adventure. [from Cruz's site, more or less]

Recommendation: This book was recommended to me by Orange Ukraine reader Susan: ...set in large part in Prypat and the Chornobyl area. After reading your Chernobyl article it sounds like Smith did a great job capturing the area. It is part of the Arkady Renko series (Gorky Park is the first book). I find reference to Ukraine in mainstream fiction quite rare so this was an interesting read.

The book has also gotten quite a lot of positive critical reviews. 

Book Links

Cruz's Site
Metacritic 'Universal Acclaim' Rating
Powell's
Amazon