Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith

Published by Simon & Schuster on November 12, 2013

Some writers of genre fiction transform the genre, taking it to a new level of excellence. Martin Cruz Smith has done that to crime fiction with his Arkady Renko novels.

An interpreter is killed after being kidnapped by a thug who has been paid to steal the interpreter's notes of a secret meeting. Unfortunately for the thug (and for the interpreter), the notes are encoded, so the thief discards them. The notebook makes its way to a journalist named Tatiana Petrovna, who is soon the apparent victim of a murder. The Kremlin, happy to see the end of a prominent critic of governmental corruption, proclaims the death a suicide and closes the investigation. Renko, as always, isn't buying the official line.

To get to the bottom of Tatiana's murder, Renko must learn why the interpreter was killed. The plot takes Renko to Kaliningrad, a city noted for its high crime rate and the center of the world's amber trade. Renko gets help (or hindrance) from Zhenya (a young chess genius who became Renko's ward in an earlier novel) and the poet Maxim Dal, as well as Renko's boss and co-workers. Of the various supporting characters, Zhenya (whose struggle to decide upon his future provides a strong subplot) gets the largest share of Smith's artistic attention. Renko's neighbor and part-time lover, Anya Rudenko, also plays a role. Her association with the son of a recently deceased mobster gives the beleaguered Renko yet another problem to worry about.

Smith is an old school thriller writer. His plots are surprising but believable. He writes absorbing stories without heavy reliance on car chases and martial arts contests to hold the reader's interest. His never forgets the importance of character development. In that regard, Renko is one of the strongest characters in crime fiction. In novel after novel, as his world deteriorates, Renko endures. He is, paradoxically, a cynical idealist. Given the corruption that surrounds him, Renko doesn't believe his actions will improve Russian life but he carries on anyway, perhaps because solving crime is all he knows how to do. With a bullet lodged in his head that could kill him at any moment, he is understandably fatalistic but never morose. His wry humor is often self-effacing, making him an immensely likeable character, but he displays the emotional complexity of the best literary creations.

Tatiana is shorter and tighter than some earlier Renko novels. The story is not as poignant or as personal as the best novels in the series, but Smith nonetheless supplies the skillful plotting and soul-revealing characterization that make the Renko novels so memorable. Tatiana is a nifty display of storytelling and a worthy addition to a wonderful series.

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