Detective Arkaday Renko"one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction" (USA TODAY)risks his life when he heads to Ukraine shortly before the Russian invasion to find an anti-Putin activist who has mysteriously disappeared. Martin Cruz Smith has written nine previous novels featuring Arkady Renko, one of modern detective fiction's most popular characters. These novels, beginning with 1981's international sensation Gorky Park, have collectively traced Russia's evolution over the last half-century. Now, with Independence Square, Smith focuses on the fraught and frenzied days leading up to Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. It's June 2021, and Arkady knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. His corrupt boss has relegated him to a desk job. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson's Disease. This is an ingenious autobiographical conceit, as Martin Cruz Smith has Parkinson's, and is able through Arkady to movingly describe his own experience with the disease. Parkinson's hasn't stopped Smith from his work, and neither does it stop Arkady. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case. An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. The search leads them to Kyiv, where rumblings of an armed conflict grow louder. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady's new romance. And as he gets closer to locating Karina, Arkady discovers something that threatens his life as well as the lives of both Elena and Tatiana. Few fiction writers have better captured contemporary Russia with more insight or authenticity than Martin Cruz Smith. He does the same here for Ukraine and the events that preceded Russia's invasion. Independence Square is a timely and a uniquely personal mystery novel-meets-political thriller by a master of the form.
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PRAISE FOR MARTIN CRUZ SMITH:
'Martin Cruz Smith writes with an immediacy, depth and lightness of touch that is rare in its combination, and impossible to resist. With characters you know instantly and care deeply about - never more than now - he creates a world that is both brilliantly contemporary in its understanding of world politics, and timeless in its grasp of people and human nature. Independence Square is no exception, and further crystallises Cruz Smith as one of the finest writers of our age. I loved it' Charlotte Philby
'Arkady Renko, one of the most iconic detective creations of the last half century is back in another nail biting, hotly topical adventure, that once more cements Cruz Smith's place as the undisputed master of the political crime thriller' Abir Mukherjee
'Renko, never far from trouble, is enmeshed in the cesspit of Russian politics and corruption and Putin's bellicose intentions toward Ukraine. Lured by his compulsion for the truth behind a disappearance and an assassination, Renko steps directly into the firing line. This is Renko's most zeitgeisty investigation and definitely Cruz Smith's most powerful and engaging novel since Gorky Park' Paul Burke, CrimeTime FM
'Martin Cruz Smith makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin' Independent
'Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' Mail on Sunday
'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times
'Drips with atmosphere and authenticity - a literary triumph' David Young
'Forty years ago, Gorky Park established a new high-water mark for the thriller. It has yet to be surpassed' Mick Herron
'When first published Gorky Park was an instant classic; and its reputation has only grown since 1981' Adrian McKinty
'Martin Cruz Smith writes with an immediacy, depth and lightness of touch that is rare in its combination, and impossible to resist. With characters you know instantly and care deeply about - never more than now - he creates a world that is both brilliantly contemporary in its understanding of world politics, and timeless in its grasp of people and human nature. Independence Square is no exception, and further crystallises Cruz Smith as one of the finest writers of our age. I loved it' Charlotte Philby
'Arkady Renko, one of the most iconic detective creations of the last half century is back in another nail biting, hotly topical adventure, that once more cements Cruz Smith's place as the undisputed master of the political crime thriller' Abir Mukherjee
'Renko, never far from trouble, is enmeshed in the cesspit of Russian politics and corruption and Putin's bellicose intentions toward Ukraine. Lured by his compulsion for the truth behind a disappearance and an assassination, Renko steps directly into the firing line. This is Renko's most zeitgeisty investigation and definitely Cruz Smith's most powerful and engaging novel since Gorky Park' Paul Burke, CrimeTime FM
'Martin Cruz Smith makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin' Independent
'Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' Mail on Sunday
'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times
'Drips with atmosphere and authenticity - a literary triumph' David Young
'Forty years ago, Gorky Park established a new high-water mark for the thriller. It has yet to be surpassed' Mick Herron
'When first published Gorky Park was an instant classic; and its reputation has only grown since 1981' Adrian McKinty