Stalin's Ghost

Starred review from April 2, 2007
Moscow-based Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, in his outstanding sixth outing (after Wolves Eat Dogs
), investigates a murder-for-hire scheme that leads him to suspect two fellow police detectives, Nikolai Isakov and Marat Urman, both former members of Russia's elite Black Berets, who served in Chechnya. Isakov, a war hero, is now running for public office. Renko must also look into reports that the ghost of Stalin has begun appearing on subway platforms and why several bodies of Black Berets who served in Chechnya with Isakov have turned up in the morgue. Despite repeated threats to his life, Renko stubbornly perseveres, seeking justice in a land that has no official notion of that concept. Smith eschews vertiginous twists and surprises, concentrating instead on Renko as he slowly and patiently builds his case until the pieces fall together and he has again, if not exactly triumphed, at least survived. This masterful suspense novel casts a searing light on contemporary Russia. 250,000 first printing.

Starred review from May 1, 2007
Detective Arkady Renko, now making his sixth appearance (after "Wolves Eat Dog"s), is embroiled in a strange case featuring witnesses who claim to have seen Joseph Vissarionovich (that is, the late dictator Stalin) in the Moscow Metro. Balancing contradictory and barely conscious influences ranging from the attractions of his new lover, Eva, to harsh pressures from his long-dead military father, Arkady probes deeper into the case and finds a wily political campaign at the heart of the sightings. While the plot goes on to be nastily Byzantine, and the view of contemporary Moscow is painstakingly real, what makes this deathfest a graceful reflection of human passion is the matching arcs of the lives of Arkady and Zhenya, a 12-year-old runaway who finds safe harbor with Arkady. Be sure your library has all five other books in the series in ample supply because readers will be stripping the shelves. For all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/15/07.]Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.