A rewarding read and a fine finale for the Smith-Renko team.
The 11th and final installment in the Arkady Renko series that began with Gorky Park in 1981.
The Russian homicide detective has lived under communism, witnessed its fall, and now lives during Vladimir Putin’s reign. As Russia launches its “special military operation” against Ukraine, Renko must investigate the brutal murder of the deputy minister of defense in Moscow’s Hotel Ukraine. Apparently, two people bashed his head in using two different types of weapons. Adding to the challenge, Renko suffers from Parkinson’s disease, making it increasingly difficult to function. He knows it will only get worse, though he insists he’s not an invalid. His adopted son says, “Even with Parkinson’s you’re the best they’ve got.” Meanwhile, he’s in love with Tatiana Petrovna, a Moscow-based correspondent for the New York Times who hates injustice and is “constitutionally incapable of seeing a bear without poking it.” She wants to report on Bucha, a Ukrainian city that suffered horrific destruction at the hands of the Russians. Renko’s investigation takes him there as well. Is the killing tied in with the invasion? Renko and Petrovna take extraordinary risks for the sake of finding the truth. The unseen presence above it all is Putin, and anyone who threatens him might as well drink tea mixed with heartbreak grass, a deadly poison said to have been used on some of his enemies. Renko and Tatiana both face that threat as they peer into the abyss of death. Aside from the action scenes, Renko offers interesting observations. He is “Russian to his core,” although love of country does not extend to love of its leaders. He thinks the only book that explains his beloved country is Alice in Wonderland. And he opines on the “fundamental truth” about love, that it means wanting what’s best for the other over yourself. Given their tribulations and given that this book finishes the series, the ending could be tragic or hopeful. Either way, Arkady Renko’s career is complete. Author Martin Cruz Smith has had Parkinson’s for decades and says this is his last book.
A rewarding read and a fine finale for the Smith-Renko team.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781982188382
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
IN THE NEWS
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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