Polar Star

In the first major case of his literary career, Gorky Park, Moscow detective Arkady Renko antagonized too many powerful people. As a consequence, he lost his job and his Communist party membership and was shuffled off into oblivion. He then disappeared from view for eight years before returning in P......more

3.5 stars. I remember reading Gorky Park many years ago. In fact I reread it several times. I enjoyed the politics of The Soviet Union and the corruption of the state. This is the next book in the series, which I believe was not written until many years after the original. This is set on a factory sh......more

Don't pass on this one. It's one of my favorite Renko stories. His first exile and on a Russian fish factory ship where Smith gives you a palpable sense of what that must mean for the body and the spirit. The mystery and investigation is also top notch with typical Renko twists and insights. One of......more

Time is money. Nowhere else is this more true than the Russian factory ship Polar Star, tasked with processing tons of fish delivered by trawlers in the arctic seas. Soviet slogans are mouthed, but quotas are the driving force for the pragmatic crew. Surpassed quotas equal bonuses. Delays equal ded......more

'Polar Star', #2 in the Inspector Arkady Renko series, is a terrific story! I think it way more superior to the first book in the series, Gorky Park. It can be a standalone read, but Renko's backstory, which is referred to occasionally in this novel, is described in its entirety in the first novel.......more