Wolves Eat Dogs (Arkady Renko Series #5)

Renko Returns

Actually I don't think I had read a Martin Cruz Smith novel since reading (and really enjoying ) Gorky Park years ago. This novel, about the mysterious death of a nouveau riche Russian takes Arkady Renko into the forbidden wasteland around the Chernobyl accident site. I'm reluctant to say too much more than that about the story, but reading it made me want to fill in the years of Renko's life between Gorky Park and this novel. I'll be going back and catching up with his whole career.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

terrific Russian police procedural

In Moscow billionaire NoviRus Corporation CEO Pasha Ivanov jumps ten stories to his death. Prosecutor Zurin rules suicide immediately and informs Senior Investigator Arkady Renko that Colonel Ozhoggin, head of NoviRus Security, is coming to check the scene. Arkady thinks the suicide decision is typical of the incompetent Zurin so he looks around the apartment wondering why kilos of table salt are in the closet and on the windowsill as well as blood stains on the sill especially since NoviRus' senior vice-president Lev Timofeyev has a bloody nose from an alleged cold.--- Not long afterward, Lev turns up dead in a Ukrainian cemetery inside the Zone of Exclusion that centers on Chernobyl; his throat sliced and wolves having masticated his face. When Arkady continues to make inquiries, irritated Zurin exiles him to Chernobyl to investigate the Timofeyev death. Inside the still deadly radioactive circle Renko feels he will find the answers to the murders of Ivanov and Timofeyev. Though there is poison everywhere and real wolves prowling, Renko knows that it is the humans who must beware as someone besides his incompetent superior wants him to drop the investigation.--- This terrific Russian police procedural will have fans seeking previous Renko stories (see HAVANA BAY and RED SQUARE, etc.). Renko remains an excellent cop struggling with a difficult case and Zurin. However, what makes this a must read novel is the motorcycle trip within the Zone of Exclusion where a dosimeter is a key eating utensil as one tests radioactive amounts in food and water; ¿residents¿ consist of scientists, soldiers, seniors who could not or would not flee, and lunatic newcomers.--- Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Garret

Is dumping u

Remus

Licks the pups head. Whats wrong.

Alex

Uhhhhh

A fantastic read

I was glad to follow along once again with my sturdy investigator Arkady Renko, and to be able to return for a Russian history lesson. I thought this was a complex story that I had to read carefully, but Martin Cruz Smith ensured that all the parts were pulled together to make for an exciting read. I wouldn't rate Wolves as one of Mr. Smith's best novels, but it still was a fantastic read. Highly recommend to all Martin Cruz Smith fans.

Highly recommended

I am a fan of the Renko series and this novel certainly was up to Smith's excellent standard. The author has a fine touch in depicting the Eastern European locale and politics. His characterizations are finely crafted and credible.

Renko builds the suspense as always !

Arkady Renko once again is involved in a murder investigation that brings him into contact with a wondrous mix of the noble and ignoble, taking him to Chernobyl in this action tome. If you saw the movie Gorky Park , it would be hard to imagine anyone but William Hurt on his mission to uncover the person(s) responsible for the murder of Pasha Ivanov, wealthy New Russian. Lots of interaction among the innocent and the criminal and a militia that doesn't seem to want Arkady to really figure out what happened. If you enjoy Martin Cruz Smith's series, this one will assuredly NOT disappoint. (Would that it were a bit longer, though ).

A Welcome Return

Wolves Eat Dogs is a return to form in Martin Cruz Smith¿s Arkaday Renko series. Havana Bay, Renko¿s last appearance, was a disappointment. Arkaday was a fish out of water in Castro¿s Cuba. Here, Smith returns Arkaday to Russia and places him in the ravaged landscape of Chernobyl. The detective is investigating the suicide of a New Russian millionaire who had radioactive salt in heaps in his apartment in Moscow. Another murder leads Arkaday to Chernobyl where he meets the inhabitants of a nuclear no man¿s land. Although Smith will probably never top Gorky Park, the first Renko book, this is a story set in an unusual place and filled with unusual characters living in the shadow of death. And, although the resolution of the mystery is grim and violent, the book ends on a note of second chances,hope, and forgiveness.

Renko V

The good news is that Arkady Renko is back, right on schedule. Smith produces a new novel about his classic anti-hero detective about every 5 years. The bad news is that the book isn't much better than the last two in the series ('Red Square' and 'Havana Bay'), which is a quibbling and disloyal criticism of an author who is still head and shoulders above almost any other thriller novelist out there. Even a mediocre Renko book is better than 95% of police thrillers published yearly. Smith set the bar skyscraper high with the first Renko book, 'Gorky Park', which may be the best thriller novel and police procedural ever written in the US. 'Wolves Eat Dogs' contains the usual Renko plot conceits (he's opposed by his superiors as well as antagonists; he's banished to a difficult and dangerous location) as well the usual Renko traits: his doggedness in the pursuit of truth and a knack for making and getting into trouble. Renko is also a hopeless Russian romantic who loves the poetry of Akhmatova and soul-stricken women. In this latest book Smith visits a subject he previously treated in the non-Renko novel 'Stallion Gate': nuclear destruction. Most of 'Wolves Eat Dogs' takes place in the Exclusion Zone surrounding the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukraine. Like all the Renko books, the action occurs against a fascinating backdrop, in this case the abandoned city and burbs of Pripyat and the rust-red forests of taiga contaminated for the next 75 centuries. The human inhabitants of this hostile region are scientists, squatters, militia, and entrepeneurs, a hardy (or foolhardy) strain of post-apocalyptic remnants. Renko fits right in.

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