Bob Moyer has followed Arkady Renko, a Moscow police detective, through 10 impressive mystery novels. Now he is ready to share his thoughts about what we are told is the last book in the series.
Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer
HOTEL UKRAINE: The Final Arkady Renko Novel. By Martin Cruz Smith. Simon & Schuster. 273 pages. $27.99
In the 11 novels of his fictional career, Moscow police detective Arkady Renko has survived regime change, beatings by government thugs, beatings by criminal thugs, death threats – why, he even got mauled by a bear. The ultimate professional, he persevered, a principled man in the bureaucratic behemoth of Moscow justice. His exploits raised him to the ranks of such other fictional detectives as Harry Bosch, Dave Robicheaux and even Lew Archer. He could not be deterred by anything or anyone —except his creator, Martin Cruz Smith.
A number of years back, author Smith was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He gave Arkady the same diagnosis, and we have watched the fictional creation reflect the degeneration of the author. We don’t know what stage Smith is in, but the disease has taken its toll on Arkady. He’s not able to keep up in the field as well, and he’s always in danger of his superiors finding out. He knows in his bones this may be his last case, and it is.
It’s a classic Renko case. A high-ranking diplomat is murdered in the Hotel Ukraine, just as Vladimir Putin starts the “action” invading Ukraine. Authorities immediately identify a Ukrainian functionary as the killer. Arkady senses something more complex going on, and takes the extra look he’s known for. Sure enough, he finds a link that travels from the hotel room all the way to Putin, via Ukraine. He follows the clues to Ukraine with his lover Tatiana, a New York Times stringer. There they record atrocities not yet revealed, and also identify the leader of the forces committing them. It turns out that those same actors are responsible for the hotel death.
The writing here is poignant and painful, as evocative of the horrors as one will ever read. When they return to Moscow, Arkady and Tatiana in no time at all become targets because of the information they have. Their lives, as well as that of Arkady’s computer-hacker son, are threatened. The challenge is to eliminate the agents who have been assigned to take them out, and use the information they have to ward off any further action against them. It’s not giving anything away to say the series ends with a future for Arkady and his loved ones to live as freely as one can in Moscow.
The 11th Arkady Renko novel is a fitting conclusion to an outstanding series.