Tatiana

Arkady Renko is a famous investigator that some of you may remember if you have read the book or seen the movie GorkyPark? Gorky Park was obviously set in Communist era but this is the new Russia, steeped in corruption and secrecy. Arkady and his alcoholic partner Victor Orlov are attending the funeral of a big shot mob millionaire Grisha Grigorenko who has been murdered. They are not really there to pay their respects, just to take photos of the mourners, hoping that they may help with the murder investigation.

On leaving the funeral, Arkady gets caught up in protest march for Tatiana

Petrovna a famous and uncompromising television reporter who had

committed suicide the week before. He stays with the protest because his

sometimes girl friend, Anya also happens to be there and when the protest

turns violent he ends up being beaten and almost arrested.

Arkady’s girlfriend convinces Arkady to investigate the suicide of Tatiana

and in doing so, Arkady stumbles across a now dead translators notebook

written in code that seems to have come from a remote beach near the old

‘Cold War’ secret city of Kalingrad. Why is it that everybody seems to be

chasing the notebook and how is a murdered dead mobster linked? Has what

Tatiana was investigating anything to do with it? Arkady listens to her

audio tapes he finds in Tatiana’s apartment hoping for more clues and ends

up being infatuated with the now dead reporter.

Well written with enough sub plots to keep you guessing this is a very good

read from Martin Cruz Smith.