Patrick Anderson reviewed Martin Cruz Smith's new Arkady Renko novel, Stalin's Ghost, in yesterday's Washington Post. It's an interesting review, and the book sounds interesting as well, although I don't feel motivated to pick it up and read it.
The only part of the review I found curious was the last graf:
All ends more or less well, but not before Smith, as well as entertaining us, has raised interesting questions. Renko can be seen as a father to Michael Connelly's equally honest and stubborn Harry Bosch, but Connelly's Los Angeles is never the madhouse that Smith's Russia has become. Thus the question: Is today's America all that less mad than Russia? Or is madness simply funnier when it's half a world away?
To answer Anderson's question: Yes, today's America is far less mad than Russia.
Still, a nice review.
I must agree that most of modern-day thrillers would not exist if not for GORKY PARK - I think because Smith doesn't write a book a year he sometimes gets neglected in mystery circles, though he deserves all the accolades he gets. STALIN'S GHOSTS probably isn't his best book but it's a really good one (I almost reviewed it for the LAT but someone beat me to it! But it would have been an interesting counterpoint to the American-set post 9/11 thrillers I did mention.)
Posted by: Sarah | June 12, 2007 at 03:58 PM