A rewarding read and a fine finale for the Smith-Renko team.
The 11th and final installment in the Arkady Renko series that began with Gorky Park in 1981.
The Russian homicide detective has lived under communism, witnessed its fall, and now lives during Vladimir Putin’s reign. As Russia launches its “special military operation” against Ukraine, Renko must investigate the brutal murder of the deputy minister of defense in Moscow’s Hotel Ukraine. Apparently, two people bashed his head in using two different types of weapons. Adding to the challenge, Renko suffers from Parkinson’s disease, making it increasingly difficult to function. He knows it will only get worse, though he insists he’s not an invalid. His adopted son says, “Even with Parkinson’s you’re the best they’ve got.” Meanwhile, he’s in love with Tatiana Petrovna, a Moscow-based correspondent for the New York Times who hates injustice and is “constitutionally incapable of seeing a bear without poking it.” She wants to report on Bucha, a Ukrainian city that suffered horrific destruction at the hands of the Russians. Renko’s investigation takes him there as well. Is the killing tied in with the invasion? Renko and Petrovna take extraordinary risks for the sake of finding the truth. The unseen presence above it all is Putin, and anyone who threatens him might as well drink tea mixed with heartbreak grass, a deadly poison said to have been used on some of his enemies. Renko and Tatiana both face that threat as they peer into the abyss of death. Aside from the action scenes, Renko offers interesting observations. He is “Russian to his core,” although love of country does not extend to love of its leaders. He thinks the only book that explains his beloved country is Alice in Wonderland. And he opines on the “fundamental truth” about love, that it means wanting what’s best for the other over yourself. Given their tribulations and given that this book finishes the series, the ending could be tragic or hopeful. Either way, Arkady Renko’s career is complete. Author Martin Cruz Smith has had Parkinson’s for decades and says this is his last book.
A rewarding read and a fine finale for the Smith-Renko team.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781982188382
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Hair-raising fun!
Two strange deaths in the desert pose tough questions in this fifth Nora Kelly adventure.
In a remote section of New Mexico, a woman walks alone into the blistering desert heat. In a trance, she ignores her horrific thirst and discards her clothing, piece by piece, until she lies down and dies. Five years later, a video crew with a drone discovers her skeletal remains, which they promptly report. Agent Corrie Swanson is part of an FBI team that heads out into the bleak badlands to investigate. She shares a photo with anthropologist Nora Kelly, who is especially intrigued by the pair of rare green lightning stones found under the skeleton. The woman died with perfect health, yet no one had reported her missing. DNA confirms the 40-ish woman was Molly Vine, an apparently vibrant person who “wouldn’t just throw her life away.” Then the FBI finds another body, another woman, same trail of clothing and pair of green lightning stones, but her death is much more recent. And that’s just the beginning of a tale that gets curiouser and curiouser with discoveries of ancient mass murders and modern mind control. Corrie and Nora are a perfect pair: smart and professional, and with bravery they will need in abundance. At one point, they compare approaches: As an anthropologist, Nora is trained not to judge; as an FBI agent, Corrie is trained to judge. As they delve into the investigation, Nora’s younger brother, Skip, and his billionaire buddy, Edison Nash, complicate matters immensely. They decide to go camping and investigate on their own, and Skip reminds Nash that taking ancient artifacts like an obsidian arrowhead is a felony. But as strange shadows lurk around their faded campfire at night, they learn that getting in trouble with the law is the least of their worries. The landscape imbues a special flavor to this engrossing yarn—the adobe kivas with signs of thousand-year-old murders, the slot canyons, the changing terrain as desert yields to ponderosa pine—and the sandstorms that can abort a rescue. In this setting, an unknown enemy causes cringeworthy violence that the heroes may have to face alone. But as Corrie tells Nora, “We’ve got a gun. We’ve got a knife. Now we need a plan.”
Hair-raising fun!Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781538765821
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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