THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA

The latest in the Russian crime series featuring detective Arkady Renko (Tatiana, 2013, etc.) takes the reader to forlorn Siberia and frozen Lake Baikal.

Renko is Investigator of Special Cases in Moscow. When his girlfriend, Tatiana—an investigative journalist who receives plenty of hate mail and death threats—doesn't arrive home as expected on the Trans-Siberian Express, he’s worried about her. She had gone to Irkutsk, deep inside Siberia, to research a story about oligarch Mikhail Kuznetsov, “who is not only running for president…he’s running for his life.” It’s a story that could make her famous but could also get her killed, so Renko wants to know she is safe. Totally wrapped up in her project, she neglects to let him know she plans to stay there a while longer. So when Renko’s superior sends him to Siberia to report back about Kuznetsov, “a known enemy of the people,” and to interrogate a Chechen prisoner accused of attempted murder, the trip fits in well with his need to find Tatiana and reassure himself that she's OK. She doesn't communicate much, though, making her “a very difficult person to be in love with.” On the flight to Irkutsk he meets Rinchin Bolot, who quickly becomes his factotum, or jack-of-all-trades. “What’s a factotum?” Renko is asked. “I’m not sure, but I seem to have one.” Bolot is a great character with a wry sense of humor. More importantly, he is a many-faceted asset to Renko: “Bolot was an iceberg, all bright surfaces and hidden depths.” For his part, Renko is decent, smart, and appealing, hardly a stereotypical tough guy. And when he’s confronted by an enormous bear, his shooting skills could use sharpening. The story appropriately ends with the Siberian dilemma, where one person faces a terrible choice. Everything just feels Russian, as though the author hikes to his hut from the taiga, warms his frozen fingers at the wood stove, pours himself a vodka, and sits down to type.

This is vintage Martin Cruz Smith. Fans of Arkady Renko will be pleased.