Havana Bay

Smith, Martin Cruz

ISBN 10: 0333780108 ISBN 13: 9780333780107

Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

A body is disintegrating in the washes of Havana's bay. And despite the Cubans' new-found hatred of the Russians, Arkady Renko has been sent in to uncover the secrets behind the murder.

About this title

Review

In this fourth book in Martin Cruz Smith's splendid series, an amiable Irish American gangster explains to Arkady Renko what he and the other 84 wanted Americans hiding out in Cuba do with themselves. "We try to stay alive. Useful. Tell me, Arkady, what are you doing here?" "The same," says Renko--and it's true. His life as a Russian cop has become so bleak and lonely that he takes any opportunity to shake things up, even spending his own savings to fly to Havana when an old colleague is found dead--floating inside an inner tube after night-fishing in Havana Bay. Renko sets out to make himself useful in this shabby, fascinating, haunted country whose inhabitants look on Russians with the cold disdain of survivors of a nasty divorce.

As he did so well in Gorky Park, Smith again makes Renko very much a classic Russian hero in temperament and tradition, but also the eternal outsider. He is at times close to the edge of despair--but his trip to Havana restores his natural curiosity and life force.

In this hot Havana, ripe with the fruity smell of sex, Renko keeps his Moscow overcoat on--until an equally idealistic and out-of-place young female cop gets him to loosen up. There's an unusually complex plot, even for the sly strand-spinner Smith. He raises baffling questions: Why would a group of military plotters order illegal lobsters in a fancy restaurant and then not eat them? And his descriptions of Cuban life are dead-on, reminding us on every page what a superb stylist he is. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher

10 cds

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0333780108
• ISBN 13: 9780333780107
• Binding: Audio Cassette