Detective Arkaday Renko--"one of the most compelling figures in modern
fiction" (USA TODAY)--risks his life when he heads to Ukraine shortly
before the Russian invasion to find an anti-Putin activist who has
mysteriously disappeared.
Martin Cruz Smith has written nine previous novels featuring Arkady
Renko, one of modern detective fiction's most popular characters. These
novels, beginning with 1981's international sensation Gorky Park, have
collectively traced Russia's evolution over the last half-century. Now,
with Independence Square, Smith focuses on the fraught and frenzied
days leading up to Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.
It's June 2021, and Arkady knows that Russia is preparing to invade and
subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however,
preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna,
has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. His corrupt
boss has relegated him to a desk job. And he is having trouble with his
dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are
symptoms for Parkinson's Disease.
This is an ingenious autobiographical conceit, as Martin Cruz Smith has
Parkinson's, and is able through Arkady to movingly describe his own
experience with the disease. Parkinson's hasn't stopped Smith from his
work, and neither does it stop Arkady. Rather than dwell on his
diagnosis, he throws himself into another case.
An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an
anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the
investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from
Ukraine. The search leads them to Kyiv, where rumblings of an armed
conflict grow louder. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate
Arkady's new romance. And as he gets closer to locating Karina, Arkady
discovers something that threatens his life as well as the lives of both
Elena and Tatiana.
Few fiction writers have better captured contemporary Russia with more
insight or authenticity than Martin Cruz Smith. He does the same here
for Ukraine and the events that preceded Russia's invasion.
Independence Square is a timely and a uniquely personal mystery
novel-meets-political thriller by a master of the form.
