From the award-winning, bestselling author of Gorky Park and
Tatiana comes a breathtaking new novel about investigator Arkady
Renko--"one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction" (USA
TODAY)--who travels deep into Siberia to find missing journalist
Tatiana Petrovna.
Journalist Tatiana Petrovna is on the move. Arkady Renko, iconic Moscow
investigator and Tatiana's part-time lover, hasn't seen her since she
left on assignment over a month ago. When she doesn't arrive on her
scheduled train, he's positive something is wrong. No one else thinks
Renko should be worried--Tatiana is known to disappear during deep
assignments--but he knows her enemies all too well and the criminal
lengths they'll go to keep her quiet.
Renko embarks on a dangerous journey to find Tatiana and bring her back.
From the banks of Lake Baikal to rundown Chita, Renko slowly learns that
Tatiana has been profiling the rise of political dissident Mikhail
Kuznetsov, a golden boy of modern oil wealth and the first to pose a
true threat to Putin's rule in over a decade. Though Kuznetsov seems
like the perfect candidate to take on the corruption in Russian
politics, his reputation becomes clouded when Boris Benz, his business
partner and best friend, turns up dead. In a land of shamans and
brutally cold nights, oligarchs wealthy on northern oil, and sea
monsters that are said to prowl the deepest lake in the world, Renko
needs all his wits about him to get Tatiana out alive.
The Washington Post has said "Martin Cruz Smith is that rare
phenomenon: a popular and well-regarded crime novelist who is also a
writer of real distinction." In the latest continuation of his
unforgettable series, he brings us to the inside world of shadowy
political figures and big wig oil oligarchs providing us with an
authentic view of contemporary Russia, infused with his trademark wit.
