Wolves Eat Dogs - Softcover

Cruz Smith, Martin; Smith, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330442333 ISBN 13: 9780330442336

Publisher: Pan Books, 2005

Synopsis

Chernobyl: the Zone of Exclusion. A ghostly place, deserted and forgotten for almost two decades; now inhabited by militia, shady scavengers, a few reckless scientists, and some elderly Ukrainian peasants . . . This is the eerie and dangerous world Inspector Arkady Renko must navigate if he is to find out the truth behind the death of one of Russia’s richest oligarchs.

Pasha Ivanov has been found dead on the pavement outside his luxury high-rise apartment in Moscow. It seems like a straightforward suicide, but Renko, never one to take evidence at face value, refuses to drop the case, and there is something puzzling him: a mountain of salt found in Ivanov’s wardrobe . . .

Determined to look deeper into the circumstances of Ivanov’s demise, he acquaints himself with this wealthy businessman’s powerful and corrupt circle, until his investigations lead him to Chernobyl’s notorious Zone of Exclusion, where the body of Lev Timofeyev, Ivanov’s former research partner, has been discovered in a contaminated cemetery . . .

Masterfully crafted and told with extraordinary insight and imaginative breadth, the bestselling author of GORKY PARK brings us Renko’s most beguiling and unusual adventure to date.

About this title

Review

The latest of Smith's thrillers about honest Russian cop Arkady Renko, Wolves Eat Dogs has a memorably spooky opening as Renko prowls the apartment of one of the men who has done well out of privatization and neo-capitalism and has suddenly jumped out of a tenth floor window. The dead man's cupboard is full of salt and he was clutching a salt-shaker when he died--no-one wants to investigate madness, but Renko suspects that there is more to it than that. When the dead man's partner turns up with his throat cut in a cemetery in the Ukraine, his bosses get him out of their hair by sending him to investigate--in the overgrown deserted towns and returning woodlands around the radioactive ruins of the Chernobyl power plant. A place full of deadly legacies and ruined hopes is just the sort of place where Renko feels at home, and where secrets are as common as giant mutant catfish. The mystery is less impressive here than the atmosphere--Smith gives the attentive reader more clues than merely playing fair demands--but with atmosphere so intense that hardly matters. --Roz Kaveney

Review

"Martin Cruz Smith is a master of the international thriller."

-- "The New York Times"

"Martin Cruz Smith is the master of the international thriller."

-- The New York Times

"Martin Cruz Smith and Detective Arkady Renko are irresistible."

-- Time

"An engrossing mystery with a satisfyingly slam-bang conclusion."

-- The Boston Herald

Edition details

• Publisher: Pan Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0330442333
• ISBN 13: 9780330442336
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416