Wolves Eat Dogs: a novel by Martin Cruz Smith

Renko depressed and depressing, March 20, 2005***


In this novel Arkady Renko seems out of sync in the New Russia of capitalists and Mafia.Ostensibly the novel is about an investigation of the deaths of Pasha Ivanov,President, and subsequently the senior vice-president, of NoviRusk, a rising Russian firm. It appears that Ivanov has committed suicide and even Renko believes that for most of the novel. But why? A search for the answer takes Renko to the Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl where sanctioned workers and unsanctioned residents live a surreal existence. At this point the novel loses its way and meanders into an examination of the meaning of life. Eventually Renko untangles the relationship of one of the key characters in the second half of the novel to the dead men in the first half but only after you wonder whether he will emerge from the wasteland around Chernobyl. Definitely not Cruz Smith's best novel but still worth reading!