Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko novel by Martin Cruz Smith

A grim picture*** August 21, 2007

Martin Cruz Smith has penned another brooding Arkady Renko novel. Renko has survived the Communist era of the Soviet Union and the oligarchy of the "new" Russia to lanquish in a backwater job. Renko's latest investigation involves the alleged appearance of the ghost of Stalin at a Moscow underground (subway) station. These incidents seem connected to the Senate campaign of Nikolai Isakov, a former member of the Russian army's elite "Black Berets" and a `hero' of the last Russian campaign against Chechnya.Isakov is also a police investigator who has stolen Renko's girlfriend, Eva. Something stinks about Isakov's supposedly heroic exploits in Chechnya and Renko sets out to unravel the truth.

Renko's Russia is a grim and foreboding place.