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.
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“It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been following this series by Smith, because this installment, set in Russia and packed with action, stands alone…Bobb has a deep voice and a pace that is controlled and even. He easily changes the timbre of his voice for different characters, and Eastern European accents sound authentic.”
— Berkshire Edge (starred review)
“This is Smith at his absolute best: black humor, brown bears, and gray souls.”
— Booklist (starred review)“[A] must for any crime fiction fan interested in the underside of Putin’s Russia.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Martin Cruz-Smith is the bestselling author of several novels. In 2019 he was named an Edgar Award Grand Master. He is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers and winner of Britain’s Golden Dagger Award and and of the Premio Piemonte Giallo Internazionale.
Jeremy Bobb is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and an accomplished actor whose film credits include The Knick, Godless, Mosaic, and The Wolf of Wall Street. He has performed in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Is He Dead? and Cactus Flower.