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Murder as a Joint Venture
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16525 |
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BOOK WORLD
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11 / 1989 |
2,396 Words |
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Stanislav Levchenko
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POLAR STAR
Martin Cruz Smith
New York: Random House, 1989
403 pp., $19.95
It seems that Martin Cruz Smith cannot diverce himself from Soviet realities. His best-selling novel Gorky Park surprised many readers not only because it is one of the best detective stories to appear in the United States recently but also because of its precise description of the Soviet Union and of the still mysterious (for many) Russian character. As one who was once a Soviet citizen, I could identify with his portrayal of the Soviet Union.
Now, finally, Gorky Park is reaching its Soviet audience--Gorbachev's glasnost is permitting the publication of a condensation of the novel in a new Soviet magazine in Moscow. Among other things, this means that the Soviets have recognized themselves in the writings of an American author who was previously banned for "slandering the Soviet state and Soviet people."
Polar Star
Polar Star is not a continuation of Smith's previous novel. It is a new, strikingly brilliant story. Its only link to Gorky Park is the reappearance of the author's favorite hero, the brave and uncompromising investigator Arkady Renko.
Renko enters this new novel battered by the devious Soviet system that he has served so faithfully--he has even refused to defect when he had the chance. In Polar Star, we meet Renko far removed from the glamour of his former profession as an investigator in Moscow, even apparently removed from the omnipresent KGB he is perpetually trying to escape. Polar Star is the name of a Soviet fish-processing ship. Here Renko labors as a second-class seaman on the "slime line," the fish-processing line in the bowels of the ship.
The author, however, does not let his hero spend the rest of his days in the obscurity of the fish hold. A young Soviet woman is murdered on the ship, and the captain decides to entrust the murder investigation to Arkady. Nor is it the only murder in the book. As the corpse count climbs, the plot develops in unexpected twists, keeping the reader's attention totally captured. Arkady himself survives half a dozen attempts on his life. And, as in Gorky Park, the murders are committed by both Soviets and Americans. In this sense, Smith does not discriminate.
The body count is just one part of the plot. In addition to classic elements of a detective story, the author weaves into the plot an intriguing game of deception between Soviets and American spies. The Soviets navy intelligence officer, under "deep cover" as a fleet mechanic, is secretly monitoring the movements of American submarines. His American counterpart, under cover as a captain of an American trawler, plays him underwater tapes containing the sounds of nonexistent ships. Obviously, both keep each other very busy.
Polar Star is also a story of an attempted defection--one of the reasons the girl was murdered. Later in the book, just as in Gorky Park, Arkady himself gets an offer to defect--this time from a charming American lady spy with whom he strikes a relationship that transcends
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