Red Square [Anglais] [Relié]

The Soviet upheavals have fueled the glowing talent of Smith (Gorky Park), America's preeminent writer of Russia-based thrillers. Investigator Arkady Renko returns from exile on the Polar Star fleet to find the new Moscow a dramatic battlefield of warlords and entrepreneurs; behind it, as still as a painted backdrop, eight million people standing in line. An ingenious bomb kills Renko's informer the banker for freewheeling black marketeers-leading Arkady's team through the quicksand of mafia-dominated official graft. His workaholic forensics expert, Polina (who must wait in line for morgue time as well as for beets), identifies the bomb method, leading Arkady too close for aparatchik comfort. He is bumped from the case, but only after a clue from the dead man's fax (Where is Red Square?) points him toward a Munich connection. Meanwhile, he is stunned to hear his lost love, Irina, on Munichbased Radio Liberty and with his last bit of clout wrangles a barely official trip to Germany. His mastery of the Russian system stymies the Munich embassy and reunites him with Irina in the midst of nasty fellow citizens bent on national theft. With vital aid from a Munich cop, Arkady links the fax clue to Russian bureaucrats, the ethnic Checken mafia, and German bankers. The novel paints the new post-Soviet aura through the stoic hero's wry humor and leaves Arkady and Irina perfectly poised, like Russia itself, for whatever comes next. Major ad/ promo; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Arkady Renko returns to another thriller full of Russian intrigue in a contemporary setting. Renko has been reinstated as an investigator, but once again he quickly has all sides after him. O'Keefe chooses to accent all the characters' speech heavily. Subtlety is lost, and the Russians tend to sound much the same. However, the narration is clear, and O'Keefe speaks each complicated name with clarity and ease. Nonetheless, he can't make up for an abridgment that lacks coherence. Smith's cryptic novels are devilishly hard to keep straight and the abridgment doesn't help. This presentation is an excellent draw to an unabridged recording or the full written text. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"Sharply, evocatively written and elaborately plotted...It should find as many friends as did GORKY PARK."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Back from exile, Arkady Reko returns to find that his country, his Moscow, even his job, are nearly dead. Not so his enemies. Hounded by the Russian mafia, chased by ruthless minions of the newly rich and powerful, and tempted by his great love, Arkady can only hope for escape. Fate, however, has other ideas....
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
A LITERARY GUILD MAIN SELECTION
--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

With the fall of Soviet Communism, Inspector Arkady Renko returns from exile and once again takes up his career with the police, only to find himself embroiled in a perilous confrontation with Moscow's new crime elite. 200,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo. Tour.

12 1.5-hour cassettes