Red Square (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Martin Cruz Smith |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Arkady Renko # 3 |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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1992 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 29403603 |
| Preceded by | Polar Star |
| Followed by | Havana Bay |
Red Square is a crime novel by Martin Cruz Smith, primarily set in Moscow, Munich and Berlin between August 6 and August 21, 1991. It is a sequel to Gorky Park and Polar Star and features the Investigator Arkady Renko, taking place during the period of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As the existing social and economic structures of the Soviet Union break down, Arkady Renko has been reinstated as an Investigator in the Moscow Militsiya (Police Force). He is trying to clear up a nest of illicit traders when his chief informant dies in a horrific fireball. At the late informer's flat, his fax machine keeps asking the apparently meaningless question, "Where is Red Square?"
The question does not pertain to a location but to an avant-garde painting by suprematist painter Malevich which has resurfaced on the black market after being lost since World War II. The story, however, reverts to the August Coup, which takes place in and around Red Square and indeed throughout Moscow in August 1991, leading to the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union.
One of the subplots within this novel involves Arkady Renko's improbable reunion with the one great love of his life, Irina Asanova. Her seemingly total disinterest in Arkady sends him resignedly on his way until, in an ultimate ironic twist, a belatedly-delivered message from Renko's recently deceased father galvanizes him into one last, determined attempt at winning Irina back.
Now back in Moscow, Arkady Renko struggles to keep the peace in a town overrun by organized crime and the economic recession caused by the death-throes of the Soviet Union. The lawlessness of the new Moscow is brought home to him when one of this informants, a Russian Jewish black marketer named Rudy Rosen, is killed by a fire bomb. Suspicion for the act is divided among each of the leading gangs, such as one led by a new Soviet "entrepreneur" or the ever troublesome Chechens.
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