Gorky Park (novel)

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Gorky Park
First edition cover
First edition cover
Author Martin Cruz Smith
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Random House & GK Hall
Released March 1981
Media Type Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages 639 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-394-51748-2 (first edition, hardback)
Followed by Polar Star

Gorky Park is a 1981 crime novel written by Martin Cruz Smith set in the Soviet Union. It follows Arkady Renko, a chief investigator for the Militsiya, who is assigned to a case involving three corpses dug up in Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow, who have had their faces and fingertips cut off by the murderer to prevent identification.

[edit] Plot introduction

Despite being born into the nomenklatura himself, he exposes corruption and dishonesty on the part of influential and well-protected members of the elite, regardless of the consequences. A short episode of the book takes place in the United States, but when exposed to western capitalist society, he finds it to be equally corrupt and returns to Russia.

Gorky Park is the first book in a series which also includes Polar Star and Red Square which are set during the Soviet era. Two more books with the character Arkady Renko, which both take place after the fall of the Soviet Union have been published. These are Havana Bay, set in the communist Cuba and Wolves Eat Dogs which follows Renko in the disaster of Chernobyl.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations