Polar Star (novel)

Polar Star is a 1989 crime novel by Martin Cruz Smith, set in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. It is a sequel to Gorky Park and features former militsiya investigator Arkady Renko, taking place during the period of Perestroika.^[1]

Background

After uncovering corruption in high places (in Gorky Park), Renko is dismissed from his job as a Moscow police investigator and is forced to accept a variety of menial jobs in remote parts of the Soviet Union. Finally, he finds himself gutting fish on a factory ship in the Bering Sea, in part to hide from the KGB, who have tried to kill him. The Soviet factory ship is part of a US-Soviet joint venture, with the US fishing vessels catching the fish and turning the catch over to the Soviets for processing (gutting, cleaning, and freezing). The other crew members have signed up with the prospect of a one day stop at the United States fisheries port of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, with an extra salary allowance in dollars to let them purchase Western goods such as VCRs and cassette tapes.

Then the body of a murdered female crew member is pulled up in the vessel's nets, and Renko reluctantly agrees to investigate after the ship's political commissar gives him no choice. But Renko's obstinate insistence on learning the truth behind her death, rather than allowing her murder to be covered up as a suicide, results in threats by the commissar to block the visit to the United States, which in turn causes the workers to threaten Renko.

Plot

Arkady Renko, former Chief Investigator of the Moscow Town Prosecutor's Office, is serving a self-imposed exile in Siberia to avoid being detained for his actions in Gorky Park almost a decade earlier, despite the Soviet Union's growing liberalization. He manages menial employment as a fish gutter on a "slime lime" of a large Arctic sea factory ship called the Polar Star, part of a joint Soviet-American fishing exercise within detente. He is brought to the attention of Viktor Marchuk, the ship's captain, after a young woman named Zina Patiashvili is found dead in the net. Due to his past as a homicide investigator, he is given the task of finding out what happened to her - to the dislike of political officer Volovoi. Schmidt, the ship's chief electrical engineer - an elaborate blind for his espionage activities - welcomes Arkady more warmly. Researching into the girl's friends and background, he discovers an open and somewhat radical Georgian personality, known for her many lovers (including the Captain, before she became a crew member) and fondness for underground music. Looking into her death also attracts the attention of the ship's main gang, lead by Karp Corabetz - the ship's leading fisher and Arkady's former prisoner. The Americans running one of the actual fishing ship's also take an interest in the case, as well as the American corporate representative on-board Susan. Arkady grows weary of the investigation, largely due to the obstructive actions of many of his shipmates - many of which concerned that it will delay a long awaited shore leave on the island of Dutch Harbour. Arkady finally decides to go along with the original verdict of suicide, letting the ship dock. Though lacking proper authorization to set ashore, he is taken over by Schmidt. Whilst there, he starts to enter a relationship with Susan before ending up meeting Volovoi in a nearby dwelling. Volovoi threatens him, but is killed by Karp who then locks Arkady in and sets alight the building. Arkady manages to escape, and falls into the water to wash off the smoke. Questions are raised, but nothing is decided. Arkady has no evidence against Karp, and, having already survived an attempt on his life, fears he will be silenced. Entering the icy north, the American trawler freezes into the ice ahead of the Polar Star. Arkady learns of Karp's relationship with Zina and her attempts to defect aboard the American ship, as well the secret spy cable running underneath the vessel run by Schmidt. Arkady ventures out into the ice towards the American ship, but is caught up with by Karp. On board they hear the American sailors talking, and it is revealed that they killed the woman and know about and were using the cable themselves. Karp kills the killer, scaring off the Americans, allowing him and Arkady to escape. Although he attempts to at first do away with Arkady, Karp finally decides, with little left in life, to kill himself in icy water. When the Polar Star returns to Vladivostok, Arkady says farewell to Susan and his fellow crewmen; suddenly finding himself in the party's favour again.

References

External links

• Martin Cruz Smith official site