This is a very atmospheric thriller with high levels of suspense. In the second novel of the Arkadi Renko series the investigator has to run away from Moscu and hides in Siberia where he embarks in a fish factory which navigates in Polar waters. The descriptions of the ship, the crew and the hard weather conditions are fantastic. The environment is hard, unforgiving and claustrophobic. Renko is no longer a detective, he is a second class worker , nevertheless he is asked to shed some light on the death of one of his ship mates. Reluctantly he gets involved in the investigation and he finds himself entangled in the shady activities of some powerful and dangerous people in the ship... The plot is very good and the writing is excellent. A real pleasure!! ( )

Smith is a master with this series. I buy his books without even knowing the plot. I find myself continually checking my sources to see if he has another on the way. It has been far too long. ( )

2nd in the Arkady Renko series.

Renko, though he has actually done nothing wrong, is not in high repute in the militia—after all, he did kill a prosecutor even if it was in self-defense. Stripped of his job and worse, Party card, Renko “gets out of town”—to Siberia, where the militia will not make any real determined effort to get him. He signs on as a seaman 2nd class, lowest of the low, on a fish factory ship, the Polar Star, that is headed out to the Bering Sea to fish in a joint venture with the Americans. His job? The “slime line”—cleaning and gutting fish.

But when a young woman is hauled up in the nets along with the fish, the captain of the Polar Star, orders a very reluctant Renko to conduct the investigation into her suspicious death.

Another excellent story by Smith, set in the Arctic cold of the Bering sea. Along with a very good plot that has a satisfactory number of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, the description of the modern fishing process, with catch trawlers and giant processing ships, is interesting. Again, the matrix of political realities in the post-Brezhnev era (“restructuring”) plays an integral part in and adds an enormous amount of interest to the plot. The glimpse we get into Siberian life is fascinating—hardly the barren exile a Westerner so often thinks of, but a thriving part of the Soviet Union, full of energy and freer from the restraints of the Communist bureaucracy than the rest of the empire.

Smith's writing is still up-to-date, even though the date of publication for this novel is 1988.

Renko is the only recurring character, and he has assumed the cynicism necessary to survive in his half-world of borderline legality. The other major Russian characters are for the most part well drawn, especially Marchuk, the captain and Karp, the Siberian urka. But the rest tend to be stereotypes; the Americans are caricatures. Still, they serve well enough for a story that is meant to stand or fall on its plot; you’re in this for the excitement, not for character development.

Good entertainment. Highly recommended. ( )

Renko fascinates me on his own, but combine that with the esoteric world of international fishing, party politics, murder and smuggling and I’m helpless to put the book down. Even after reading this at least ½ dozen times, it still resonates and there are scenes I cannot get out of my head.

I really like Arkady’s process. He’s not a genius, but he is persistent, shrewd and diligent. Some things come to him like a revelation out of the ether and some only come after careful analysis, dogged legwork and piecing together of evidence. Sometimes he’s devious and plays people to get them to do what he wants. Other times he’s completely off base his inherent goodness blinding him to humanity’s ugliness. That’s what makes him so appealing to me; his humanity and vulnerability as well as his toughness and intelligence. No wonder women are drawn to him like iron filings to a magnet.

The mystery and plot are good and the danger high as usual. This one isn’t quite as good as Gorky Park, but it is excellent. ( )

While this is a mystery, it is also so much more. The description of the fish processing ship is incredible. ( )