Polar Star

This was the first Martin Cruz Smith book I read, oh so long ago, and the real mystery is why I never read any more until this year. Also, having read through the entire Arkady Renko ouevre, I think this may well remain my favourite, if only purely for the setting on the North Pacific factory ship the Polar Star, engaged on a joint fishery venture with three US trawlers. Renko has fled Moscow and found his way to the slime line, cleaning, gutting and freezing the catct in the bowels of the ship. When the body of a canteen worker falls out of a net full of fish, the captain puts Renko on the case, even though it's clear from the outset that finding out what actually happened to the young woman will only cause all sorts trouble, and not show more just for Renko. There's a lot more than fishing going on aboard the Polar Star. show less

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 show more 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. show less

I thought that Gorky Park was a good start but ultimately a bit hard to follow. Polar Star resolves all of those issues and makes for a really captivating mystery, with surprising, complex characters that really elevate the entire work. Setting the story on a fish butchery, for lack of a better term, floating in the Arctic Ocean could have made for yet another locked room mystery, but Smith strips it away layer by layer to reveal something greater than the sum of its parts.

Wow! This layered, lyrical, brutally realistic depiction of a man trying to survive the repression of the Soviet system without entirely forfeiting his intellectual integrity and dignity is literature disguised as a thriller. By all means read this for the murder mystery, which is entirely fulfilling. But what made this novel stand out for me was Cruz Smith's deft rendering of the protagonist, Renko, and the world in which he is forced to find his way. Surrounded by brutality of every sort (physical, mental and emotional), Renko learns to bend but, in the end, refuses to be broken. A lovely and thought-provoking study of the triumph of humanity in the face of inhumanity ... and a darn good mystery, too!

I’m not sure why I delayed getting to this title since I enjoyed Gorky Park so much, to which this book is a sequel of sorts. Of sorts, because it follows directly on the heels of Gorky, but the author in a few brief paragraphs lays out precisely why Arkady, formerly head investigator for the prosecutor’s office in Moscow is now working as a slimer on a factory ship in the Bering Sea.

It’s good. Those who don’t like what they view as excessive detail in Moby Dick probably won’t like this book either, but as you know, I wallow in all manner of detail and the descriptive scenes of working on the factory ship were quite interesting, particularly when they discover a slime eel (hagfish) in the body of a Russian woman who was show more dragged up by one of the accompanying American trawlers (it’s a joint Russian/American business.) Totally gross.

Because of his previous investigative experience, the captain pulls Arkady from the factory line and has him investigate, wanting to have everything kosher for the American observers on board. Arkardy is forced to walk a very fine line between those in power who see no reason for an investigation, nor do they want one, and his innate sense of justice that refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide when all the evidence points in a different direction. Everyone lies and everyone has nefarious reasons for doing so. It’s a world populated by paranoiacs and schemers.

Lots of reflections on Russian society; comments like “In irony we lead the world,” which in context is not only amusing but perspicacious. And, my goodness, Smith has a dim view of people in general if his books are any testament. show less

Mr. Smith creates in this novel the atmosphere that I imagine when I think of the Soviet Union - insanity and doublespeak and one man who knows what he should say and do but can't seem to resist the pursuit of truth even in the face of his own punishment or death. Arkady is back - landed in the lowest of the low places in a country that doesn't really know what to do with him. Pulled against his will into an investigation on the factory ship where he has been hiding, it remains to be seen if "waking" up again will do him any good at all.

Polar Star
Martin Cruz Smith
Monday, August 13, 2012 9:25 PM

Arkady Renko is a former police investigator, now disgraced, and working on the “slime line” on the Soviet factory fishing ship “Polar Star”. When the dead body of a female crewmember is dragged in a net from the sea floor, he is pressed into service as an investigator again. In the grim surroundings of the ship, he pursues with singular concentration the truth of the girl’s death. The Polar Star is serving as host to several American trawlers, and in the end the CIA is involved, as well as the grim Soviet mafias smuggling drugs on the side. Renko is an interesting, moody character, and the setting is superbly described. I bought this as a “Signed Limited Edition” show more from the Franklin Library, on a recommendation from a book review. show less