num_pages: 352
description: Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor’s office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station.The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating.That's a rating decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko’s quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.The investigation leads to the fields of Tver outside of Moscow, where once a million soldiers fought. There, amidst the detritus, Renko must confront the ghost of his own father, a favorite general of Stalin’s. In these barren fields, patriots and shady entrepreneurs—the Red Diggers and Black Diggers—collect the bones, weapons and personal effects of slain World War II soldiers, and find that even among the dead there are surprises"Stalin’s Ghost" is replete with Martin Cruz Smith’s trademark wit, dark humor and action. In this tale of Arkady Renko, Smith has again fashioned an unforgettable character as cynical as Philip Marlowe, but with the heart of a Chekhovian Everyman. The reader is treated to an unparalleled thriller woven with a depth of humanity found in the finest literature.
language: English
title: Stalin's Ghost
titlecomplete: Stalin's Ghost (Arkady Renko, #6)
characters: General Renko, Eva Kazka, Elena Ilyichnina, Stalin (Stalin's Ghost), The Deputy Minister (Stalin's Ghost), Prosecutor Sarkisian, Zhenya Lysenko, Igor Borodin, Victor Orlov, Zoya Filotova, Nikolai Isakov, Vladimir Zelensky, Arkady Renko, Gennady Agronsky, Pacheco and Wiley, Bora (Stalin's Ghost), Ginsberg (Stalin's Ghost), Georgy and Fedya, Kuznetsov and his wife, Tanya (Stalin's Ghost), Leonid Petrovich Zurin, Marat Urman, Ilya Platonov, Rudi Rudenko
genres: Mystery, Russia, Suspense, Novels, Detective, Thriller, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime
ratings_count: 6104
places: Moscow, Russia, Tver, Russia
series: Arkady Renko
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Hammett Prize, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Deutscher Krimi Preis
category: 2. Platz International
publisher: Simon & Schuster