August – The Arkady Renko Connection

Martin Cruz Smith has passed away, I’m sad to report. For many of us, his seminal Gorky Park (1981), told from the point of view of a police investigator in Cold War Moscow, enlightened us as to the lives of everyday citizens in modern Russia.
Polar Star and Red Square continued the theme, and later books followed Arkady Renko as he investigated cases in places like Havana and Chernobyl.



Tatiana burst onto the scene in 2013 with the titular journalist coming into Arkady’s life. Journalists were no longer dutifully reporting whatever Tass was authorised to state. They were exploding myth, exposing corruption. Dangerously, for everyone concerned. With the invasion of Ukraine, Renko and Tatiana continued to expose criminality, even if that meant war crimes.
Hotel Ukraine was the author’s last book, as he had been fighting against Parkinson’s Disease, an affliction which he bravely placed onto his investigator. His last works were produced with the aid of his wife Emily.

When Simon & Schuster prepared to publish Tatiana, in 2014, they ran a contest for a short story relating to Arkady Renko. The title was to be 'London Calling'. I won.

Here is the link to their archived publication of my short story.

https://the-dark-pages-blog.blogspot....

The judge was Martin Cruz Smith. This was his note to me.
"Please congratulate Clare O'Beara for me for her clever short, short story 'London Calling.' I appreciate that she treated Arkady kindly, taking his age into consideration, and managed to cross the finish line with a different sort of twist."
- Martin Cruz Smith.

At the time I had published books on Kindle about journalism and crime in a future London. Mr. Cruz Smith started out as a journalist. We were well matched. I have enjoyed all the crime books by this author, including The Indians Won (1970), an early work by this part-Pueblo author. In this alternate history, Crazy Horse was not assassinated, and went on to become the greatest General the Native tribes had seen. He united the tribes and pulled together a nation-sized block of states down the centre of North America, working with the Mormons in Utah. The dual timeline book shows us how this would play out into the 1980s, with an independent government. Sadly, this one hasn’t been republished. Another writer has told me that she lives in Canada and wanted to read this book in her library, but it was in the reference section and she could not borrow it.

Other works by Martin Cruz Smith include Stallion Gate, about the early atomic testing sites on reservation lands. Nightwing, about a cloud of disease-carrying bats in the Southwest. Rose, a historical crime fiction about British coal miners. And he wrote a few books about Gypsy people such as Canto For A Gypsy, which I read, but this was too American-centred and non-SF for me. He won many awards and inspired several films.
Here’s his Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_...

The Guardian obituary.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

This month I have been travelling, I will report on that next time.

Here is a YA book set in the American Southwest free: Rodeo Finn. Download 21 – 24 August.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OU100W8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OU100W8

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