The Siberian Dilemma Quotes

“I looked you up, Arkady. You have a checkered career."
"I'm flattered. I was unaware of having any career at all.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“Arkady was an Investigator of Special Cases, and if a bear running loose in the heart of Moscow was not a special case, he didn't know what was.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“Everyone is too young when their mother dies.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“A nurse the size of a shipping hazard peered over him and smiled. Some of her teeth were missing, some were gold, and the sight was so unnerving that Arkady hoped he wouldn’t give her cause to smile again.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“The smell of flowers was overwhelming. They were all imported, some presumably from vast distances. Arkady saw orchids, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, roses, and tuberoses, splashes of color against winter’s gray.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“The one thing that stung Zhenya was the insinuation that he ducked the best players,
"Anyone I play it's their choice," Zhenya said. "I can't help it if I'm better than they are. Sometimes I play a rook or a bishop down. What could be fairer than that?"
"They never know what hit them," Sosi said; her eyes grew as round as moons. She looked like the perfect fanatic to encourage a leap into a volcano. She rolled a rook back and forth on the Formica, as if she were gathering an electric charge. "Zhenya can turn any game into a slaughter."
It was like visiting the Macbeths, Arkady thought.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma

“They did not speak until the reception at the Marriott. The walls were edged with tables of blini, fish pie, and piroshki.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, The Siberian Dilemma