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Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith (view source)
Revision as of 12:09, 1 October 2020
, 12:09, 1 October 2020no edit summary
Sadly though, much of the novel fails to match the depth of plot and characterisation evident in earlier works such as ''Gorky Park''. I also yearned for a line as vibrant and evocative as that in ''Red Square'', when a colleague tells Renko that ''observing you smoke is like watching someone commit suicide''. In contrast, the opening line of ''Tatiana'' – ''It was the sort of day that didn’t give a damn'' – is cod Bukowski and unworthy of a writer as accomplished as Cruz Smith. In previous novels, Renko’s readiness to court death in order to protect innocents was anchored in a pessimism about the worth of his own existence. In ''Tatiana'', he has a reason to live – his love for and duty towards Zhenya – yet his willingness to face a murderer at the novel’s denouement feels strangely without any tension.
For readers who are new to the Renko books, ''Tatiana'' does stand up as a passable detective novel with just enough plot invention (in particular, the detective’s attempts to unlock coded information) to maintain your interest. However, as a long-time fan of Arkady and his particular brand of hard-bitten scepticism, I found the novel to be further evidence of a decline in invention and narrative power that began with ''Wolves Eat Dogs''. We also have a review of Cruz Smith's [[The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith|The Girl from Venice]].
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