A review by richardwells
Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith

2.0

It pains me to give An Arkady Renko Novel a meager two stars, but Martin Cruz Smith has put out a book that falls short of his usual great work. It remains true that Mr. Smith paints a picture of modern Russia that is as disturbing, maybe more disturbing, than Dickens' London. And his characters in their broken heroism are as compelling as ever. Arkady Renko is an existential mess; his partner, is a late stage alcoholic who lurches into functionality, but only just barely, his ward is a highly functioning autistic street kid rescued from Chernobyl; and now there's a teenage prostitute whose child is kidnapped, and who sets the plot into motion. This sort of family bouncing one off the other, its contrast with street families of adolescent and teenage homeless, and the odyssey of the kidnapped kid make for a great read, but that story is joined with the hunt for a serial killer, and the two parts don't really make a whole. The murders are barely interesting , the excesses of the new oligarchy (a Smith specialty) are old-hat, as is Renko's constant struggle with the police hierarchy.

I could have easily done without the serial killer, and with a deeper story around the lost baby, but that wasn't the author's choice, and though he brought the lost baby story to an interesting conclusion the denouement was forced. The serial killer piece was resolved with deus ex machina - a cheap way out, unrealistic, and totally unsatisfying. Mr. Cruz Smith seemed to run out of steam, and so did the book.

Arkady Renko and his brood remain some of my favorite characters, too bad they didn't get a better story this time out.