A review by constantreader471
Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith

4.0

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Martin Cruz Smith's books are enjoyable mysteries. His Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko is a determined man in investigating a death already ruled a suicide. Tatiana was a crusading reporter and fell to her death off a balcony. Somehow Renko connects her death to a murder of an organized crime figure. His investigation takes him to Kaliningrad, a part of Russia that used to be Koeingsberg, Germany, prior to 1945. It is now an enclave of Russia, bordered by Poland and Lithuania.

One quote from the book that made me laugh: "Judges can be expensive...
They should put an ATM in the courtroom and eliminate the middleman."

A minor quibble--one of the characters drives from Moscow to Kaliningrad, and has to go through Lithuanian and Polish customs. This book is set in 2012, after Poland and Lithuania joined the Schwengen agreement--meaning only 1 customs check.