Rating: 
Summary: Dark, intricate, and engrossing
Review: Red Square is a dark intricate detective story set in Moscow, Munich, and Berlin. I heard (rather than read) an unabridged audio version, which is not the ideal medium for a Martin Cruz Smith novel. As in every other MCS novel I've read/heard (Gorky Park, Polar Star, Rose), the first time through, I was totally lost at times. On the second reading/hearing, I got a vague idea of the plot. The only MCS novel I've read/heard 3 times is Rose, and I finally get the plot. I'm not overly stupid, but I do have trouble remembering peoples names, particularly Russian names. For those who suffer from the same dyslexia as I, keeping notes while reading is necessary. Perhaps inevitable and unavoidable in such a novel, there are dozens of charactersmost of which are minor. The problem is that minor characters on page 20 pop up again on page 300 and turn out to be major characters. With these caveats, I nevertheless very much enjoy MCS novelsso much so that I frequently give hardback copies as Christmas gifts.
Rating: 
Summary: Russian detectiive Renko finds crime and love in germany
Review: Series detective Arkady Renko (Gorky Park, Polar Star) once again firghts against the shenanigins of the Russian bureacracy. This time Russia has entered a new era and the motive is greed not ideology. Renko is shipped off to Munich: hurray, his old girl Irina is there; boo, she doesn't want him. Renko teams up with a hyper german cop and roots out the connection between russian mafia and fine art.
In a slam ending, back in Moscow, the old guard have staged a coup against Gorbachev, Renklo routs out the mob and is reunited with Irina
Somewhat disjointed and using devices from earlier books this still makes understandable the complexities of current Russian life
Rating: 
Summary: meandering plot, fascinating world
Review: Several times I wasn't sure what Arkady was doing or why. There's a hovering feel of depression over the whole book, associated with the decay of the Soviet Union. "Polar Star" was more fun. I read this twice anyways -- maybe it's that the detective story isn't the main plot.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate
Review: Smith proves here, if not before, that a writer can write a gripping suspense novel that is also literature. This is the best thriller novel since Craig Furnas's THE SHAPE, and captures the political/social zeitgeist that occured during the collapse the collapse of the Soveit Union. Read RED SQUARE if you want a gripping read, that is also dark and has depth.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best...
Review: Smith's "Red Square" is a great example of how a novel transcends its genre and becomes a work of literature almost by stealth. Yes, this is a mystery featuring intrepid Moscow Militia detective Arkady Renko, but it is a great deal more. It's a look at a nation gorging itself on capitalism like a starved man at a banquet table. It's a story about patriotism and what it means to love one's country. Renko finds, to his utter disbelief, that the expatriates who escaped communism in the '70s and '80s are no longer the folk heros they once were, and he--a seeming workhorse cog in the Russian machine--may have shown more courage and idealism than they ever did.
It's also a great love story. Almost every mystery has the detective meeting a love interest, but none have ever read so true and the reunion of Renko and Irina. From the early scenes where he in his dilapidated apartment listens to her pirate broadcasts from Germany, to their meeting amid the wealth of post-Cold War Germany this is a romance that genuinely moves the reader.
In the end "Red Square" is simply one of the best. One of the best books I've read, one of the best mysteries to come along in the past 50 years, one of the best socio-political examinations of the Cold War...the list goes on and on.
Rating:
Summary: more Renko
Review: The Soviet empire is no more, removing the force that kept Smith's hero - intrepid investigator Arkadi "Arkasha" Renko - in a state of perpetual drowning in "Gorky Park" and its sequel "Polar Star". Though the commies are gone, author Smith replaces their regime with something much more bleak - a self-imposed oppression bread by horrific deprivation. In Moscow, in the days leading up to the failed coup of 1991, Muscovites pay three rubles for burnt-out bulbs (they can be swapped at work for those that still work), and even homicide investigators must warn their colleagues not to loot the homes of murder victims. The brutal death of a seemingly petty banker, dragooned against his will into cooperating with Moscow police, seems an unlikely starting point for a great renko novel - unlike Polar Star. Things speed up though when the depth of the dark forces involved is guaged by now newly-rehabilitated investigator Renko. Permitted to return to Moscow from his exile in "Polar Star", Renko is in no hurry to please Moscow superiors, but the banker's murder, with its links to the newly re-unified Germany hint at Renko's lover and another possible re-unification. Keeping in charachter, it doesn't take long for Renko's investigations to cause those surrounding him to wind up either dead or fed up with him. Smith smoothly weaves the corruption and chaos of the collapsing USSR into the ordered machinations of the murderer, and no detail seems extraneous. (This is the book where we learn that the Chechen capital of Grozny was named after Tsar Ivan Grozny) With allies either turning against him or turning up dead, renko comes into his element and displays a rare inventiveness that's supposed to symbolize that of the starving Russians. Renko appears impossibly grim and impoverished, yet smith makes it seem like the starving detective - traveling from Moscow to Berlin - isn't about to wink at us. Only Renko's unexpectedly painful reunion with his lover Irina seems to crack him and prove the detective capable of surprise. In the end, the real mystery, Smith reminds us, is not how people are killed, but how they live. Some mysteries are better left semi-solved.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of Brilliance
Review: The thing I like most about Smith's work is how well developed and deep his characters are. This isn't just straight action like the disasters I've read by John le Carre. Arkady Renko is up against corrupt bureaucrats, powerful businessmen and rival police organs. They provide him with inept assistants, the bare minimum of support and outdated equipment, yet somehow he still manages to get his man using his tenacity and brains. Renko's attitude is what drives this whole series of books-the sardonic, poetic, romantic and brilliant musings of our hero reveal such a deep character, which keeps us intrigued during any slow parts of the action. Arkady always makes some kind of funny mental comment while he's getting beat up in a subway tunnel or shot at or feasting on a russian dinner of stale bread, yogurt and a cucumber, and it just cracks me up. The plot is also amazing, twisting and turning in so many ways. The first three books are essential, but don't bother with havana bay, it's pathetic compared to these. All things must come to an end, though, and it was great while it lasted.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent Russian Thriller
Review: The third Arkady Renko novel by Martin Cruz Smith, Red Square is as strong as the first two. Smith's writing rises far above the typical spy / thriller genre. His characters are fully developed, flawed and nuanced. The dialogue is wonderful, down to Renko's self-effacing honesty and Irina's protective lies. Moscow detective Renko is heroic in a underdog sort of way. Here he confronts Russian mobsters in Moscow and Germany after the murder of an underworld financier and a fellow cop. It's simply good writing, good research, and a good plot. And Arkady's fans will be happy to see Irina again.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent Russian Thriller
Review: The third Arkady Renko novel by Martin Cruz Smith, Red Square is as strong as the first two. Smith's writing rises far above the typical spy / thriller genre. His characters are fully developed, flawed and nuanced. The dialogue is wonderful, down to Renko's self-effacing honesty and Irina's protective lies. Moscow detective Renko is heroic in a underdog sort of way. Here he confronts Russian mobsters in Moscow and Germany after the murder of an underworld financier and a fellow cop. It's simply good writing, good research, and a good plot. And Arkady's fans will be happy to see Irina again.
Rating:
Summary: Another Top Notch Thriller!
Review: The Third in the Inspector Arkady Renko series in Martin Cruz Smith's series of Russian intrigue. The series includes Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square and Havana Bay, SO FAR. We can only hope there will be more. (Smith is on schedule of a book every FIVE years. But the resulting work is worth it!)
Most writers today find a successful formula and stick to it... over and over. The only thing the same from Martin Cruz Smith's works are their high level of excitement, interesting characters and plot development. Arkady Renko is one of the most interesting characters in all of mystery fiction.
What Smith does best is gives the reader an insiders' view of a society totally different than what the audience is used to.
Whether it be Los Alamos during the development of Man's deadliest weapon in Stallion Gate, Cuba in Havana Bay, Japan on the brink of World War II in December 4th: A Novel, or Moscow in Gorky Park, with his characters on the verge of an exciting adventure for the reader to be a part of.Smith then introduces characters to his readers as if we had been their friends (or enemies) for years.
I judge other mysteries and mystery writers byMartin Cruz Smith's works. Some mysteries I consume like potato chips or pretzels. Very, VERY few do I savor each page as I do Martin Cruz Smith's excellent thrillers! John Row
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