Gorky Park

The first of eight novels in American author Martin Cruz Smith's popular crime series starring Soviet homicide detective Arkady Renko, Gorky Park (1981) concerns the mysterious and gruesome deaths of three individuals found at a Moscow amusement park. In 1983, director William Apted adapted the book into an Edgar Award-winning film of the same name starring William Hurt and Lee Marvin.

The chief homicide detective for Moscow's militsiya police force in the Soviet Union, Arkady Renko’s wife, Zoya, has recently left him for another man. Early in the narrative, police discover the partially decomposed bodies of two men and a woman on the grounds of Moscow's Gorky Park amusement park. Preliminary findings show that each victim had been shot and their fingertips removed, making positive identification a challenging task. Assigned to the case, Arkady connects a pair of ice skates found on the female corpse to Irina Asanova, a wardrobe assistant for a film studio. Claiming that the ice skates were stolen, Irina says she doesn't how they showed up at a murder scene. With Irina as a lead, Arkady infers the suspected identities of the victims: Valerya Davidova, Valerya's boyfriend, Kostia Borodin, and American student James Kirwill, all of whom are known associates of Irina. Still in need of irrefutable identification, Arkady enlists the help of forensic anthropologist Professor Andreev to reconstruct the female victim's face from her skull.

Meanwhile, Arkady meets American fur magnate John Osborne through Moscow Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy. He later learns that Osborne hired the victims to build a piece of furniture for him. While investigating Osborne's possible involvement with the murders, Arkady learns he is a KGB informant and thus virtually untouchable.



The investigation is complicated by the arrival of William Kirwill, James's older brother and a homicide detective in New York. In fluent Russian, William tells Arkady he plans to track down James's killer and murder him. After Irina is nearly murdered on the train, Arkady allows her to stay at his apartment for safety.

While Arkady's relationship with his father, General Renko, is strained, he decides to pay him a visit in the hope of learning more about Osborne. Known as "The Butcher of Ukraine" and "Stalin's Favorite General," General Renko recalls that Osborne, as a representative of US intelligent services, was embedded for a time in the Soviet Red Army during World War II. On one occasion, Osborne interrogated three S.S. Officers, shot them in cold blood, and removed their fingertips.

At the apartment, Arkady and Irina have sex. When Arkady asks about Valerya, Irina claims that Valerya, Kostia, and James faked their own deaths so they could travel to the United States. When Arkady threatens to bring Irina to the forensics lab to show her the reconstructed skull, Irina caves and admits that she knows Valerya is dead. What Arkady doesn't know is that Iamskoy, at the behest of Osborne, has already destroyed the reconstructed skull.



Upon discovering this betrayal—along with the betrayal by his best friend, Misha—Arkady tracks down Osborne, threatening to kill him if he refuses to leave the Soviet Union immediately. Osborne scoffs at this demand, revealing that while Arkady was out of the apartment, Osborne ordered Irina to be kidnapped. Arkady immediately rushes off to find Irina. When he does so, Iamskoy is there. Arkady kills Iamskoy but is shot in the stomach.

While recovering in the hospital under armed guard, the KGB interrogates Arkady. From their questions, Arkady infers that Iamskoy was a KGB agent planted to spy on the militsiya. Once Arkady recovers, he is delivered to a KGB general who explains everything and offers him a deal. The three murder victims weren't helping Osborne build a piece of furniture, they were helping him trap live sables for illegal import into the United States. Rather than help the trio defect, Osborne killed them. The FBI reaches an agreement with the KGB: Osborne will release the sables if Arkady is delivered to Osborne in the United States.

During the prisoner exchange—at which Irina is also present—Arkady realizes that the FBI agents escorting Arkady and Irina plan to allow Osborne to kill the pair. After this happens, the KGB will swoop in and kill Osborne, eliminating the chances of an international diplomatic incident. At Osborne's ranch on Staten Island, they find William in a pool of blood, the victim of Osborne's vicious attack dogs. Before Osborne can kill Arkady and Irina, Arkady reveals the FBI and the KGB's plan. After a frenzied gunfight that leaves the agents of both countries dead, Arkady releases some of the sables from their cages, distracting Osborne and giving Arkady the opportunity to kill him.



Irina tries to persuade Arkady to stay in the United States with her, but Arkady refuses, having decided that both America and the Soviet Union are riddled with corruption. They say goodbye, and Arkady releases the rest of the sables into the wild.

The New York Times called Gorky Park "a book that reminds you just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be."