I still remember when, sometime in the mid-90s, my dad gave me a copy of Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. I read the book in one day, completely enthralled by the mystery, which takes place in Soviet Russia and in which Soviet Militsya detective Arkady Renko (who, I maintain, should have been named "Arkasha Kiselyov") must navigate the various twists and turns of Communist Party politics and tense foreign relations in order to solve a mysterious murder case. The book worked because it purported to open up a closed society and, though I read it years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the mood of secrecy and corruption that Smith attributed to backroom Soviet politics -- though likely an authorial invention -- captured my attention nonetheless. I subsequently remember reading Polar Star, the sequel which takes place on a boat and features a distinctly unappealing quantity of fish guts.
It seems that Mr. Cruz Smith is still going with the Renko series and recently released book six, entitled Stalin's Ghost. Though I haven't kept up, a quick glance over synopses of the recent books reveals a persistently savvy Renko navigating the equally twisty and turny twists and turns of post-Soviet politics.
Come on Mr. Cruz Smith (if that's your real name, which it's not!), this is no fun. It wasn't Renko that made the book good, it was the sense that we were getting a behind the scenes look at the Soviet Union. Everyone knows that mysteries taking place in modern capitalist (semi-) democracies are no fun.
Fortunately, I have two ideas on how to resuscitate Renko's character:
1.) Renko solves some kind of huge mystery, is launched to national stardom, runs for president and then slowly consolidates a czar-like stranglehold over Russia. Unfortunately, pursuing this option could result in Mr. Cruz Smith's untimely and mysterious death by polonium poisoning, so I wouldn't recommend it.
2.) Change the location!
This is a great idea. Unfortunately, there are far fewer illiberal and closed governments these days to use as the backdrop for a new novel, so we'll have to be creative. I propose Burma/Myanmar. Think about it:
- Contentious political history to create lots of intrigue? Check.
- Military leadership which keeps a tight clamp on information and represses all dissent? Check.
- Cool, dystopian sounding names for government agencies? How about "State Peace and Development Council"? Check.
My proposed story:
Arkady Renko retires to the beaches of Rangoon (yes, I know Rangoon/Yangon is not on the coast -- it's called creative liberties, ok?) in order to devote more time to his cherished hobby: astrology. While there, he falls in love with a beautiful and mysterious local, herself an astrologer. She leaves hints that her life is more complicated and dangerous than it appears, but Renko consciously ignores them, unwilling to believe his decades long embroilment in various international intrigues could possibly follow him to Myanmar.
Unfortunately, Southeast Asia proves no exception to Renko's Midas touch for mystery and he comes home one day to find his lover dead. She has been strangled and lies on the floor surrounded by odd zodiacal symbols and other Burmese runes Renko cannot decipher. There isn't much, but the clues are just enough to coax him out of retirement and onto the hunt. He combines his street smarts with his knowledge of astrology to pick up the chase in the streets of Rangoon.
To his horror, Renko soon learns that her death holds the clue to a secret government project called Aquarius, one that threatens political stability across the region. Navigating an unknown country without friend or ally, Renko realizes that he is also caught in a race against time and must act before the next zodiacal season puts a diabolical scheme into motion.
When the zodiac forms the sign of murder, only one man can hope to decipher the twelve ecliptic stations before the stars and planets align. If he fails before the moon reaches the Seventh House, the age of Aquarius will dawn. Arkady Renko returns in . . .
The Burmese Horoscope
