Hotel Ukraine: An Arkady Renko Novel

Moscow investigator Arkady Renko tackles a murder case just as Russia begins its 2022 assault on Ukraine in Smith’s stellar sequel to Independence Square. With Putin’s regime making it illegal to call the military operation a “war,” a Parkinson’s-stricken Renko is concerned about the safety of his adopted son, Zhenya, a vocal dissenter. As he wrestles with that anxiety, he’s assigned a politically sensitive homicide: deputy defense minister Alexei Kazasky has been stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the Hotel Ukraine, near a wall where the number two was written in blood. The victim’s government position, and the attack’s timing in the opening hours of the war, draws intense scrutiny from Renko’s superiors at the FSB intelligence agency. Renko’s former lover, Marina Makarova, is assigned to assist him—though Renko soon suspects that she’s more intent on applying political pressure in favor of the Kremlin than solving the murder. Smith draws immense pathos from Renko’s struggles with Parkinson’s, and he smoothly adapts the investigator’s signature dedication to truth to Russia’s current political climate. This long-running series remains as vital as ever. Agent: Andrew Nurnberg, Andrew Nurnberg Assoc. (July)