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Summary: Don't miss this one.
Review: I agree with everyone else. An incredible book. I have read it 4 or 5 times over the years. One of those books like True Grit, Shogun, The Black Marble, and Lonesome Dove I can always return to for enjoyment. And yes, Polar Star and Red Square are excellent too! Cruz does an excellent job on "Rose" also, a "period" book. Good writer.
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Summary: Wow, this is a superb book!
Review: I found this book, hardback (first edition, second reprinting) in a charity shop for 49 pence (approx 75 cents US). Heard about the book and film, thought I should buy because I was going to the laundry that night.It was hard to put down. The intrigues, the complex plot and a richly expressed tapestry of Moscow and Muscovites. It was rich in Characters, Dialogue, Plot and Sub-plots. I took it on trains, on busses, in laundries everywhere there was an opportunity to read. It was great having a hardbook, it made me appreciate books much more than I usually do. Gorky Park has to go down as a modern classic, in a hundred years time, I guess, people will still be reading this. Check out your local charity shops, you'll never know what you may find. In the meantime, buy this book here.
Rating:
Summary: very deep for a book of its kind...
Review: i never read modern novels, much less thrillers, yet arkady renko is an absolute favourite of mine, very humane breed (extremely hard to find nowadays). the book is very intelligent and even darkly funny. as for the reviewer who speaks about the joy and prosperity of his own society as compared to the evil empire, i think he should 1)grow up 2)recall osborn is an american and 3)walk (not drive) to the next housing project with a couple of illegal workers from central america, and ask them about their rights to joy and prosperity. of course, now you can see i am an idealistic misanthrope (that's why i love renko), but don't let that keep you from reading the book.
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Summary: long live renko, the only decent man in both superpowers
Review: i never read modern paperback novels, much less thrillers, yet arkady renko is an absolute favorite of mine, a very humane breed (extremely hard to find nowadays). the book is very intelligent and even darkly funny. as for the reviewer who speaks about the joy and prosperity of his own society as compared to the evil empire, i think he should 1) grow up 2) recall osborne is an american and 3) walk (not drive) to the next housing project with a couple of illegal workers from mexico, and ask them about their rights to joy and prosperity. of course, now you can see i am an idealistic misanthrope (that's why i love renko), but don't let that keep you from reading the book.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best of its genre
Review: I often return to "Gorky Park." I almost didn't go there at all. The film was not very good, although I liked Joanna Pakula. One day I read "Polar Star" (literally in one day, since I could not put it down) and I was hooked: I had to read "Gorky Park." Almost ten years later, I think I've read it ten times. I can always spare a day or two for one of my favorite books. Welcome to the world of Investigator Arkady Renko, whose superiors use him, whose wife doesn't love him, whose country is like an insane asylum where the pacients have the run of the place and sane people like Renko do the best they can. This is a great mystery novel, but the level of Smith's writing puts him far above the level of what we expect from "genre" novels. His characters became real people for whose fate I really cared. His plot is complicated but not overwhelmingly so. He does not trick the reader. And his detective, the militia investigator Arkady Renko, is one of the most memorable detectives in fiction: smart without being pedantic, intelligent, patriotic (yes, our Arkady truly loves his country), loyal to his friends and the woman he falls in love with. This is not the picture of a perfect man, but that of a basically good man. Renko is believable in his feelings and attitudes, and that is due to Smith's talent. Also thanks to the author we get an almost Dickensian description of Moscow and the inner workings of criminal investigations in the old Soviet Union. I felt I was in Moscow, and I finished reading the book truly caring for the characters in it, particularly Renko. Smith's novel is powerful, well-written, engaging, insightful, and a lesson in how talented writing can be applied to genre fiction for the benefit of everyone involved. "Gorky Park" and the other Renko novels are so far above genre, they make the rest look really bad, and they provide hope for genre novels in general: talent should not be divorced from entertainment. Excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: really good
Review: I read this book in english class it was just on the shelf w/ out a cover ecept for a few words on the back were it said what the book was about mystery kgb etc. so i read the book with out much knowelge of the book. I thought it was a really good book and it was my first mystery book. the only bad thing about it is that it is kinda hard to follow in some places but other than that it was very good a relly good plot and u know the people very quickly and u get into the book very quikly.
Rating:
Summary: very very good book
Review: I really enjoyerd Gorky Park. The character development was one of the best parts of the book. The plot was flawless. Gorky Park is such a well-reseached book that it seems Martin Cruz Smith grew up an lived behind the Iron Curtain; this book is an accurate and engaging portrait of the USSR.
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Summary: So Authentic you can Smell the Place
Review: I was once a Russian speaker and junior Kremlinologist, but the closest I got to Moscow was Belgrad. Yet when I read this book, I felt I was there. I felt I could smell the place. I asked an old Moscow hand if it were that authentic and she said yes.
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Summary: A delightful detective novel with a dash of Cold War chill
Review: I've always been a great fan of detective, spy and Cold War novels. This book brings out the best of all 3 worlds, but unlike so many American Cold War novels, Smith looks at the three dead bodies in Gorky Park and beyond (and out of Moscow to New York City) through the eyes of the main character--detective Arkardy Renko, a cynical Ukrainian who works hard at his job with honesty and with conviction in Moscow--and not some unkillable CIA hero. The story is filled with intrigue, cunning plot twists and wonderfully-crafted characters.
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Summary: the best book i have ever read
Review: I've read this book more times than I can count. It possesses an intriguing and complicated plot, extraordinarily well-developed and interesting characters, gives an amazing portrayal of Soviet Moscow, and is exciting and suspenseful. I highly recommend it. Main character Arkady Renko is both brilliant and cynical. He was interesting to read about, and was one of the reasons I liked the book so much. The book has many good elements-love, friendship, death, corruption, greed, suspense, and the violence that comes with the position of Chief Investigator of Moscow, which Renko holds. The KGB is heavily involved, it seems, and Arkady wonders if they are laying a trap for him. (His earlier attempt at arresting Major Pribluda of the KGB for the assassinations of the "Kliazma River" bodies and his thinly disguised comtempt for the Party and its machinations give them a motive for this action.) The plot has many twists and turns, and by the end of the book, the KGB, Moscow Militia, FBI, and an NYPD officer are all involved, in a complicated and satisfying plot stretching all the way around the world to the U.S. Two other books I have read and enjoyed are "The Monkey House" and "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". I also enjoyed other books by John Le Carre (Gorky Park was every bit as good as "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and as good as le Carre's astounding "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", though Tinker Tailor was more difficult to understand and required more concentration on my part). In addition, I liked every book I have read by this author, Martin Cruz Smith--Polar Star, Red Square, Havana Bay (all which are in the Gorky Park series) Stallion Gate, and Rose. If you liked any of those books, I'm sure you will like Gorky Park.
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