Rating: 
Summary: A tangled web
Review: Havana Bay is a fine book. As in Smith's other novels of Russian life there is darkness, ambiguity and shadow. Much of the novel takes place in the dark, among ruins, with the central character wearing a heavy black overcoat even in the tropical heat. As Arkady Renko slides in and out of ruined buildings and the murky pollution of Havana Bay so too this novel evokes the destruction of greed and the loneliness and depravity of the soul. That this most Russian atmosphere is set in Havana, Cuba in the bright glare of the tropical sun is Martin Cruz Smith's statement of the enduring and universal nature of human depravity. But the heaviness of the novel is offset by the brilliance of detail, the writer's descriptions of Havana and its inhabitants, and of the sociology of life under the reign of Castro. The seduction of the small love story and the unravelling of motives, actions and consequences make this a most worthwhile investment of a reader's time and imagination.
Rating:
Summary: I Could Taste the Beer!
Review: and feel the heat! Smith is fantastic with putting the reader smack dab in the shoes of his protagonist Arkady Renko. Luckily the details of Cuba are equalled by the plot. As the exotic location slowly reveals itself, so too does another brilliant landscape of charachters. Who else but Smith could untangle the complex personal and international relationships of post-cold war Cuba and Russia? The depth of Renko's charachter alone is such a refreshing alternative to the typical hero-stud we usually have to contend with. I would put all of Martin Cruz Smith's Renko novels (as well as Rose) in the intelligent thriller catageory. Reading them feels like a guilty pleasure, yet I also feel as though I have learned so much about the subject matter (Cuba, Russians, English mining, etc.) My only regret with Mr Smith's writing is that there is far too little of it.
Rating: 
Summary: An engaging thriller
Review: This is another good one from the best-selling author of Gorky Park. Smith seems to like strange protagonists, considering that his primary market is the United States. His hero here is a Russian national, Arkady Renko, who has come to Cuba to identify the body of a Russian acquaintance whom the Cubans all seem to think is a spy. The suicidal Renko is a prosecutor's investigator in Russia who has recently been devastated by the death of Irina, his lover, who was dosed with ampicillin, to which she was allergic, by an inept Russian medico. The Cuban's love for Russians has turned to hatred as a result of the ruble tap being turned off, and the fall of the USSR.and subsequent democratization of Russia. The Policia of the Nacional Revolucion (PNR) has scheduled no investigation into the death of his acquaintance, Sirgei Pribluda,, and the Russian Consulate wants nothing so much as to ignore the whole thing. Renko's reluctance to certify that the bloated remains, unrecognizable after two weeks in an innertube in the bay, is actually Pribluda adds to the tension. And, that's only the beginning! His Cuban counterpart, the co-protagonist, is also unusual: a black female Cuban police detective who has her own emotional disturbances to deal with. This is a well-written, interesting story, and was chosen by the New York Times as a "notable book." It held my interest to the end. Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: Hard to get started, but hard to put down once I got into it. Mr. Cruz is a great storyteller. Havana Bay isn't as "dark" as Gorky Park and not quite as good, but I enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Steamy Intrigue in Sweltering Havana
Review: This is the first of the Arkady Renko novels I have read, and buying it was influenced by the fact that I had spent time exploring Havana and its environs a short time before.
Summoned by an unsigned fax from what turns out to be a old hand at Havana's diminished Russian Embassy, detective Renko travels from mid-winter Moscow to subtropical Havana in January, to investigate the disappearance and death of a KGB operative and one-time associate. Both he and his drowned friend Pribluda are of a mindset unable to come to terms with life in public service in post-communist Russia. With an almost bumbling manner and persistance, reminiscent of a Slavonic Peter Faulk playing Columbo in the 1970's television series (in a black cashmire coat with a story of its own, in place of a trench-coat), Renko finds himself an unwelcome and unpopular reminder to the Cuban police investigating the gruesome corpse washed up in Havana Bay, of Russia's once domineering influence over their affairs. And a threat to some shadowy individuals with their own agenda for change in this outwardly ramshackle island nation. Martin Cruz Smith has captured many of the undercurrents that pervade society in modern Havana. They range from a crumbling political, economic and social system (to say nothing of crumbling buildings and crowded tenements), to the moonlighting[and] hustling... that puts bread on Cuban tables in the way that the state's mediocre salaries do not. He captures too, the camaraderie of Cuban war veterans of Angola and Ethopia. The pervasiveness of African mysticism and music in Cuban life. And the combination of stoicism and sheer exuberance that shine through in what Castro euphemistically calls the "special times", of no Russian aid and an ongoing US embargo. These ingredients are skillfully blended into a suspenseful tale that draws us into three hundred plus pages of the intrigue and double-dealing that swirl around a handful of well-drawn characters. Once into it, I found the book hard to put down. I'm sure it will make a good movie too, though it may be a little cerebral for current Hollywood tastes. All the better if it could be filmed on location. Conjo!
Rating: 
Summary: Cuba without the crisis
Review: I thought "Stallions Gate" was one of the best books I ever read. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for this book even though I have always liked the character of Arkady. It can't be the shift to warmer weather when the typically morose detective can't generate more than a yawner of a climax to the who (or why) done it. Choose this one if your main interest is a current description of the sites and sounds of Havana.
Rating:
Summary: Another Good Entry in the Renko series
Review: Arkady Renko travels to Havana when his old friend Sergei Pribluda is found dead, floating in Havana Bay in an inner tube. It seems pretty straight-forward at first with the autopsy showing Pribluda died of a heart attack. However that evening, hours before Renko is due to escort the body back to Moscow, Renko is attacked in his hotel room by an ex-boxer and must kill the man in self-defense. As Renko digs more deeply he becomes involved with a '60's American radical, an Irish gangster, and finally Ofelia Osorio the one seemingly honest Cuban detective on the island. Everything seems to point to an attempt on the life of Fidel Castro with Renko being set up as the one to take the rap. Like all of the other Renko books this one is deftly plotted. However it is the characters that will grab you and draw you on. Renko, the honest detective working against great odds to discover what his friend Pribluda was up to before Pribluda died, and Ofelia the sensual Cuban detective who helps Renko despite her government's official policy to not investigate Pribluda's murder. These, and other lesser characters are well shaped and the whole story is played out against the moon-like landscape of a crumbling Havana. This is a well-written book and I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Inferno Con Salsa
Review: Martin Cruz Smith is the Dante of post-Soviet Russia, and Arkady Renko, Mr. Cruz Smith's protagonist in the "Gorky Park" series is our guide to the nether regions. Renko is the perfect Russian: tortured, haunted, romantic, and in need of a square meal. The problem is, if you fed him he'd probably go into shock from the nourishment. In "Havana Bay" Renko doesn't seem to consume much more than strong cigarettes and the left-over pickles in a recently murdered (?) friend's refrigerator. And how a Russian in Cuba gets home-style pickles is a mystery unto itself. Mr. Cruz Smith is a master of atmosphere and character. In his series he takes us from Moscow, to the Bering Sea, to Havana, and each locale is another vision of hell on earth. He has a detailists eye, and whether it's the slick of oil on water, the tactile pleasure of a cold can of beer, or the sound of cloven hooves on marble he awakens each scene with particulars. Havana is a city being slowly strangled by economics and regressing to the corruption and lust for the tourist dollar of the Batista era. Mr. Cruz Smith's characters are neither black nor white, but the moral gray of humans under stress. Yes, the good guys are good, but they are also flawed, and that accounts for much of their attraction. Renko, Orfelia his Cuban detective inamorata, George Washington Walls an ex-pat US radical, and the sundry other characters in this well written, literate, mystery are all worth watching. Mr. Cruz Smith doesn't sketch, he paints. Settle back, read, and you are there - have a good time in hell!
Rating:
Summary: Claridge's and caviar ...
Review: In London, Claridge's and caviar is at the opposite end of the spectrum to fish 'n' chips (or a burger from a drive thru in the States). "Havana Bay" is by far the best thriller I have read of Smith's for many a year. The decaying waterfront scenes of old Havana redolent of Steinbeck in his heyday. If you haven't yet come across MCS's character/investigator Arkady Renko, I urge you to do so. If you like quality, you'll love this work. As his British namesake John Templeton Smith (his 'White Lie' is every bit as brilliant as 'Havana Bay') MCS is for my money the best of the American novelists and destined for the classic shelf.
Rating:
Summary: A great writer, another great book
Review: Who am I? A guy who likes well written literary mysteries -- and I do mean *well written*. You can have your Cornwells and Graftons and their ilk -- they're hacks. But for brilliant prose, intricate plots, an appreciation of theme, of place, of culture....you gotta look elsewhere. In my opinion, the last really great literary mystery was THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco. And before that? GORKY PARK by Martin Cruz Smith. GORKY PARK was simply a great great great book. And to Smith's credit, he hasn't allowed the succeeding Arkady Renko novels (POLAR STAR, RED SQUARE, and now HAVANA BAY) to get bogged down in regurgitation, like so many lesser writers. Each book is fresh. HAVANA BAY is the freshest of the lot -- Arkady finds himself in a dramatically new locale, and his new adventure has a very fresh flavor. And the mystery is riveting. Martin Cruz Smith is a brilliant writer -- head & shoulders above everybody else in the mystery genre. Do yourself a favor and read each of the Renko novels -- GORKY PARK, POLAR STAR, RED SQUARE and HAVANA BAY. And then check out Smith's other books, including the haunting ROSE.
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