Rating: 
Summary: Where will Renko go next?
Review: Renko is one of my favorite characters. Although this isn't the best book in the series, Smith's writing is so sharp and thought-provoking that it really stands apart from 98% of what's out there.A caveat: this book barely stands alone, and I'd recommend reading at least Gorky Park first.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm Tired of Arkady
Review: Either Arkady is getting *extremely* tired or I'm tired of him. He seems to go down hill with every book. What really annoyed me about this book is the Spanish which is not translated for those of us who have a language "deficiency." Arkady may be Mr. Smith's bread winner, but "Stallion Gate" and "Rose" were much better books.
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Summary: Sad, disappointing Bay
Review: The Arkady Renko trilogy will always be one of my favorite books. I think of it as one book in three parts and it's right up there in my "Best 20" list. What a disappointment Havana Bay was! After years waiting for the next Renko installment, Martin Cruz Smith mixes ingredients from here and there out of his other Renko novels and then proceeds to serve a cocktail that lacks originality and that most unusual touch: a soul. Call me a romantic, but I think what moved the other Renko books was himself, the Chief Investigator, and what moved him was Irina. I don't want to give away any secrets of the plot (as much as it can be called a plot) but I felt terribly sad and disappointed when, before page 50, the writer had decided to eliminate important supports in the structure of the previous novels. Arkady, who I had come to care about, as all good fiction should do for its characters, solves another mystery, this time in Cuba, and finds a woman, and they have an awkward affair, and, in the end, he is left alone. Smith has decided to take everything away from this man. History got rid of his country, the author who made him got rid of the rest. After reading "Havana Bay" I felt I had to do a mental exercise that I had done before, when the third movie in the "Alien" family came out. In that occasion, I had to pretend the series ended with the second movie, because the third one was so bad as to defy description. I have done the same thing with the Arkady Renko novels, but not very successfully. This mean-spirited, sad, and ultimately cold thriller, is an undeserved ending for one of the best characters in fiction of the 20th Century. The two stars it earns from me are because I was still happy to read about Renko and because, in spite of cloning his own work, Smith writes very well.
Rating:
Summary: Great mystery for non-mystery lovers
Review: I am leaving on my first visit to Cuba in two weeks, and am reading everything I get my hands on. A friend recommended this and, though I rarely read mysteries, I followed her advice. I found the writing to be quite good and the story exciting; but the most compelling thing was the evocation of place. I feel like I'm already back from my trip, and that I got to know Havana in a way most Americans never will. I know this is a novel, and that the people of Cuba are far more complex than the good guy (and girl)/bad guy dichotomy that's set up here; but the feel of the air on my skin and its smell in my nose is what I've missed in the other Cuba books I've read.
Rating:
Summary: Not a nice place to visit -or live there
Review: Smith uses his elegance with the language to capture both the corruption and corrosion of today's Havana - and he does it with an intriguing story that's totally believable. Humour, too, adds to the story-telling, as does the hyperbole (the potholes on Havana streets can be seen from the moon)all of which keep you riveted until the final page. Great stuff in the tradition of Graham Green and John LeCarre.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant insights on Cuban culture
Review: Havana Bay is the first Arkady book I've read, and it really makes me feel like I've been missing out on something great. The quality of the prose is so much better than most books of this type, and the authors rendering of time and place is phenomenal. I've been to Cuba and spend a lot of time absorbing Cuban culture through music, dance, reading, etc. Havana Bay is without a doubt the most comprehensive and knowledgable treatment of Cuba in a popular novel maybe ever. P.S. If you liked this book you'll love Outcast by Jose Latour, a Cuban writer and practitioner of 'Cuban noir.'
Rating: 
Summary: arkady finally comes out of the cold into the latin heat
Review: having read others' less than stellar reviews of havana bay, i felt compelled to write my own. i didn't know Arkady Renko very well before reading this book, although i found him an interesting counterpart to who i think was the main force in this book, the mysterious, strong yet very feminine mulata detective that was his equal and opposite. as a cuban and american woman myself, i was amazed at how well martin cruz smith understood the inner workings of detective ofelia's mind. forget arkady, smith, write another book about her.
Rating:
Summary: Havana Bay Accurately Captures Flavour of Havana
Review: Just finished Martin Cruz Smith's Havana Bay. Having visted Havana about 10 times over the last year and a half and having returned from my most recent trip two weeks ago I have to say Smith has accurately captured the flavour and atmosphere of contemporary Havana. If you want to know what Havana is like this book is for you. The story itself is really a mechanism to describe Cuba, its society and mores. I enjoyed it although the denouemnet was a bit forced. Good story, very good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Renko Returns
Review: Welcome to Havana! Where Karl Marx still lives and Fidel still rules. Where salsa pervades the air and the sun sets in shades of plum purple. Where the religion is either Santeria or Abakua and gods come in primary colours, Castro might rule the bodies but the souls belong to Oshun, Oggun and Chango. Where jineteras in rainbow hues of Spandex promenade and satisfy the sexual lust of the American or European turista . It is the world's last bastion of Communism and the newest capitol, after Bangkok and Manila, of sex tourism. The appropriate label on its door ought to read ENTRADA PROHIBIDA. In walks Arkady Renko. We meet him again after seven years. He is meloncholic, phlegmatic, forlorn and, suicidal. Irina, the love of his life , has died after a medical mishap in a Moscow hospital. Responding to a message from the Russian embassy in Havana that his friend Sergei Pribluda is missing , Renko delves out half of his savings and takes a plane to Cuba. He arrives "exhausted by travel, confused, clearly not athletic, though not totally obtuse." He also comes to die. Havana Bay satisfies both, as thriller and travelogue. Martin Cruz Smith is a superior stylist. The despairing, persistent and idiosyncratic Renko is turning out to be as memorable a character as John le Carre's George Smiley.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: HAVANA BAY is Martin Cruz Smith at his best. Excitement, suspense, adventure, cerebral, sexy. There aren't enough descriptors to express the rapture I felt reading this terrifically powerful book.
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