Rating: 
Summary: Another Great Read
Review: This book made one foggy day here in San Francisco breeze by. I was in Cuba, sweating in Arkady's coat from Irina, wondering if he would ever get it together with Ofelia, or find out why all those guys ordered lobster and never ate it, or who tried to run him over INSIDE an abandoned gambling casino. I always get caught up in Smith's story telling. I wish I hadn't read it yet. It's foggy today and I could use another great read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This book was excellent. It was an easy read and contained a lot of great information on Cuba. I really liked the characters. The author does a great job of bringing people to life. Every bit as good as Gorky Park.
Rating: 
Summary: Who wrote this book?
Review: As with each of the other Renko novels, the author displays an amazing knowledge of Russian/emigre customs, habits and Weltanschauung. Too bad he doesn't have the same skills with the non-Russian aspects, with which he should be much more familiar.Judging by the typos, awkward idioms and plain misuse of English, I wonder, who actually wrote these books? Is the author really an American with the background he claims to have? Is he two people? Or somebody else?
Rating: 
Summary: Rather too put-downable...
Review: Hasn't any one noticed? This book is supposed to be a thriller. But it's slow. An interesting setting is one thing, but when it overwhelms the action, then you're not getting a thriller any more, but a travel book. I'd rather get my hard information on Cuba from a non-fiction source, thank you. In short: not enough fun in the sun.
Rating: 
Summary: Good suspense, great protagonist
Review: Whike it fails to compare with the summer's hit "The Triumph and the Glory", Martin Cruz Smith's "Havana Bay" is good adventure reading. I don't think he has written anything that can match his first mega-hit Gorky Park, but he keeps plugging away, and Havana Bay is definitely worth reading, just to see what Renko is up to now.
Rating:
Summary: A good read - not great!
Review: Disappointing after Gorky Park. But good plot, good characters and good prose. Easy to tell the author is a University of Pennsylvania graduate.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary page-turner. Mystery writing at its best.
Review: Havana Bay is an extremely engaging and exciting mystery novel that is a strong and welcome addition to the author's three previous Arkady Renko novels, each of them featuring the quiet and sensitive but also extraordinarily dedicated and perceptive Moscow detective, once again up against the power and evil of a corrupt political and social system that is doing its best to obscure the facts, cover the crime, and eliminate him from the scene. Cruz-Smith takes us into the heart of Castro's Havana and gives us a gritty, raw look at a world that runs by its own rules, and the overall view isn't a pretty one. This isn't the Havana that tourists or Castro apologists will see, but one with a dirty underbelly that for all its moralism reeks of corruption on a political and social level. As he did with Polar Star and Rose, Cruz-Smith takes us into the heart of a place and a time we would never have otherwise visited and makes us feel as though we're actually there - the rarest gift of a fine novelist. This is a book that will keep you enthralled and however much you'll want to reach the end of the mystery, its very richness of scene and detail will make you wish the book were twice or three times the size. Definitely one you won't want to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but what is ?
Review: My sister bought me Havana Bay and The Triumph and the Glory for my birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. I'm more of an Oprah Book Club reader, but I loved Gorky Park, and think Arkady Renko is hot. I'm going to Triumph's page now because I have to RAVE about that one.
Rating:
Summary: Havana Play
Review: Smith captures a romantic notion of Havana from both the late 1950's (pre-Castro) and the early years of the Special Period. Readers familiar with Cuba now will be a bit disappointed with the slightly outdated descriptions of Havana and Cuban life. Current conditions on the island are not as desperate and erotic as Havana Bay would lend one to believe. Also the Cuban secret police seems to be notoriously lax and I can't imagine how Arkady Renko made it past immigration and customs at Jose Marti. Nonetheless, those looking for a post-Cold War novel brimming with intrigue and suspense will not find better material. Unlike Le Carre, Smith seems to have adjusted well to the New World Order.
Rating:
Summary: Fine mystery but a bit outdated on Cuba
Review: A fun book, with historical resonance. How can you go wrong dealing with Russians marooned in Cuba following the end of the Cold War. I'd recommend it to anyone. There are a few quibbles, however: The description of Cuba seems to be of the early 1990s, not the latter. The scenes of prostitution are typical of 1993-1994, but more recently the government has cracked down on it: the Cuban heroine would no longer be fighting a lone struggle. The description of the grapefruit steak is from 1991-92; I haven't seen anything like that since. While police corruption remains a problem, it is one that the government itself is attacking very strongly. A few years ago street cops were asking for bribes. It's a lot more unusual now. That's a bit frustrating because the new crackdown itself has created situations that would have been just as apt for a novel: the women expelled from Havana, cops fearful of being nailed for taking bribes, the still-present struggle to survive. But all in all, it works. And a lot of it still rings true.
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