Martin Cruz Smith may be American, but he writes like a Russian. I've never before read a non-Eastern European able to portray the Russian/Eastern-block communist mood with such insight and accuracy. When I first encountered Gorky Park, I couldn't believe Cruz Smith wasn't raised in Stalin's USSR--his humor, sensibilities, language, characters are simply native/perfect. Polar Star maintains the Russian authenticity.

That, of course, is the highest praise. And to top it off, I am madly in love with Arkady, the unflappable, amused, skeptical state investigator turned Siberian worker, one of the most existentially aware characters in all of literature, and absolutely, perfectly Soviet (disclaimer: I'm Romanian and I couldn't tell before reading Smith's bio that this wasn't translated from the Russian. I also have a thing for Russians/communist deadpan/stories about pre-1989 Eastern Europe/the North Pole/snow/winter).

Minus one star for gratuitous violence and sex towards the end (other than that, these books are so intellectual. The Arnold scenes are unnecessary and spoil the otherwise heady mood).