[.ca] Havana Bay (ISBN 0345390458)

From Amazon.com:
In this fourth book in Martin Cruz Smith's splendid series, an amiable Irish American gangster explains to Arkady Renko what he and the other 84 wanted Americans hiding out in Cuba do with themselves. "We try to stay alive. Useful. Tell me, Arkady, what are you doing here?" "The same," says Renko--and it's true. His life as a Russian cop has become so bleak and lonely that he takes any opportunity to shake things up, even spending his own savings to fly to Havana when an old colleague is found dead--floating inside an inner tube after night-fishing in Havana Bay. Renko sets out to make himself useful in this shabby, fascinating, haunted country whose inhabitants look on Russians with the cold disdain of survivors of a nasty divorce. As he did so well in Gorky Park, Smith again makes Renko very much a classic Russian hero in temperament and tradition, but also the eternal outsider. He is at times close to the edge of despair--but his trip to Havana restores his natural curiosity and life force. In this hot Havana, ripe with the fruity smell of sex, Renko keeps his Moscow overcoat on--until an equally idealistic and out-of-place young female cop gets him to loosen up. There's an unusually complex plot, even for the sly strand-spinner Smith. He raises baffling questions: Why would a group of military plotters order illegal lobsters in a fancy restaurant and then not eat them? And his descriptions of Cuban life are dead-on, reminding us on every page what a superb stylist he is. --Dick Adler

Chronique amazon.fr:
Un corps en état de décomposition avancée est retrouvé dans le port de La Havane. Il pourrait s'agir de celui de Pribluda, employé de l'ambassade russe. Arkady Renko, héros de Parc Gorki, est envoyé de Moscou pour l'identifier. Quelques heures après son arrivée, la mission de routine se complique quand un employé cubain de l'ambassade tente de l'assassiner. Arkady décide alors de reprendre à son compte une enquête que la police locale a l'air de vouloir enterrer à tout prix. Il va petit à petit mettre à jour un complot mettant en jeu de gros intérêts économiques et des personnages très haut placés. À travers le regard de Russe perdu sous les tropiques d'Arkady, Martin Cruz Smith nous fait découvrir La Havane, avec l'omniprésence de Fidel, le tourisme en expansion, les cultes africains plus ou moins secrets. Les hasards de l'enquête sont prétexte à une magnifique description de cette ville magique et nostalgique, haut lieu de prostitution et perle des Caraïbes... --Jean-Marc Laherrère

Havana Bay weaves a spellbinding tale ...:
... that challenges your willpower to put the book down at the end of the day. A solid read written in such a manner that you can feel on your skin the soft breezes coming from the open Bay and the sweaty air of the close quarters in Havana, in your soul the characters' pains from the circumstances in which they find themselves, and in your mind the belief that you too are under the ever-present, watchful eye of the Bearded One as you follow each character through the Cuban venues so vividly illustrated by the author's words. This story starves you to read or re-read the author's other works that allow you to follow the steps of Arkady Renko.

Great Plot, even better descriptions of Havana:
Martin Cruz Smith writes his fourth installment of Arkaday Renko, the character introduced in his first novel, Gorky Park. While it is not necessary to have read any of Cruz Smith's former books, those who have will be familiar with Renko. While perhaps not as gripping and fresh as Gorky Park, Havana Bay is a captivating read, both in that the murder/plot unfolds with each new scene/chapter and also for the peeling back of further layers for the reader about information about Cuba, Havana and the history of each. Cruz Smith's descriptions of events and landmarks in Havana are enticingly vivid and his descriptions of Cuban people instill images of what these individuals would actually be like in your head. I had always been interested in Cuba, but even if you hadn't been in the past, you will be now. Havana Bay is a quick, exciting read with enough of an unfolding plot and rich, lush descriptive scenery that readers should finish it wanting more.

Sometimes Suicide isn't Painless:
Moscow detective Arkady Renko, out of work and miserable for the last half-dozen years, is called to the Russian Embassy in Havana to look into the mysterious disappearance of his old comrade Sergei Pribluda. Renko is fighting suicidal impulses, trying to survive despite a crushing personal tragedy, and the trip to Cuba is an opportunity to leave the gloomy and cold Moscow winter behind and get away from the constant reminders of better times. Unknown to his bosses he plans to commit suicide once he gets to Cuba. But immediately after he arrives the Cuban police want him to identify a floater pulled from Havana Bay as his missing friend. Pribluda, a former KGB agent, who is currently the Russian Security Service's resident spy in Havana, has been missing for almost two weeks. The Cuban authorities want him to make the identification, acknowledge that the death was from natural causes, and return to Moscow on the next flight. Renko says he's not sure it Pribluda, since the body is badly decomposed and the circumstances surrounding the death may not be as obvious as they seem. Renko wants the Cuban police to investigate, however they apparently won't. Renko regains his will to live and is determined to find out what happened to Pribluda, so he begins his own snooping. What he finds is more than he expected and certainly more than the Cubans wanted him to find. It seems the case has the potential to become an embarrassment for Castro's government and the Cuban's want the matter closed quickly and quietly. As he's done in Renko's past adventures, Smith shows his readers a culture and country foreign to most in the United States. He depicts a Cuba learning to make its own way in the world, an island with rich customs where 1950s vintage American cars cruise seaside boulevards and many people practice the mystic Santeria religion. I couldn't put this book down and I can't recommend it enough.

Great Arkady Renko Tale:
The fourth in Smith's intelligent series about Moscow detective Arkady Renko is set in Cuba. Renko's ennui brings him to Havana to look into the death of an old friend. As usual, he gets knocked around a bit, unravels complicated conspiracies, bumps into interesting women, and utters some precious self-deprecating one liners. Readers will also learn more about the fate of his truest love, Irina. A great addition to the Renko series.

Gone Fishing...:
Martin Cruz Smith is a former journalist and magazine editor. "Havana Bay" is his fourth novel - after "Gorky Park", "Polar Star" and "Red Square" - to feature Arkady Renko and was first published in 1999. Renko, the hero, works as an Investigator with Moscow's militia - more or less the standard police force - and has something of a chequered career. Never a truly 'practising' member of the Party, Renko hasn't always been thought highly of by those in authority. He has always wanted to catch the people responsible for the crimes he's investigating, regardless of the 'political' consequences - as a result of this, he was once dismissed from the Party for a lack of 'political reliability' and sentenced to a life in Siberia. He has been rehabilitated for several years now, though he always remained something of a disappointment to his father - a very famous ex-General. His father has been dead for some time, though Arkady has recently lost his wife, Irina. While Renko has been abroad before, "Havana Bay" sees him operating entirely outside the Russian sphere of influence. Having received a mysterious unsigned fax, he's in Havana - apparently to identify a body the Cuban authorities believe to be an old friend of his : ex-KGB Colonel, Sergei Pribluda. Pribluda had been in the Cuban capital for eleven months working as an attache to the Russian Embassy. He had been missing for around a week, until - it would appear - the discovery of a body found floating in Havana Bay. While certain characteristics match up - dental records, for example - Renko isn't entirely convinced : the body has decompsoed to such a point that it's lacking a face and fingerprints. However, since the Cubans believe Pribluda was actually working as a spy, they aren't even remotely bothered about opening an investigation. Arkady, on the other hand, wants to find out what's happened to his friend - even if the corpse isn't Pribluda, he's been missing for a week. Renko isn't the sort to be overly bothered about operating an 'unofficial' investigation - he is techincally a tourist in Cuba - but things won't be easy for him. Since the fall of communism in Russia, there's been a certain amount of tension between Cuba and Renko's homeland. As a result, Renko won't be getting any real help from the Cuban investigators - Sergeant Luna, in particular, goes out of his way to be a hindrance. However, there is a chance Arkady may be able to win over Detective Osario... Although much better than your average murder-mystery book, I don't think "Havana Bay" was just quite as good as the previous instalments in the Renko series. Part of that came down to the location - I think I may have missed the political games played in Russia. I also thought it was very unfair on Renko to have killed off Irina - he deserves a reason to smile ! However, it is an enjoyable and easily read book - Arkady is a character fans of Harry Bosch should take to very easily.