Havana Bay is the fourth novel in Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels. The first, Gorky Park, is a well known book that was made into a well known film. I haven’t read any of the previous Arkady Renko novels (they’re set in Russia, this book is set in Cuba, which is why I chose it) but I quickly realised you don’t exactly need to. I didn’t ever really feel like I was ‘missing out’ or that I didn’t know what was going on because I hadn’t read any of the previous 3 books. This may’ve been helped by the fact that this one was set quite far away from Russia and therefore any people who appeared in the previous books didn’t appear in this one.In the beginning of the novel, Russian investigator Arkady Renko has received a letter about a friend of his, a Russian diplomat stationed in Cuba, possibly being in trouble. When Renko arrives in Cuba, he is standing by when Cuban authorities pull a body out of the water. Because the body has been in the water some time (about 2wks I think) identification is not an easy process. Based on some very vague terms, the body is declared to be that of his friend’s but Arkady isn’t entirely convinced. He thinks it was very odd for a Russian to be out fishing in the bay at night (inside a large inflatable tube-type thing) and is wondering if there isn’t something else going on. Although due to fly out that night, Arkady’s plans take a sharp swerve when the interpreter who has been translating for him and showing him around, tries to kill him.Interestingly enough, when Arkady was attacked he was preparing to end his own life with a syringe filled with air that he stole from the coroner’s lab that day while watching the autopsy done on the body that was pulled from the water. He uses the syringe to defend himself instead, perhaps indicating that he wasn’t quite ready to die despite his extreme depression over the death of his wife due to an incompetent nurse. Now rather, Arkady finds himself determined to stay in Cuba and find out exactly what is going on – he was due to fly out of Cuba in less than a couple of hours, so why are people trying to kill him? What exactly was his friend investigating during his time in Cuba? Arkady starts his own investigation, complicated by aggression and distrust of Russians from the local authorities, attempts on his life (numerous), an attraction to a female Cuban police officer and a score of other locals, including two from the FBI most wanted list.Arkady is depressed, dearly missing his wife and grieving over the injustice and preventability of her death when he arrives in Cuba. This makes him darkly brooding and also carrying a lack of respect for his own life, until someone else tries to take it from him. Thankfully this is all explained very coherently and you’re not really left wondering why Arkady is wandering around all woe is me and you get the depth of his grief and love for Irina, all without even ever seeing her in this novel. The attack on him kick starts him into living again, as he realises that things are afoot here that go much deeper than just a Russian spy (and not a very good one at that) apparently having a heart attack and dying out at sea while doing a spot of night fishing. Arkady starts investigating with the help of Cuban detective Ofelia Osorio, who starts to shadow him for ‘protection’ after he is nearly killed and then half beaten to death all in the space of 24 hours. Arkady knows that one of the other Cuban police officers, Sargent Luna, is in the goings on up to his neck but it’s going to be hard to prove.And the goings on are numerous. I’ve never read a novel set in Cuba before and this one was quite a nice introduction to both the culture and the political state. Russians in Cuba weren’t exactly appreciated anymore after relations between the two countries soured and a huge part of the plot revolves around Cuba trying to renegotiate contracts with Russia for Russia to buy their sugar. Russia are refusing to pay the new prices so an apparently independent company from Panama has been called in to mediate, which was what Arkady’s friend from Russia was in the country investigating. The novel does a brilliant job I think of showcasing Cuba for all it is – richly cultured, simplistic (although perhaps not by choice) and mixing in the seedy tourists that come to romance the young girls, who offer themselves for a few American dollars. On one hand it’s painted as a paradise – the beach, friendly locals, fresh seafood, good weather, cheap and on the other it’s painted as a slum – poverty and corruption everywhere you look and attempts to sneak in some good old fashioned capitalism!On the whole I enjoyed this novel a lot but I felt that it was perhaps a fraction too long. At 447 pages, I think probably 80-100 could’ve been trimmed with no real detriment to the plot. A lot of the time Arkady was just kind of sitting around thinking about things, or he was spending an age doing something that takes no time at all. It painted him as slow and methodical, thoughtful and without the kind of rash behaviour I’m used to from protagonists in these sorts of novels, but it did drag the story out quite noticeably. I am quite intrigued by Arkady now though and I’m going to go back and get Gorky Park and start from the beginning. I do dislike reading a series out of order and I’ve done it twice recently for the Global Challenge either because a later book was all that was available, or earlier books didn’t fit in with what criteria I needed to fill. However, both times, it’s led to me discovering series that interest me, so I am grateful!
One way to celebrate (or mourn, depending on your inclination) Obama’s recent entente with the Castro regime is to read Havana Bay, which is in many ways Cruz Smith’s loving homage to a beautifully dysfunctional island country. Though it takes place far from Russia, this is another in the Investigator Arkady Renko series, dated 1999 – i.e., in no way a new book from this much-loved mystery writer. On the other hand, Cuba hasn’t changed much since Fidel’s revolution. Whereas Russia has broken free of Communism only to become a retro-imperialist, mafia-infested oligarchy. And America has devolved into its own exceptional mire of political dysfunction.Before the end of Communism, a financially broke and militarily enfeebled Russia had mostly stopped supporting its cherished Caribbean child – beloved for its easy ability to mock and provoke the USA with virtual impunity from a mere 90 miles away. The Cubans had learned to live with the US embargo, some would even say they thrived in the face of it. (Canadians, Europeans and others from all over the world have been charmed by a healthy, well-educated, resourceful people, even while ignoring the fact of brutal political repression.) But the Cubans detested Russia for its broken promises and more or less leaving their client to its own devices. Despite the distrust and animosity, Russia maintained an embassy to look after ongoing interests such as the sugar trade. Thus there is a small (and low profile) Russian community still in Havana when Arkady Renko arrives wearing Moscow-in January clothes, responding to an unsigned communication saying one his co-patriots is in serious trouble.In fact the man is dead, and bloated and faceless from two weeks in the oily harbour waters along the shore of Havana Bay.The Cubans want the body identified before they ship him home. Renko’s visit is meant to be no more than a twenty-four hour stopover. Renko may or may not know for sure if the messy pile of flesh is his former colleague and friend. But there is too much that does not make sense in the circumstances surrounding his death – including an accusation that he was a spy caught in misadventure, so Renko pleads uncertainty, wangling a bit more time to sniff around for the real story. As the story begins, we find Renko bemused by Cuba’s cynical self-confidence, passion, sultry beauty, and weirdly immune to its heat. Suspended in a prolonged depression arising from the death of his wife at the hands of an inadequate Russian medical system, the pale inspector wears his cashmere overcoat as he starts to explore. He is almost murdered his first night in Havana. Defending himself, Renko kills his attacker. Which of course brings the police into his orbit, both the good but perpetually suspicious Detective Ofelia Osorio, and the pathologically violent Sargeant Luna. Arkady dodges Luna while working in his laconic way to win Ofelia’s trust as he uncovers a conspiracy involving ex-Cuban soldiers, current Cuban generals, bad Russians, and a pair of ex-pat Americans living on Al Capone’s elegant old launch, on the run from Uncle Sam for treason. (An American Kim Philby? A rogue wheeler-dealer? Trying to determine if that story element is based in reality and, if yes, who they are is an intriguing puzzle. The author drops hints. You have to formulate the right Google query to find some possible answers.)While the mystery is expertly drawn out at a pace befitting Renko's ever laconic point of view, and builds to a suspenseful climax, for me the main strength of Havana Bay is beautiful, often funny writing describing landscape, ocean and beach, quirky fishermen and fishing practices, abandoned, Jerry-rigged Russian equipment, colorful 50’s vintage American cars, Batista-era architecture, religious cults, music…the drums! and resilient, if tragic, women. Martin Cruz Smith clearly loves Cuba as much as Ernest Hemingway did, and (for me) his powers of rendering both its charms and its absurdities are equal to Papa’s. Inspector Arkady Renko and his flattened soul make a perfect counterpoint to this sun-drenched, high-energy, bitter-sweet anomaly in the Gulf Stream. 4 stars. I enjoy Arkady Renko. I admire Martin Cruz Smith.
What do You think about Havana Bay (2000)?
This time Arkady, griefstricken again, continues his amateur attempts at suicide in as the title indicates Havana. The bay incidentally is involved to the extent that a dead russian has been found floating there. In the grand tradition of heros giving a damm when they are repeatedly warned off instead of contenting himself with the identification of the body and going home he seeks instead to find out why. Why the doggedness, why not just mind ones own business say I can tell I am not wanted and tootle do. It always feels a little odd to me, like when people move into a haunted house the walls start to bleed or a cushion hovers. Me personally I am getting out of there as soon as I can. Cowardly asides apart this is a good solid thriller, good twist and some lush if slightly over fevered depictions of Cuba. The whole formulaic nature of the genre is a little hollow at times.
—James
Martin Cruz Smith has written a series of books featuring Russian policeman Arcady Renko, most famously Gorki Park. Havana Bay is an enjoyable book,not as engaging as Gorki Park, but still well worth reading.This was another trip to the bookshelf to read this book for the second time. Renko arrives in Havana in response to an anonymous summons telling him an old friend is in trouble, the deceased old friend, a Russian spy, is being fished out of Havana Bay as watches. The context for this novel is the icy relationship between Russia and Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Renko helps a reluctant Havana Police Department investigate the murder, raising from the grave more than a few of his own ghosts and skeletons.
—Ted L.
A wonderful fish-out-of-water story about a melancholy Russian detective who goes to Havana on a sentimentla mission and winds up joining forces with a smart and smoldering Cuban cop to solve an odd mystery: Why did another Cuban cop try to kill Moscow investigator Arkady Renko just as he was about to commit suicide?Renko, made famous by Martin Cruz Smith's 1981 novel "Gorky Park," has good reason to be down-in-the-dumps. His beloved wife Irina is dead, leaving behind only memories and the faintest scent of her skin lingering in a cashmere coat she gave him. Now he's gotten word that his old friend and nemesis, Sergei Pribluda, is in some sort of trouble in Havana and needs his help. He spends half his savings to fly to Cuba, in part to see what's going on with Pribluda and in part to find a quiet place to kill himself, putting an end to the torment of his memories of Irina. Yet just as arrives, a decayed corpse turns up that the Cubans insist must be Pribluda (Renko is skeptical) and a Cuban cop he just met interrupts his suicide attempt by trying to kill him. Renko, reacting without thinking, kills the cop instead -- and slowly his investigative ardor, which had deserted him, returns as he tries to figure out what happened.In that endeavor Renko is at first opposed and, ultimately, aided by a zealous Havana detective, Ofelia Osorio. Twice divorced, with two daughters and the most hilariously sarcastic mother in the Western World, Ofelia is nobody's fool but hampered by her gender from the promotions and respect she deserves. Like Renko, she works amid a hopelessly corrupt system, where the cops sponsor underage hookers who entice wealthy foreign tourists to take them to special love motels, and everybody gets a cut. Smith has created a great character in Osorio, and he has a ball with the mother-daughter dialogue in particular, as well as the misunderstandings and eventual comprehension that flows between Osorio and Renko, who insists on stalking around the island in his cashmere coat. He also delineates with care the vast gulf between the poor -- particularly poor fishermen who go out to shark infested waters in inner tubes -- and the rich, particularly a pair of American fugitives with big plans for cashing in on Cuba who hang out aboard a boat they claim was once Al Capone's personal rumrunner. Fidel is a constant presence, sometimes invoked like a deity whose name you do not say but rather indicate by pretending to stroke a beard. At one point Castro himself makes an appearance -- looking, Smith reports, like an age-shrunken grandfather surrounded by grandchildren so numerous there is no way he can recall their names.The Cubans have no love for the Russians who once supported, then abandoned, the island nation, but they're none too thrilled with how Castro's revolution worked out for them either. One repeats what is clearly an old gag: What three things did the Revolution bring to Cuba? Health, education and sports. What three things are still missing? Breakfast, lunch and dinner.It's clear that Smith -- the son of jazz musicians -- fell in love with the city's constant musical beat, and uses it to great effect all throughout the vividly descriptive portions of the text. The book's one weakness is that it stumbles a bit toward the end as the vast conspiracy they've uncovered unravels even as a killer abducts Osorio -- but it's got one last satisfying twist in an epilogue that takes place back in Moscow. Perhaps the greatest twist, though, is that the once-suicidal Renko is still alive, and still wandering the snow-covered streets in search of the darkness that is in every human heart, whether Russian or Cuban.
—Craig Pittman
