Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel
    Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel
    Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel

    Written by Martin Cruz Smith

    Narrated by Ron McLarty

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Arkady Renko returns in a gripping mystery involving a kidnapped baby with a mysterious teenage mother, a murdered prostitute, police corruption, and as always, the complex, impenetrable landscape of modern-day Moscow.

    Investigator Arkady Renko is back on the scene, with a whole new set of problems: his prosecutor keeps him without work, he’s struggling with the onset of middle age, and his friend Victor is arrested for public drunkenness. Zhenya, the fifteen-year-old chess prodigy whom Renko tries to parent, returns to the scene when he witnesses a shocking crime.

    As always, Smith’s Three Stations is filled with intriguing, flawed characters and set in Moscow, a city so intricate and three-dimensional it’s practically a character itself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 17, 2010
    ISBN9780743596909
    Author

    Martin Cruz Smith

    Martin Cruz Smith’s novels include Gorky Park, Stallion Gate, Nightwing, Polar Star, Stalin’s Ghost, Rose, December 6, Tatiana, The Girl from Venice, and The Siberian Dilemma. He is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize, a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and Britain’s Golden Dagger Award, and a winner of the Premio Piemonte Giallo Internazionale. He lives in California.

    More audiobooks from Martin Cruz Smith

    Related to Three Stations

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Lost And Found In A Russian Prison

      May 4, 2024

      Lost And Found In A Russian Prison
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Lives of Bryan

      Jun 1, 2023

      The Lives of Bryan
      19 min read

    • Article

      Hard Metal

      Jun 10, 2023

      When Raúl gave me his security job for August, he told me not to see anything. You don’t see nothin’, he said, because we both know I get curious. Sometimes the other guys think I’m soft, the way I get lost in my head. My girlfriend says it’s trauma,

      6 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      from SCENES FROM LATIN POETRY

      May 1, 2024

      Qui tacet consentire videtur. Silence gives consent.Veritas odium parit. Truth creates hatred. You know how you can know some thingsbut forget you know until it’s time to remember.Mom met her third husband Billy whenshe was a teacher helping convicts

      3 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 30, 2019

      Summer Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      The HOOD LIFE

      Dec 16, 2021

      The HOOD LIFE
      10 min read

    • Article

      The HOOD LIFE

      Dec 16, 2021

      The HOOD LIFE
      10 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      My Journey To A WAR ZONE

      Apr 5, 2022

      My Journey To A WAR ZONE
      8 min read

    • Article

      Karolina

      Jun 15, 2019

      I first saw Karolina outside the Sumesa on the corner of Avenidas Oaxaca and Álvaro Obregón. She was smoking a stubby cigarette, a sled-like backpack hitched to her shoulders. I stopped short, felt my heart lurch. Could it be? Karolina was my brother

      31 min read

    • Article

      Thirteen

      Jan 30, 2020

      Thirteen
      21 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2019

      Ayat Jaffar, age 9 Avon, OH Over winter break, I went to Umrah. Umrah is an Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I went with my mom, dad, and older sister. We went around a big black stone and between two big mountains seven times each in mem

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Temporary Arrangement

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Temporary Arrangement
      19 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Days

      Nov 21, 2021

      Lockdown Days
      2 min read

    • Article

      Like Ripe Fruit

      Nov 5, 2020

      Like Ripe Fruit
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ineffectual Tribute to Len

      Mar 15, 2019

      After graduate school I hung around another year and drove a cab for Iowa City Yellow Cab. The cab was a boat, a Chevrolet Caprice wagon. I could have put a mattress in the back and lived in it. I didn’t hate the job. I’d sit in the Kroger parking lo

      24 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Marco

      Mar 1, 2022

      THE ALLEY STANK . Marco could feel the damp soaking into his tunic as he pressed his back against the wall, trying to seem like part of the shadows. He cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid? He knew if he stayed out after dark they might f

      6 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Three Stations

    3.5/5

    239 ratings31 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Ah... Arkady Renko is back to form. His last appearance was dismal, very depressing.
    • 4/5
      Investigator Arkady Renko in Putin's Russia, battles the foes within his corrupt police department as well as the criminal elements outside in the decadent Three Stations enclave of Moscow. At times, Renko recalls his late father, a vain general in the old army. Other times, he rues his lost romances. But through it all, he remains tenacious and relentless in his pursuit of a prostitute's killer. We're given a behind-the-scenes view of Russian society, high and low, at least as it's filtered through Mr. Smith's nonsentimental prism. I've enjoyed reading previous titles in the Arkady Renko series of which Three Stations is number seven.
    • 3/5
      The plot never really makes sense but the characters are terrific. Cruz-smith is both deeply cycnical and sympathetic to his characters and their plights.Not as good as Gorky Park but worth the time if you like reading thrillers set in modern Russia.
    • 4/5
      A very good crime story in lawless Moscow.
    • 3/5
      Not as tight a plot as Red Square or Wolves Eat Dogs, where every move ties in. Arkady does some cool things but links are dropped between his prep and execution of cool things. Some characters add interest but they don't tie into the greater mystery as per usual.
    • 3/5
      "Three Stations"
      By Martin Cruz Smith
      3 Stars

      There are times when you start reading a book and you have to question that if your own train of thought is disjointed or if it the way that the author tells the story. I recognized while reading "Three Stations" that Cruz Smith's writing at times did feel disjointed, but it works for his particular brand of storytelling. He sets the story in Russia and this disjointed nature contributes to the feeling of it being authentic.

      "Three Stations" is a police procedural mystery book that starts with the abduction of a baby. This is, however, not the main plot though. It is about a body found by the investigator. This takes the story on a disjointed rump where you are left wondering what one scene had to do with the last one. Often in books this doesn't work because the reader is left wondering where the heck the book is going, but for some reason it works with "Three Stations." You do not want to put it down because you recognize it is a rather short read and you want to know how the child will reunited with the character of Maya. I won't reveal if the child ever does because you need to read it for yourself.

      If you are a mystery enthusiast I would recommend this book, but for those of you wanting something a little more light-hearted I don't think this is the book for you. There are scenes of violence, explosions and cursing that feels a bit overdone at times. For me, a mystery fan, it was the right cup of tea. To each their own and I recognize that. You really need to go into this particular novel knowing that it isn't a fluff "The Notebook" type of book, but one that is disconnected, violent, and a damn good read for seeing how an author can craft a story.

      The mystery aspect of the book felt a little bit predictable, but I think when you start reading mystery over and over again you start to see the basic formula naturally. He does however throw in enough side characters that could have done it that you are left wondering if you could be way off base on what your assumptions are. Then you recognize that some of the side characters are actually a side story, which adds a bit to the depth of the story. It makes it feel more organic and like it is set in the real world because for most people they have multiple things going on at once instead of a normal story that focuses so heavily on the one particular plot.

      The three stars for this novel is mainly because of the disjointed storytelling, but also because there are moments where you are suddenly thrust with characters that you have no idea why they are being showcased. It isn't until the end of the chapters that you find out why they are being mentioned and in this particular book it just doesn't work the way that Cruz Smith wanted. Outside of those things this is a worthwhile book to read.
    • 3/5
      I'm not sure where this volume of the Arkady Renko novels falls. It seems to take place in the late 90s or early 2000s. I think, because of some cryptic references in the book, that I skipped one or two novels. Now, Renko is again living in Moscow, has an uneasy relationship with a ward, the son of someone Renko shot, and investigating the murder of a supposed prostitute. He is not a detective and has no jurisdiction per say. On a parallel storyline, a young runaway has her baby taken from her. This novel takes an unflinching look at the seedy underworld hiding in plain sight: the gangs of children--homeless and abused--who have their own kind of rules.
    • 3/5


      Say three-and-a-half stars. Arkady is in his usual form, although he's clearly aged. Sometimes this book felt as if it had been rushed, and the plot is muddled by multiple POVs among other things. But Martin Cruz Smith still knows how to write a sentence and pace a story, and in Arkady Renko the author has one of the great detective characters of modern times.
    • 2/5
      Disjointed, disappointing. Interesting story, I think... but it felt like big chunks had been left out.
    • 3/5
      Back to Moscow and his usual cast of Russian criminals and detectives This one is about a run away girl (15) and her infant daughter who is stolen from her. The prostitution ring she was working for are after and she is after her daughter Interesting read.
    • 3/5
      This is an Inspector Arkandy Renko novel set in his home city of Moscow.Renko is on the verge of a suspension when he comes across the suspicious death of a young lady near one of the 3 major railway stations.At the same time his young on off companion Zhenya assists a young girl who is looking for her baby.Lots of dodgy strange characters and a few deaths later, Renko is reinstated and the baby is returned to her mother.Not the best Renko novel but ok.
    • 4/5
      Renko is fighting for his job, as usual and decides to help an alcoholic colleague investigate a potential serial killer, whilst his errant son Zhenya is trying to help a young mother find her stolen baby in and around 3 Stations. As usual captures a strong sense of what life must be like in Putin's Moscow which seems authentic but I can't judge if it is.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: A young girl with a baby is traveling by train to escape her life as a call girl and to protect her child. She falls asleep and the baby is stolen. Once at the Three Stations, she begins the long search for the child. Meanwhile, the body of a upper class woman is found, dressed as a hooker and left in an abandoned trailer near Three Stations. Renko thinks there is something wrong with the murder scene, but his investigation is hampered by the 'powers that be' since it leads to an influential family. These two cases are intertwined by location and by the crime families that operate in Moscow.Review: This story is a bit confusing, partly because of the disparate story lines and partly because of the setting. Not one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      Three Stations is another police procedural set in Moscow starring the remarkable investigator Arkady Renko. He's remarkable for a number of reasons; competence, brilliance, non-linear thinking, but most importantly because he's almost always in trouble with his higher-ups, which in Russia can be a very bad thing. Without getting into the details, there were a couple key sub-plots that were tied off very satisfactorily at the end, and Arkady lives to investigate another day.

      The first Arkady Renko novel, Gorky Park, was a fine book and what I considered to be a great movie. The film starred William Hurt in the Renko role (with Lee Marvin as the villain), and he did such a mannered performance that I literally hear him speak all of Renko's dialog in my mind in every subsequent book in the series. Very strange.

      One thing I really like about this series is how it paints a vivid picture of what life is like in the former Soviet Union. Corruption, alcoholism, drug use, shortages, rampant gangsterism.... it makes it seem like the picture a lot of Americans have of Moscow as the beautiful city with the onion-domed cathedrals is just a facade, and that under the surface is all this other unseemly stuff.

      This is a good, not great, novel, but it's relatively short and can be a good introduction to the writer. However, I'd really recommend starting with Gorky Park so that you can be introduced in a little more detail to the wonderful character Arkady Renko.
    • 3/5
      I really should've read this one before 'Tatiana,' which I just read earlier this month - but I couldn't find it, and the other book had an impending library due date.

      Investigator Arkady Renko is in disfavor with his boss, and under threat of dismissal. However, he just can't stop investigating, even when instructed not to. When his alcoholic colleague discovers a young woman's body in an abandoned trailer, he's compelled to find out who she was and how she died...

      Meanwhile, a runaway prostitute is in search of her stolen infant. Renko's ward, Zhenya, is willing to help, but the world of teens around the Three Stations area is pretty rough...

      The book is compelling reading. I found myself staying up late and caring about the fates of the characters.

      However, from a purely logical/structural viewpoint, there are some issues here. There are too many coincidences for events to be fully believable. There are extra crimes brought in too close to the end, nearly skipped over, and the 'bad guys' motivations remain mysterious - and a little eyebrow-raising.

    • 3/5
      "Three Stations"
      By Martin Cruz Smith
      3 Stars

      There are times when you start reading a book and you have to question that if your own train of thought is disjointed or if it the way that the author tells the story. I recognized while reading "Three Stations" that Cruz Smith's writing at times did feel disjointed, but it works for his particular brand of storytelling. He sets the story in Russia and this disjointed nature contributes to the feeling of it being authentic.

      "Three Stations" is a police procedural mystery book that starts with the abduction of a baby. This is, however, not the main plot though. It is about a body found by the investigator. This takes the story on a disjointed rump where you are left wondering what one scene had to do with the last one. Often in books this doesn't work because the reader is left wondering where the heck the book is going, but for some reason it works with "Three Stations." You do not want to put it down because you recognize it is a rather short read and you want to know how the child will reunited with the character of Maya. I won't reveal if the child ever does because you need to read it for yourself.

      If you are a mystery enthusiast I would recommend this book, but for those of you wanting something a little more light-hearted I don't think this is the book for you. There are scenes of violence, explosions and cursing that feels a bit overdone at times. For me, a mystery fan, it was the right cup of tea. To each their own and I recognize that. You really need to go into this particular novel knowing that it isn't a fluff "The Notebook" type of book, but one that is disconnected, violent, and a damn good read for seeing how an author can craft a story.

      The mystery aspect of the book felt a little bit predictable, but I think when you start reading mystery over and over again you start to see the basic formula naturally. He does however throw in enough side characters that could have done it that you are left wondering if you could be way off base on what your assumptions are. Then you recognize that some of the side characters are actually a side story, which adds a bit to the depth of the story. It makes it feel more organic and like it is set in the real world because for most people they have multiple things going on at once instead of a normal story that focuses so heavily on the one particular plot.

      The three stars for this novel is mainly because of the disjointed storytelling, but also because there are moments where you are suddenly thrust with characters that you have no idea why they are being showcased. It isn't until the end of the chapters that you find out why they are being mentioned and in this particular book it just doesn't work the way that Cruz Smith wanted. Outside of those things this is a worthwhile book to read.
    • 3/5
      Liked the previous arkady renko novels a lot more.
    • 4/5
      Martin Cruz-Smith is incredible writer who I am not sure gets his due. Like Ian Rankin and James Lee Burke, to call him a mystery writer is to not give him his full due. His books while centered around a mystery have just as much to with history and social commentary as they do with solving a crime. Three Stations is no different. It explores the society that has become modern Russia with an emphasis on its young who are falling through the cracks. The mystery involving a missing baby and murdered girls is all secondary and almost seems to solve itself, with the real story being the saga of children who are forgotten in a modern society.
    • 4/5
      Another strong entry in the Renko series. Arkady Renko is back in his familiar stamping ground of Moscow, embroiled in cases of child prostitution and human trafficking. As has been the case with recent Renko books, the mystery is a little perfunctory, but the rich and, in this case, surprisingly moving characterisation makes up for it. It would be nice to have one Renko book which doesn't open with him having lost his wife/girlfriend and include him finding a new one, though.
    • 5/5
      Let me begin by admitting my bias: I think that Martin Cruz Smith is one of the best novelists out there today. What has often been said of David Cornwell (a.k.a. John LeCarre)also goes for Martin Cruz Smith: he may write popular fiction but it's also great literature. If you want a sample of what I mean, just read the final page or even just the final line of "Three Stations." (Although it's best if you read the rest of it first.)"Three Stations" is the latest chapter in the life and career of Arkady Renko, Smith's wise and somewhat world-weary Moscow detective who is forced to suffer fools, corruption, and social depravity in the course of his job. Renko is a complex and appealing man and just listening to his thinking is a treat in itself. However,the real treat is Smith's ability to bring you right onto the streets beside Detective Renko. Indeed, Smith has a way with his descriptions and dialog that's almost cinematic. (My 12th grade English teacher used to talk about a "language of vision" and that's something that Smith has really nailed.)This story and its characters - particularly the children - will almost break your heart. Indeed, there are few writers of popular fiction who can portray children with no future in such an unflinching and yet compassionate manner. Fortunately, the book ends on a note of affirmation: there are still tattered pieces of hope for the legions of people who are the victims of modern Russia. Even if you're not at all a fan of detective/mystery stories, the works of Martin Cruz Smith are still worth a look. Great literature always is.
    • 3/5
      "Three Stations" is author Martin Cruz Smith's latest installment featuring Russian prosecutorial investigator Arkady Renko, though it's not the greatest. That honor remains firmly in the grip of Smith's exceptional 1981 thriller "Gorky Park," which first introduced Renko to the literary world. "Three Stations" is the seventh novel in the Renko series. Smith wasn't quite 40 years old when "Gorky Park" came out, and the Soviet Union still had a decade of life left in it. Smith was nearly nearly 70 when "Three Stations" was published in 2010, by which time the Soviet Union that Smith and Renko grew up with had been dead and gone for almost 20 years.Or had it? As he has with all the novels in his Renko series, Smith artfully imbues the stories and the characters that fill them with a certain brand of uniquely vodka-drenched Russian discontent and world-weariness that has thrived unabated for generations. It's clear Smith and Renko see Russia's current sociopolitical and economic oligarchical hierarchy as fundamentally far more the same than different from its Soviet and Tsarist predecessors in all but name.The plot in "Three Stations" is straightforward, anchored to a rural teenage prostitute named Maya's frantic search for her stolen baby in the bleak and dangerous Moscow neighborhood from which the novel takes its name, while Renko tracks a serial killer of young women. The book directs at least as much focus on Maya's travails as on Renko's, which has disappointed some of this book's reviewers. That said, it's clear the principal character in "Three Stations" isn't Maya, or even Renko, so much as it is present-day Moscow. Viewed from that perspective, "Three Stations" is a very good book; Smith's eye for detail and his talent for unveiling the crushing and seemingly insurmountable disparities between Moscow's privileged elite and downtrodden masses are no less sharp than they were in "Gorky Park." Smith's deft touch with dialogue, in particular, is just as brilliant as it has ever been in succinctly conveying modern Muscovites' daily tribulations. Moscow is a massive city of 11.5 million people that lately finds itself drowning in cash wrenched as much via the country's deeply imbedded corruption and criminality as from rampant exploitation of Russia's vast natural resources. The brutish effects of that money's savagely inequitable distribution inflame the novel's every page. Russia is a very old country, and whether ruled by Tsar, Secretary General, or President, Smith's premise is that Russia's internal monologue has stayed remarkably unchanged in many ways for many centuries.Though it's not hard to tell both author and character have grown somewhat tired in the past 30 years, nevertheless they've done so gracefully. Fans of Smith and Renko, and those who find modern Russia fascinating, will appreciate "Three Stations" as a knowledgeable thriller author's newest postcard from an unvarnished Moscow.
    • 4/5
      I found this book entertaining...I am a Martin Cruz Smith fan and rather like his character Arkady Renko. Like other reviewers, I found this book a bit under developed, but it did not fail to grip me as a page turner. The series continues to be good reading. I would love for Smith to produce another epic novel with Renko....
    • 3/5
      Arkady Renko is one of the most engaging fictional detectives of our time, but if you have not already made his acquaintance, Three Stations is not the book in which to do it. Once again Renko is suspended and his warning of a serial killer ignored: one would think after six books his superiors would have learned to listen to him, but apparently not. Set in today’s Moscow, the book is not a patch on the previous ones yet Arkady continues to charm in his quietly obstinate manner as he investigates a series of corpses laid out in the positions of the classic ballet as well as helping find the baby of a runaway prostitute, with whom his ward - a chess hustler and truant on the fringes of gang culture - has fallen in love. Verdict? Quick and good in parts.
    • 3/5
      A clever idea but somehow unnecessarily unsavoury.
    • 5/5
      It's good to see Smith back on form in this seventh entry in the Arkady Renko series. Shorter than its predecessors, it provides a much more focused story without as much extraneous background info thrown in (see Wolves Eat Dogs for the worst example of this). Renko remains one of the great characters in fiction. An unfailingly honest police detective who lives by his own code even if the world is falling apart around him, Renko trudges through a morass of murder, corruption, and indifference to get to the heart of a Moscow killing.As usual, the book has a few too many coincidences and all the threads tie up a little too nicely at the end, but the joy is in the dark ride through the alleys and stations and forgotten places of Moscow in the company of Renko, a 15-year old mother looking for her baby, some sub-teen runaways scratching out their existence, and Zhenya, the chess-hustling teenager introduced in a previous book who maintains a tenuous relationship with Renko.This will not do a lot for Moscow tourism, however.
    • 3/5
      I like the author's style of writing. But it seems like there is a fairly regular pattern to the Arkady Renko novels. I wish the author would break out of that.
    • 5/5
      Excellent! One of his best efforts in my opinion. Inspector Arkady again comes to the rescue against all odds! A wonderful insight into semi-modern day Moscow.
    • 3/5
      Arkady Renko may be my favorite fictional detective. Wry, long-suffering, stubborn, quietly principled, philosophical, observant, hesitant, a bit of a schlemiel. And the late/former Soviet Union has been an excellent setting to let his sensibility play out. This latest installment in his series is welcome and is an enjoyable read, but in some ways is sad for a fan of Renko's. Like all things on this earth, detective series are mortal and the signs of decay are pretty apparent in this series by now: Renko has now acquired a young sidekick, and the novels are now driven largely by setting.Not to say that there is nothing left to the series. Smith is a very good writer, and the changing historical situation of Russia brings new opportunity for Smith to observe the curiosities of human and institutional nature. But the novels are no longer energized by the sense of discovery. They have become a lot more generic--plots are resolved with cliche cinematic scenes (as in the climactic car chase in Three Stations) and the new themes (here: child exploitation of various sorts) seem rather imposed.But, as I say, Smith is a fine writer. The understated wit won a few out-loud laughs from this reader, and he keeps the novel short and fast-moving, so none of the faults mentioned above has to be suffered with for very long. And Renko is always good company.Another upside for fans of the series: one can easily imagine this novel being filmed, and, to some extent, I think it may have been written with that in mind. Done right, Renko might make a great film protagonist. Let's hope.
    • 4/5
      Another insightful adventure with Renko. The descriptions of Moscow life are so interesting. But why would anyone want to live there.
    • 2/5
      Three Stations reads like an early draft that still needs much work to raise it to the level of works like Gorky Park, Wolves Eat Dogs, and Polar Star. It lacks the rich texture and sense of place that permeates those early Renko novels. Renko is lightly drawn - his implacable and improbable moral presence that drives this series is largely missing. I hope Mr. Smith gets his groove back for the next Renko book.