FnordChan said:I wrapped up Polar Star last week and it was excellent. The mystery itself is pretty decent in a procedural sort of way, especially given the handicaps Renko has to work with, but the book really shines in it's depictions of Soviet life in the late 80s. I just received the third book in the initial Renko sequence, Red Square and look forward to firing that one up shortly.
I love love love Martin Cruz Smith. Good to see him mentioned on here. The only one of his Renko books I wasn't a huge fan of was Havana Bay.
You should look into his non-Renko stuff, too. "Rose", his book about 1870s coal miners and a missing clergyman, is one of the best and most underrated mysteries of the last twenty years. Says me.
I'm finishing up DeLillo's Americana (which was great) and I'm about to get cracking on Kafka on the Shore. I've been away from Murakami too long.