The ghost of Stalin

One of the most iconic works of crime fiction of the 1980s, "Gorky Park," by then-debutant Martin Cruz Smith, became a worldwide bestseller and was adapted for the screen (Mystery in Gorky Park), starring William Hurt. The novel, set in a cold and decadent Moscow, shrouded in mystery and controlled by the KGB, launched the author into one of the genre's leading figures and introduced readers to the antihero Arkady Renko, chief inspector of the homicide department. More than 20 years later, Smith brings back his protagonist, a now weary and disillusioned man forced to investigate a strange case. Passengers claim to have seen the ghost of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin wandering the dark corridors of the Moscow metro at the same time every night. Rumors begin to spread, spreading unrest throughout the city. The task of solving the mystery is entrusted to Renko, who is unwilling to believe in the supernatural. For him, the phenomenon has all the hallmarks of a politically motivated theater—the goal would be to rekindle a latent nostalgia within the Russian people. But things soon get complicated: protests, terrorism, and a series of murders erupt, which Renko suspects are linked to Nikolai Isakov—a Black Beret veteran of the Chechen civil war and now a leading figure in the ultraconservative right. Isakov is dangerously close to Arkady, having a suspicious relationship with Eva, the detective's partner. Thus, when Eva disappears, Renko's entire life depends on the investigation, which extends beyond Moscow, where the bodies of thousands of Soviet soldiers killed during the war against the German invaders in 1941 are being exhumed. The chief inspector will be forced to deal with the ghost of his father, an army general and one of Stalin's closest collaborators. And he will uncover secrets dating back to World War II, which many are willing to protect.