Independence Square
Arkady Renko in Ukraine
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Narrated by:
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Jeremy Bobb
About this listen
Detective Arkaday Renko—“one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction” (USA TODAY)—risks his life when he heads to Ukraine shortly before the Russian invasion to find an anti-Putin activist who has mysteriously disappeared.
Martin Cruz Smith has written nine previous novels featuring Arkady Renko, one of modern detective fiction’s most popular characters. These novels, beginning with 1981’s international sensation Gorky Park, have collectively traced Russia's evolution over the last half-century. Now, with Independence Square, Smith focuses on the fraught and frenzied days leading up to Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
It’s June 2021, and Arkady knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. His corrupt boss has relegated him to a desk job. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s Disease.
This is an ingenious autobiographical conceit, as Martin Cruz Smith has Parkinson’s, and is able through Arkady to movingly describe his own experience with the disease. Parkinson’s hasn’t stopped Smith from his work, and neither does it stop Arkady. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case.
An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. The search leads them to Kyiv, where rumblings of an armed conflict grow louder. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady’s new romance. And as he gets closer to locating Karina, Arkady discovers something that threatens his life as well as the lives of both Elena and Tatiana.
Few fiction writers have better captured contemporary Russia with more insight or authenticity than Martin Cruz Smith. He does the same here for Ukraine and the events that preceded Russia’s invasion. Independence Square is a timely and a uniquely personal mystery novel-meets-political thriller by a master of the form.
©2023 Titanic Productions (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
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A rare find
- By Alex on 01-16-15
By: Louise Penny
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Inherit the Bones
- A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery, Book 1
- By: Emily Littlejohn
- Narrated by: Harper Landry
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Secrets and lies can’t stay buried forever in Cedar Valley. In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town’s meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snowboarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year after year, time passes, and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep. Now, someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost 40 years ago.
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intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 06-26-19
By: Emily Littlejohn
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Picture in the Sand
- By: Peter Blauner
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Ali Hassan, an Egyptian-American businessman in Brooklyn, reveals a secret past of activism and heartbreak in an attempt to keep his hot-headed teenaged grandson from making the greatest mistake of his life. In a journey that begins amid the high-wattage glamour of the sets of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments and leads to the deserts of Cairo and beyond, Ali describes how he landed a dream job as DeMille’s personal assistant and then found himself enmeshed in events that changed the course of history.
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Well narrated and worth the read
- By Mustella on 01-21-23
By: Peter Blauner
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When a Stranger Comes to Town
- By: Michael Koryta
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Janina Edwards, Fajer Al-Kaisi, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
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The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
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Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
- By: Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Auntie Poldi, sassy, brassy, and 60, moves to Sicily for a quiet alcohol-fuelled retirement. A murder spoils her plans. This is the first novel in a charming new mystery series set in Sicily and laced with Italian sensuality and humor. It features an amateur sleuth, the sassy and foul-mouthed Auntie Poldi. Recently widowed Poldi moves to Sicily in order to quietly drink herself to death with a sea view, but fate intervenes. When she finds the corpse of a young man on the beach, his face blown off with a sawn-off shotgun, she becomes a potential suspect in his murder case.
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Auntie Poldi Rocks!
- By Lynn on 04-01-18
By: Mario Giordano, and others
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Scream Blue Murder
- By: Tony J. Forder
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Lynch is going through hard times. But things get much worse when he witnesses a murder in a lay-by. Snatching the victim’s car in order to get away, Mike soon makes a shocking discovery - the victim’s young daughter and her nanny are hiding in the rear footwell. This is when the real trouble begins. Mike wants to go to the police, but the nanny, Melissa, wants to delay until the daughter, Charlie, is somewhere safe. Who exactly was the man he saw murdered? And who is the man he saw pulling the trigger?
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Really Exciting and Satisfying Chase
- By Lynn on 02-09-20
By: Tony J. Forder
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As darkness gathers, the sky is filled with frantic motion and maddening murmurs. In an effort to end the world, an unhappy, aging Native American shaman invokes the Hopi god of death. Those around him remain skeptical, dismissing him as crazy old man. Then they discover his mutilated, bloody body and soon other similarly disfigured bodies begin to appear. Horses, sheep, cattle - no living thing is safe. But what is causing the horrible deaths?
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What listeners say about Independence Square
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- PA Husker
- 06-12-23
Series in decline
I own all the Renko books, 1st editions, 1st prints and signed. I'm not sure I'll buy this one in print. Story is ok, but thin. I kept waiting for this story to kick off and it never really did. At under 6 hours there just isn't enough content to keep your attention. If you look at the progression of this story line we start with books double in length hour and now under 6 hours........
This was one of my favorite book series until now.........I'm sure if there is another Renko book I'll buy it but I'm just sad to see the decline of this series and this character..........
On the plus side the narrator was great........
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- A P BRAUN MD
- 05-12-23
Oh well. Not as suspenseful as I hoped
Interesting!! I expected much more. Maybe with the next Martin Cruz Smith title. It is Right up to date given the Ukraine situation now.
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- eclectic reader
- 01-26-24
Brought Russia to life
Brought Russia to life. The investigation of some murders but also about coping with life on a totalitarian state. Made contemporary by having the Ukraine as a pivotal setting.
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- APW
- 07-29-23
Another solid Arkady Renko mystery
The novels seem to be getting shorter but the quality of characters, plots and stories continues to shine.
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- Chez nous
- 11-25-23
Disappointing
Reader was flat. Liked that storyline was current but found writing choppy and predictable. Have loved others in series so this was not up to par
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- Frances
- 05-23-23
Love this guy
Love the writer and Arcadi. I am so sad at the dis function in Russia. Love Russians and Tatars and Ukrainians but …
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1 person found this helpful
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- Josh Alwitt
- 11-18-23
Worth a listen
Not the finest Renko novel but entertaining and very well narrated. No major gaps but lacks the suspense and twists of earlier novels.
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- Jill
- 02-24-24
Prefer other Narrators.
The narrator really influenced my enjoyment of the book. I strongly prefer the ones who did the earlier Renko titles.
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- Barrelman
- 05-22-23
This is solid Arkady Renko
Plot twists, David and Goliath, everything you’ve come to expect from our friend Arkady. Smith hasn’t lost his touch. Get this.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jeop1986
- 09-17-23
Short Minor Renko novel
Story is enjoyable, if brief. Always nice to visit with Arkady. Missing is the usual trial by immersion in bloody offal or disgusting chemicals or mauling by marauding bears, replaced by a minor confrontation with marine life. Leaves much unresolved, pointing to the next story (?). Narrator is very good, save for the constant mispronunciation of ‘Moscow’. ‘Mos-coe’ is in Russia, ‘Mos-cow’ is in Idaho
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