Adrian Magson is the author of 20 crime and spy thrillers, numerous short stories, a YA ghost novel and Write On!-a writers’ help book.His new novel is The Locker, the first of a new series featuring private security operatives Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik.
Recently I asked Magson about what he was reading. His reply:
I recently caught up with one of my favourite authors – Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park and others and his character Arkady Renko), and read Tatiana, which I’d been meaning to get hold of for a while.Visit Adrian Magson's website.
This time the put-upon and world-weary Russian investigator is looking into the apparent suicide of a young reporter, Tatiana Petrovna, and the murder of a billionaire mob leader.
Renko senses there must be a connection, and his persistent digging, in spite of his boss’s seeming scepticism, leads him to Kaliningrad, where another death has taken place.
The cast of characters is, as always, fascinating. Apart from Renko himself, and the various villains and walk-ons (who all have real depth), there’s Renko’s police colleague and sidekick,Victor Orlov, a sort of Russian Sancho Panza, and Renko’s adopted ‘son’ Zhenya, hell-bent on living his own life and disregarding pretty much everything Renko tells him, yet clearly relies on Renko as some kind of anchor in a stormy world.
He’s also a very bright kid and has a fairly meaty part in this case, bringing a solution to a puzzle that has Renko in knots.
It’s not a fast-paced book, but that’s the attraction. It allows the reader to get inside Renko’s mind and travel with him on his journey, risking death at the hands of the villains of the piece, and even worse from the authorities who seem to regard him as a minor nuisance. Then there’s his relationship with Zhenya and the occasional woman who strays into his life… or possibly the other way round; Renko’s not exactly a party animal.
I thoroughly enjoyed Tatiana and can strongly recommend it and the rest of the series.
The Page 69 Test: The Locker.
--Marshal Zeringue
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