I have been listening to "Polar Star" by Martin Cruz Smith. He wrote "Gorky Park" and several other stories, sometimes under a different name. Gorky Park and some subsequent books feature the Russian detective Arkady Renko. Renko ran into trouble and was the fall guy in a setup to blame some crime on others. As a result, he was banished from the Communist party and is no longer eligible for most jobs. He has managed to secure a position on the fishing ship "Polar Star", where he performs one of the lowest jobs, fish gutter.
When the body of a woman crew member is turns up in the fishing net as it hauls in a giant load of fish, sharks, crabs and various other Arctic Ocean creatures, the question arises How did she get overboard and dead? Was it murder, suicide, or an accident? The captain has dossiers on all 270 crew members and knows that Renko is a former investigator for the Soviet military police. So, he is told to report to the captain, who asks him to use his investigative experience and skill to find out how the dead woman died.
The ship's society has connections to the Soviet way of life and there are informers, political officers and other aspects of the group's convictions and customs that impede any investigation and frown upon anyone asking questions about anything. When a lowly fish-gutter suddenly starts asking pointed questions about who is doing what with whom, he is not welcomed. In fact, he could find his life ended in a dozen different unpleasant ways.
So, if I seem darker and smellier lately, it's because I have been aboard a large but old ship doing hard dangeous work in cold foreign waters. Each drive to the grocery store puts me back on the frigid Bering Sea between Sarah Palin's Alaska and the Russia she can see from her window. I seem to gained weight and developed something of a Russian accent.
That sort of metamorphosis often takes place as I cover the earth working for truth and justice. It won't take me long to return to normal after the story is over so don't worry about me.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
