POLAR STAR
by Martin Cruz Smith
Random House; 386 pages; $19.95
In Gorky Park (1981), Martin Cruz Smith showed a good way to turn one among the thousands of detective novels published annually into a runaway best seller. The three crucial steps: 1) construct a plot with plenty of corpses and exfoliating complexities; 2) provide a beleaguered and therefore sympathetic hero, one whose problem involves not only solving a crime but avoiding extermination by a small army of people who do not wish the truth to be known; 3) set the action in a place that is inaccessible and romantically forbidding...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
