Susan W. (Suz) reviewed on + 725 more book reviews
From the inside dust jacket cover: "A Soviet factory ship makes its way through the fog of the Bering Sea off Alaska. Battered, streaked with rust, carrying a crew of three hundred-fifty of them women- the Polar Star is virtually a Soviet village in American waters. Its satellites are American trawlers that catch the fish; the Soviets clean, freeze and carry the harvest home. The last net of the night bears pollack, cod, crabs and, from the depths of the sea, the body of a woman missing from the Polar Star.
No one on board has any experience in the investigation of violent death except for one fugitive from the KGB working at the lowliest job, the 'slime line,' in the bowels of the ship. Once a senior investigator for homicide in Moscow, he hasn't set foot on land in almost a year. His name is Arkady Renko.
But the thaw of glasnost and perestroika has reached even the Bering Sea. On his captain's orders Arkady comes unwillingly, painfully, back to life as a detective. His unlikely assistant is Natasha, a Party amazon with 'eyes as black as Stalin's, but nice.' Her opposite, Susan, heads the American team aboard the Polar Star. Both are initially hostile to Arkady, yet drawn to him. He also gains the murderous attention of an ominous figure from his Moscow past, Karp Korobetz, the ship's model worker and a brutal criminal whom Arkady had sent to Siberia years before.
As his inquiry probes through layers of intrige at sea, then into the isolated port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and finally onto the Arctic ice, Arkady uncovers the true missions of the Polar Star and the American fleet surrounding it."
No one on board has any experience in the investigation of violent death except for one fugitive from the KGB working at the lowliest job, the 'slime line,' in the bowels of the ship. Once a senior investigator for homicide in Moscow, he hasn't set foot on land in almost a year. His name is Arkady Renko.
But the thaw of glasnost and perestroika has reached even the Bering Sea. On his captain's orders Arkady comes unwillingly, painfully, back to life as a detective. His unlikely assistant is Natasha, a Party amazon with 'eyes as black as Stalin's, but nice.' Her opposite, Susan, heads the American team aboard the Polar Star. Both are initially hostile to Arkady, yet drawn to him. He also gains the murderous attention of an ominous figure from his Moscow past, Karp Korobetz, the ship's model worker and a brutal criminal whom Arkady had sent to Siberia years before.
As his inquiry probes through layers of intrige at sea, then into the isolated port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and finally onto the Arctic ice, Arkady uncovers the true missions of the Polar Star and the American fleet surrounding it."
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