"Martin Cruz Smith knows his Russia. Every page reeks of Moscow: dirty snow, the stink of cigarette and vodka fumes, the cynicism and tasteless opulence of the mafia, the all-pervasive corruption."
- The Economist
"As always, Smith elevates a police procedural story to a taste of Russia, a glass of vodka poured quivering to the brim."
- Jennifer Kay, Associated Press
Three Stations
‘Leningrad Station was a Venetian palace, Kazansky Station was an Oriental mosque and Yaroslavl Station wore a clown's face and cap. The night revealed a population that the daytime bustle had obscured: pickpockets, flyboys handing out directions to strip clubs and slot arcades, gangs of street kids looking for the wounded, the slow, the easy mark. Men with vague intentions idled in small groups, beers in hand, watching prostitutes grind by. The women walked with a predatory eye and looked as likely to eat their clients as have sex with them.’
"A continuing adventure that in terms of popular fiction is surely a work of art."
- Patrick Anderson, Washington Post
"The sustained success of Smith's Renko books is based on much more than Renko. This author's gift for tart, succinct description creates a poisonous political backdrop, one that makes his characters survival skills as important as any of their other attributes.
- Janet Maslin, New York Times
