MC wrote some westerns early in his career. The end of this has a Western shoot-out feeling. All the violence turns on Russian sables. Nice touch with that at the very end. Arkady returns to Russia (he is Russian with a capital R) while his girlfriend stays in America.
I read/listend to this over three weeks on airplanes and in two different cities. It's obviously well-written. Maybe it's a great spy book--I just struggled to follow the plot for the first 250 pages, probably my fault.
Note: in the interview that accompanies the book, MC describes writing for FOR MEN ONLY, an early men's magazine that was less racy than Playboy (skimpy bikinis, no nudity.) He was one of two people who put the magazine out every month, writing numerous articles under numerous pseudonyms. Early on, he sold Gorky Park. When he wanted to switch the detective from an American visiting Russia to a Russian, his publisher was tepid. He eventually bought back the rights from the first publisher and resold the book to a second publisher. I liked his answers very much--he seemed down to earth
I read/listend to this over three weeks on airplanes and in two different cities. It's obviously well-written. Maybe it's a great spy book--I just struggled to follow the plot for the first 250 pages, probably my fault.
Note: in the interview that accompanies the book, MC describes writing for FOR MEN ONLY, an early men's magazine that was less racy than Playboy (skimpy bikinis, no nudity.) He was one of two people who put the magazine out every month, writing numerous articles under numerous pseudonyms. Early on, he sold Gorky Park. When he wanted to switch the detective from an American visiting Russia to a Russian, his publisher was tepid. He eventually bought back the rights from the first publisher and resold the book to a second publisher. I liked his answers very much--he seemed down to earth
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