The literary precedents of Red Square naturally include those listed for Gorky Park (see separate entry): the police procedurals of McBain, Waugh, and Marric. But because the Renko books depend for their novelty and, to some degree, for their quality, upon the fact that the procedures his police use are Soviet police procedures, Smith has been faced with the special problem of the collapse of the entire Soviet system.

His accommodation of this new reality in his detective story might be compared to John Le Carre's or Len Deighton's similar accommodations of postCold War realities in their spy stories written since 1989.

The peculiar nature of the accommodation in Red Square — making the actual collapse of the Soviet system a central factor in the narrative — points to another category of literary precedent that might prove relevant. Clearly, since Gorky Park is 1981 (and with hints in...