Gorky Park and Polar Star prepare for Red Square. In Gorky Park, Smith achieved the remarkable feat of making an apparently authentic Moscow detective the hero of an American detective story. The achievement was highlypraised and widely read; it was eventually turned into a movie. In Polar Star, Smith chose to transform his unique detective into a series hero, the potential protagonist of an undefined number of novels. Polar Star also returned to a more straightforward, formulaic development of the detective plot. A body turns up in the first chapter; an investigator engages in the process of detection; there are complications — clues and red herrings; and the killer is revealed and disposed of in the penultimate chapter. Polar Star displayed Smith's characteristic virtues.

The context of the action — a Russian factory ship in the Bering Sea — has been carefully researched (including a day...