Polar Star - Martin Cruz Smith

'"Renko," Volovoi read, as if familiarizing himself with a problem. "Chief Investigator. Dismissed. Expelled from the Party. Psychiatric rehabiliation. You see, I have the same file as the captain has. Assigned to labour in the eastern section of the Russian Republic. Siberia."'

Arkady Renko is exiled on Polar Star, a Soviet factory ship which trawls the freezing waters from Siberia to Alaska: current status seaman (second class), his movements shadowed by those who know his past.

Then Renko is given a chance to reclaim his freedom - by investigating a lonely and very mysterious death...

'Splendid ... the reader will be kept guessing to the very end' Evening Standard

'Cruz Smith's ability is to tell both a thriller and a novel at once, without losing either strand. There are whispers of Conrad and Graham Greene in this novel' Sydney Morning Herald