Sometimes Arkady had the feeling that while he had been away God had lifted Moscow and turned it upside down . . .

The night outside was still white. Arkady wasn't sleepy or hungry. He felt like the perfect new Soviet man, designed for a land with no food or drink. He got up and left the office. Enough.

It began with the unmourned death of Rosen, one of Moscow's new breed of black marketeers; seemingly a clear-cut case of murder.

Although Renko has been recently reinstated at the Moscow Prosecutor's office, the case begins to slip from his grasp. But his determination never to let go leads him to Munich and Berlin - back into the life of Irina, a woman he though he had lost forever . . .

`Wonderfully entertaining . . . Red Square is streets ahead of most thrillers that claim to deal with the real world' Independent

`The best thriller to appear in several years . . . extraordinary' Time

`Dense with observation and atmosphere . . . Smith's best book yet' Cosmopolitan