Novelist Martin Cruz Smith, 82, died on July 11. Smith wrote more than 30 books, including the Arkady Renko thriller series, which began with the #1 bestseller Gorky Park (1981) and ended with HOTEL UKRAINE, which was published last week. He was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2019. Smith lived with Parkinson’s since 1995 and incorporated the disease into Renko’s character in later books. “He was a writer, and he did it beautifully and valiantly until the very end,” Smith’s editor, Simon & Schuster publisher Sean Manning, said.
