… is “A Small Death in Lisbon” by Robert Wilson. Actually, it’s not the worst — that distinction goes to Harlen Coben’s dreadful “Promise Me” — I just liked the best-worst symmetry of this and the preceding post. Still, I didn’t much like this book. While I admire the author’s ambition and research, this is one of those yarns where meticulous geographic detail actually undermines the story. […]

… is Martin Cruz Smith’s “Stalin’s Ghost.” The morose and laconic Arkady Renko returns for the sixth time since his debut in the brilliant “Gorky Park” of 1982. This time he’s back in Moscow, which has changed a great deal in 25 years. It’s a city where the excesses of capitalism and corruption have engendered an odd nostalgia for the days of Stalinist Russia — even as […]