From the award-winning, bestselling author of Gorky Park and Tatiana comes a breathtaking new novel about investigator Arkady Renko—“one of the most compelling figures in contemporary fiction” (USA TODAY)—who travels deep into Siberia to find missing journalist Tatiana Petrovna.

Journalist Tatiana Petrovna is on the road. Arkady Renko, iconic Moscow investigator and Tatiana’s part-time lover, hasn’t seen her since she left on assignment over a month ago. When she doesn’t arrive on her behalf scheduled about The Siberian Dilemma teach, he’s positive something is certainly wrong. No one else feels Renko ought to be worried—Tatiana is known to disappear during deep tasks—but he understands her enemies all as well well and the legal lengths they’ll head to keep her peaceful.

Renko embarks on the dangerous trip to get Tatiana and bring her back. From the banks of Lake Baikal to rundown Chita, Renko slowly learns that Tatiana continues to be profiling the rise of political dissident Mikhail Kuznetsov, a golden boy of modern essential oil wealth and the first ever to pose a genuine risk to Putin’s rule in over a decade. Though Kuznetsov seems like the perfect candidate to take on the corruption in Russian politics, his status becomes clouded when Boris Benz, his business partner and closest friend, turns up inactive. In a property of shamans and brutally cool nights, oligarchs wealthy on northern oil, and sea monsters that are thought to prowl the deepest lake in the world, Renko requires all his wits about him to get Tatiana out alive.

The Washington Post has said “Martin Cruz Smith is that rare phenomenon: a favorite and well-regarded crime novelist who is also a writer of real distinction.” In the latest continuation of his memorable series, he brings us to the inside world of shadowy political figures and big wig oil oligarchs providing us with a geniune view of modern Russia, infused along with his trademark wit.