Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he started out as a journalist, including a brief stint at the AP and at the Philadelphia Daily News. Success as an author arrived slowly. He had been a published novelist for more than a decade before he broke through in the early 1980s with Gorky Park. His novel came out when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were still very much alive and centred on Renko’s investigation into the murders of three people whose bodies were found in the Moscow park that Smith used for the book’s title.
The book topped the New York Times’ fiction bestseller list and was later made into a movie starring William Hurt.
Smith’s other books include science fiction (The Indians Won), the Westerns North to Dakota and Ride to Revenge, and the Romano Grey mystery series. Besides "Martin Cruz Smith" — Cruz was his maternal grandmother’s name — he also wrote under the pen names "Nick Carter" and "Simon Quinn".
His 11th Renko book, Hotel Ukraine, was published recently and billed as his last.
Smith’s honours included being named a "grand master" by the Mystery Writers of America, winning the Hammett Prize for Havana Bay and a Gold Dagger award for Gorky Park. Martin Cruz Smith died on July 11 aged 82. — Allied Media
