It was like a Russian party, Arkady thought. People got drunk, recklessly confessed their love, spilled their festering dislike, had hysterics, marched out, were dragged back in and revived with brandy. It wasn't a French salon.

Smith has also written a number of other paperback originals including a series about a character named "The Inquisitor" a James Bond-type agent employed by the Vatican. And on September 5 2010 he and Arkady Renko returned to the top of the New York Times bestseller list when Three Stations debuted at number seven on the fiction bestsellers list. Renko has since appeared in six other novels by Smith.

Martin Cruz Smith (born November 3 1942) is an American mystery novelist.