Red Square (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Red Square
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Martin Cruz Smith
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Arkady Renko # 3
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Random House & Ballantine Books
release_date = 1991
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 400pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-345-38473-3
preceded_by = Polar Star
followed_by = Havana Bay

"Red Square" is a crime novel by Martin Cruz Smith, set in the Soviet Union in the year 1991. It is a sequel to "Gorky Park" and "Polar Star" and features Investigator Arkady Renko.

As the existing social and economic structure of the Soviet Union breaks down, Arkady Renko has been reinstated as an Investigator in the Moscow Militsiya (Police Force). He is trying to clear up a nest of illicit traders when his chief informant dies in a horrific fireball. At the late informer's flat, his fax machine keeps asking the apparently meaningless question, "Where is Red Square?"

The question does not pertain to a location, but to a painting by suprematist painter Malevich, which has resurfaced on the black market after being lost since World War II. The story, however, reverts to the August Coup, which takes place in and around Red Square and indeed throughout Moscow in August 1991, leading to the fall of the Soviet Union.