Senior Investigator Arkady Renko of Moscow returns for the fifth installment in the mystery series that debuted with the 1981 novel GORKY PARK. Billionaire Pasha Ivanov has apparently killed himself by jumping out a window. Not only does his body land on a salt shaker, he's left 50 kilos of salt behind him in his bedroom closet. Renko's superior, Prosecutor Zurin, pressures Renko to consider the suspicious death a suicide. But Renko, at the request of Ivanov's American assistant, Bobby Hoffman, continues to seek the truth, which turns out to be rooted in the highly radioactive Zone of Exclusion surrounding Chernobyl. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.