Arkady Renko (Russian: Аркадий Ренко) is a fictional detective who is the central character of ten novels by the American writer Martin Cruz Smith.
In the sequels, he takes on roles varying from a militiaman to a worker on a fish processing ship in the Arctic.
Born into the nomenklatura, Arkady is the son of Red Army General Kiril Renko, an unrepentant Stalinist also known as "the Butcher", who sees Arkady as a bitter failure for choosing the simple life of a policeman over a military career, or even a career in the Communist Party.
Wary of the official lies of Soviet society, Arkady exposes corruption and dishonesty on the part of influential and well-protected members of the elite, regardless of the consequences.
The first three books published between 1981 and 1992 form a trilogy culminating with the fall of the Soviet Union, at the August Coup in 1991.