Ask an International Guy of Mystery

Dear International Guy of Mystery,
I was reading Martin Cruz Smith late the other night and sipping vodka to help with my concentration when it hit me like a ton of bricks: Arkady Renko is modeled after Vladimir Putin! I mean, they're both around the same age, moody, virile, and Russian! It seems uncanny. Am I onto something?
Dave of Dufur, Oregon

Dear Dave of Dufur,
You are onto something, in a kind of roundabout way. My sources say that Vladimir Putin is actually modeled after Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania, for whom another fictional character is also modeled, However, there is a significant character in Martin Cruz Smith's novels, a KGB goon named Colonel Pribluda, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Putin, especially when his sun-baked and inflated body is found on an inner tube in Havana Bay.
You are also on vodka and might consider quitting to help your little town out. I would say to you, ask not what Dufur can do for you, ask what you can do for Dufur.
IGM