The word "predator" meant more when you were potential prey.

I have just finished Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith, one in a series of nine mysteries centered on Russian investigator, Arkady Renko.  Well plotted, good character development, good landscape descriptions, good psychological tension, and snippets of history,  A pleasure to read and a residue to be thinking about after you are done reading.    

I purchased this sometime in the past 12-24 months and had it in a stack, waiting to be read.  Martin Cruz Smith is probably most famous for the first in the series, Gorky Park set in Moscow.  I have not read that but have seen the movie version with William Hurt.  I saw it first in the 1980s when it came out.  After I purchased Wolves Eat Dogs I watched Gorky Park again and it holds up very well.

I had not focused on it at the time, but Wolves Eat Dogs has accidentally become somewhat topical as much of the story takes place in Ukraine. 

From page 146.

And what had he learned on his excursion with Alex? Not much. On the other hand, he'd seen at least three wolves behind the white trunks of the birches, eyes shining like pans of gold, weighing the deer, he and Alex and the deer much the same. He remembered how the hairs had stiffened down the back of his neck. The word "predator" meant more when you were potential prey. He laughed at himself, imagining that he was on his motorcycle being chased by wolves.