Martin Limón

So, in the end, I liked this book...a lot. I like police procedurals and this one was made even better because I had a sense for the location. I lived in Korea for 8 years and Limón gives the reader an accurate portrait of the dysfunctional relationship between everyday Korean life and the culture of the American military.

Why 3 stars? The writing is clumsy, especially at the beginning and the pace was slow. In the end, however, the author seemed to find firmer footing and I could not put the book down. I am going to try more of his books because I get a sense his books will only get better and I like the two main characters of Sueño and Bascom.… (més)

Strange is missing - he never reported for work and noone knows where he is. That can be bad enough on its own but when the missing soldier is one with access to all classified documents, things can be really bad.

Welcome back to South Korea and the American Army's compounds in the country in the 1970s. Strange's disappearance (Harvey really but our narrator calls him Strange and had been doing it since we first met him) and cases like that are the reason for CID to exist. So Sueño and Bascom are on the case - getting beaten (of course) and pushing hard until something gives away. Everyone's unspoken horror is obvious - North Korean spies are known to operate in the country and Harvey is in a position which will give them access to documents they cannot see otherwise.

Meanwhile, the reporter we met it earlier books, Katie Byrd Worthington, is back to cause more headaches. She has a knack to be at the right place in the right time (although it is not all chance - she works hard for it). And this time not only she has pictures and a story that can embarrass the chain of command (and even put a stop to a career or three) but she also got contacted from a group of female soldiers who had been abused (in all ways) from their male counterparts. Before long our pair of detectives/soldiers is attached to her and thing start getting even weirder.

Both stories are not connected except for Sueño and Bascom and the Korean Police (Mr. Kill as usual) being interested in both. That's a common pattern in these novels and you know that the two stories will meet somewhere - in an unexpected way - sometimes they merge, sometimes they just brush each other but the connection will be there. And Katie Byrd knowing both almost guarantees that by just being there.

And yet something is off - Sueño and Bascom are way too gullible - both in dealing with Strange and with Katie Byrd; they let themselves be led by the nose by people who should not have been able to do it. One of the issues is that both stories are strictly dealing with the American presence (yes, there is a Korean spy but an earlier book did that better - even if the story is a bit different here - and there is the rush across the peninsula from one place to another and the chase for a specific shop, but Korea is almost missing from this book). Things get better after the first chapters but only because now everyone scrambles to deal with the results from the initial mistakes. And the plots (both of them) get less and less credible as the book progresses.

Not that all plots in this series had been really credible but they were usually weaved together into a lot more credible one and one can just ignore the warning notes. There is nothing like that here. It makes for a good story - but ultimately makes you really wonder how much of that is based on the author's experiences and how much is fictional. In most books of the series, it feels like fiction written by someone who actually was there (as is the case with this author). This one feels a lot more removed.

I still enjoyed the novel though - that deep into the series, it kinda works even with all of its faults. Not a good start for a new reader though - the backstory (the relevant one) is all here but this novel will give a really bad idea to a new reader about what this series is all about or its charm and power.… (més)

Major Frederick M. Schulz is one unhappy man - he paid for a business girl in Itaewon and she just took the money and disappeared. Or so he claims. Sueño and Bascom are sent to investigate - and hear a different story from the woman, Miss Jo Kyong-Ja - she did not have sex with Schulz indeed but it was because he was not able to. A he said, she said case - no witnesses and none of the two parties is willing to change their story - with Schulz getting almost desperate for her story not to come out.

It is the mid 70s in South Korea and the US army is there to assist with the treat coming from North Korea. And Sueño and Bascom are part of CID - the army's investigative arm (usually busy with the black market but occasionally dealing with bigger crimes).

Before long Miss Jo is beaten badly and then Major Schulz turns up dead - and everyone is ready to close the case on his death - if only they can find Miss Jo to charge her. Everyone but George Sueño who just does not like the whole story and how it unfurled. Mr. Kill shows up on the Korean side of the investigation, the usual Army bureaucracy kicks in and things start getting complicated when the things start pointing towards the counter intelligence part of the army.

By the end, Sueño gets to see his child again, make some decisions about his life (well, kinda), gets almost killed (again), Bascom loses their favorite Jeep (well, it is technically there, it just does not work anymore) and somehow get to the bottom of the whole story - finding the killer and a few spies while investigating the murder. And all that started because a man was too proud.

While the focus of the book, as with most entries in the series), is the crime (or crimes in this case), the social commentary about both Korea and the army adds a layer to it. Sueño does not really pull his punches while telling the stories - he comments on all he sees - racism and the state of the host country are often in his mind.

It is a good entry in the series. While it can work as a standalone, it works a lot better as part of the whole sequence - it closes some threads that got opened a few books ago.… (més)