Review of The Plotters by Un-su Kim (2019, Fourth Estate; 2010 Korean)

As a small child Reseng was adopted by Old Raccoon, the keeper of the Doghouse Library. While it seems like an ordinary library, it has few visitors and actually serves as a hub for organized crime, especially contract killings. Reseng was groomed to be an assassin and has grown-up to become one of the best in the business. A secret group of plotters devise who should be killed and how; the library organizes the execution. But it’s a business that eats its own. The Old Raccoon is under pressure from a younger rival and Reseng is also under threat after deviating from a plot. And the opposition have the best killer in the business.

The Plotters is a noir tale set in South Korea. Pulling strings behind the scenes, a shadowy group of plotters orchestrate contract killings in which targets are eliminated and their bodies vanish. Reseng operates at the sharp-end, undertaking the kills and transferring the bodies to a pet crematorium. It’s a competitive business, where a deviation from a plot can place the assassin on the death list. Which is where Reseng finds himself. Only there appears to be more than one plotter at work, as well as rivalry in the underworld, unsettling the usual order. Trying to seize the initiative and save himself and his mentor, Reseng takes matters into his own hands, leading to a bloody set of encounters. Un-su Kim creates a dark, reflexive tale of a young assassin trying to survive in a cut-throat world. He does a nice job of constructing the world of the plotters, their actors and the Korean underworld. In many ways, Reseng is the least colourful character in a book populated by larger-than-life, quirky low-lives, but he has an interesting backstory and pursues his own strategy. The storytelling nicely blends pathos with dark humour, and is told in a literary voice. And while it is a little uneven in its pacing, mixing thoughtful description and reflection with action sequences, there’s never a dull moment in the narrative. Overall, an engaging, entertaining read and I’ll be looking out for other books by the author.

  

Review of Slicky Boys by Martin Limon (SoHo Crime, 1997)

1970s Korea. American MPs Sueno and Bascom are unwittingly enrolled into luring an English soldier to his death.  Luckily for them they are assigned the case to investigate.  All the signs point to thievery, black market dealings, and the involvement of Slicky Boys, a ruthless Korean gang who specialise in theft from American bases.  However, the case is more complex that Sueno and Bascom anticipate and there is little cooperation from the local population.  And once their involvement in the Englishman’s death is known they are removed from the case.  Wanting to make up for their lapse the two military cops continue their investigation using a mix of threats, violence and street smarts.  But as the body count rises it seems they have taken on a foe that is more wily and tougher than them.

Slicky Boys is the second book in the Sueno and Bascom US military police series set in South Korea in the 1970s.  In this outing they tangle with the Slicky Boys, a secret, highly organized and ruthless gang that steals about four percent of the value of US Army goods and equipment in the country (enough to be highly profitable, but not arouse too much suspicion given the rampant black market economy).  Sueno and Bascom believe that they are responsible for the death of a young, enterprising Englishman who also has light fingers.  However, things are not quite as they seem and dealing with the Slicky Boys is a dangerous venture.  Whilst the context and setup are interesting the book has a number of shortcomings, the main one being that the plot is barely believable.  By any reasonable expectation, given their actions and encounters, Sueno and Bascom should have been dead by the mid-point and there are too many elements that made little sense beyond plot devices to add twists and action.  The prose is workman-like and often flat.  And while it is interesting to have two flawed lead characters, Sueno and Bascom are hardly likeable and Bascom, in particular, is fairly loathsome with his violent intimidation of witnesses and misogyny.  Such a portrayal of some American MPs might be reasonably accurate but it gets wearing after a while and the only thing keeping the reader rooting for them is the baddies are even worse.  Overall, then, an action-packed story, but weakly plotted.

Review of Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limon (1991, Soho Crime)

South Korea in the 1970s, the war is almost over for twenty years, but there is still a large US Military presence in a country developing rapidly.  George Sueno and Ernie Bascom work for the Military Police of the US 8th Army, mostly trawling the bars of Itaewon, the red-light district frequented by US military personnel, and trying to keep the thriving black market of military supplies in check.  When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman is found brutally murdered in her apartment, the gaze of suspicion falls upon her young GI boyfriend.  Under pressure to wrap the case up quickly, the man is arrested and handed over to the Korean police.  Sueno and Bascom, however, are not convinced of the man’s guilt, and despite warnings to drop the case, continue to investigate, placing themselves in ever more danger.

The interesting thing about Jade Lady Burning is Limon populates the story with unlikeable people doing unlikeable things in unlikeable places and yet has produced a very likeable tale.  Sueno and Bascom are rough around the edges military police officers who drink too much, party with prostitutes in Itaewon, the red-light district of Seoul, and turn a blind-eye to some black market activity.  The tale works well for three reasons.  First, Limon tells the story at face value: he doesn’t romanticise or idealise or sanitize the Itaewon underworld, nor does he portray Sueno and Bascom as likeable rogues.  Instead, the tale is told with gritty realism.  Second, the story is well contextualised with respect to Korean society after the war and the relationship with the US military and its operations.  Third, there is a compelling plot - the investigation into the death of a young Korean woman and the arrest of a young GI - which builds to a nice denouement.  Overall, an engaging and entertaining slice of social realism.