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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
I don't know how many people are as fascinated as I am by the period of rapid reconstruction after the Korean War, but there are no guides as convincing as Martin Limón. Although he ostensibly focuses on the GI experience of Korea, it quickly becomes impossible to disentangle the US Army from the development of Seoul -- particularly of the bar district known as Itaewon.
This author nails every detail of daily life in the seamy littoral zone between the US base and the Korean capital from the 1950's to the 1970's. The haircuts of the various strata of bar girls, the tailoring of old-time GI uniforms, the nicknames of various members of the criminal demimonde, the racial tensions bubbling under the surface of the supposedly color-blind military... they all come across in cinema verité. I dunno that this plot is going to win any prizes for plausibility, but Limón sells it as well as anyone could.
This author nails every detail of daily life in the seamy littoral zone between the US base and the Korean capital from the 1950's to the 1970's. The haircuts of the various strata of bar girls, the tailoring of old-time GI uniforms, the nicknames of various members of the criminal demimonde, the racial tensions bubbling under the surface of the supposedly color-blind military... they all come across in cinema verité. I dunno that this plot is going to win any prizes for plausibility, but Limón sells it as well as anyone could.
Good mystery set apart by the evocation of South Korea in the immediate aftermath of the Korean war and twenty some years later, with a large U.S. troop presence that remains (28,000) to this day.
Another of the mystery series I am catching up on--set in Seoul in the early 1970s and populated with disgruntled 8th Army CID agents and the usual sleazy population of the nearby ville.
Another rollicking read in the Red Light District of Seoul. The ending just blew me away.Bascom and Sueno are the go-to guys as always and their infinite stock of idealism and fairness gets met with a heady dose of compromise and realism in this book. We have the usual body count of pimps and hookers but this time they are all tied to a murder and massacre from the closing days of the Korean Armistice. Simultaneously we have the high spirited daughter of an American officer running the ville with her enlisted boyfriend and becoming involved with the main plot line. I would love to see where Limon goes with the ending of this book. I can imagine starting the next book twenty to thirty years later when Sueno is retired and possibly living in the Korea of the 21st Century.
I'm steadily going through the Sueno and Bascom series. Unfortunately, there are only 14 books plus a book of short stories. I started in the middle, then started reading them somewhat in order. I really like this series because they are easy to read and follow and easy to get into. It's best to read them in order if you are starting new.
The setting is 1970's South Korea and the protagonists are two 8th Army CID detectives. Bascom is a bit like Michael Connelly's Bosch in that he doesn't care for protocol and is more likely to antagonize the people he comes in contact with rather than acting like a normal person and that includes his superiors. Sueno is somewhat the same but more level headed. Both are good CID detectives who don't have time for BS and try to solve the crimes they are tasked to instead of slacking off. Another selling point for them is that they try to relate to the native Koreans as people rather than 2nd class citizens to abuse like some other Americans. Limon does a great job of making the characters real (including the bit parts, the GI's and the Koreans). That's the character study part that I like.
The other good part is the setting. Limon was actually serving in Korea and gives a really good depiction of it from the GI point of view. It's like going back in time with the US Army. Not all of it is good; there's a lot of corruption, poverty, booze and sex, yea, some of it actually reads like The Virgin Soldiers (Leslie Thomas). He makes the country and the people come to life.
The army police procedural part is only so-so. There isn't a lot of excitement in the cases. The detectives do their due diligence, do their footwork and solve the crimes. There is mystery but somehow Limon just doesn't get a lot of excitement across. The interest I get from reading the books is from the character development; I care what happens to the people in the story more than I do about the crimes.
That's the basic review. I can't add a lot about this book itself, not that it matters much to me. I find all the stories fairly uniform and as I go through the series I feel like I'm binge watching a TV show - I finish one episode and move along to the next. They are all different stories but in the same format. Overall, I really like the series and highly recommend them.
The setting is 1970's South Korea and the protagonists are two 8th Army CID detectives. Bascom is a bit like Michael Connelly's Bosch in that he doesn't care for protocol and is more likely to antagonize the people he comes in contact with rather than acting like a normal person and that includes his superiors. Sueno is somewhat the same but more level headed. Both are good CID detectives who don't have time for BS and try to solve the crimes they are tasked to instead of slacking off. Another selling point for them is that they try to relate to the native Koreans as people rather than 2nd class citizens to abuse like some other Americans. Limon does a great job of making the characters real (including the bit parts, the GI's and the Koreans). That's the character study part that I like.
The other good part is the setting. Limon was actually serving in Korea and gives a really good depiction of it from the GI point of view. It's like going back in time with the US Army. Not all of it is good; there's a lot of corruption, poverty, booze and sex, yea, some of it actually reads like The Virgin Soldiers (Leslie Thomas). He makes the country and the people come to life.
The army police procedural part is only so-so. There isn't a lot of excitement in the cases. The detectives do their due diligence, do their footwork and solve the crimes. There is mystery but somehow Limon just doesn't get a lot of excitement across. The interest I get from reading the books is from the character development; I care what happens to the people in the story more than I do about the crimes.
That's the basic review. I can't add a lot about this book itself, not that it matters much to me. I find all the stories fairly uniform and as I go through the series I feel like I'm binge watching a TV show - I finish one episode and move along to the next. They are all different stories but in the same format. Overall, I really like the series and highly recommend them.
i never would have read a military mystery, but the book reviewer on fresh air said it was good and she was right. it's hardboiled, which i like. the author sometimes repeats details, which i found a little insulting to my memory.