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liberrydude's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favorite series. I've walked and wandered Korea some 15 to 25 years after the timeframe these stories are set in and they really resonate. Limon wonderfully captures Army and Korean culture. The dynamic duo of Sueno and Bascam can always be relied on to exceed the boundaries the Army brass imposes upon them. After all they are investigators. In a typical theme they once again find truths the higher ups don't want to know about: simple sex and minor black market crimes morph into national security issues. We meet characters from previous books in this action paced plot that has us wandering all over the Korean peninsula. It would be nice though to have a change of leadership for these two intrepid soldiers and have leaders who value their contributions. These guys ought to be getting medals and be soldiers of the year but then this is 1974 and it's old school Army and a rather cynical take on the bureaucracy that is the Army. These guys are too good for their own good. Still I hope Limon writes a book that takes them into the future where they might be master sergeants or lifers looking back at their careers-much like the Flashman stories.
usbsticky's review against another edition
5.0
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.
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