I have now finished reading all four of “James Church”’s Inspector O novels. (“O,” by the way, is not an initial. It’s the man’s family name.) I can’t claim to understand them fully, but I unquestionably enjoyed them. They are tragic stories, but they didn’t depress me.
Quite remarkable books, all in all. I won’t forget them.
I’ve reviewed the first book, A Corpse in the Koryo, already.
The second book, Hidden Moon, involves a bank robbery—the first, we are informed, in North Korean history.
The third book, Bamboo and Blood, surprises us by jumping back in time. It’s set in the winter of 1997, during the great North Korean famine. It involves an Israeli spy and the murder of diplomat’s wife, and takes O to Switzerland and New York City, where (oddly) he shows no particular interest in food, though he thought about it a lot in A Corpse in the Koryo.
The final book, The Man with the Baltic Stare (I assume it’s the last, though I don’t actually know—it just has the feel of tying off loose ends), is the most audacious of the lot. It’s set in the future, around 2014, and involves the (supposed) murder of a prostitute by a young Korean diplomat in Prague. O, who has, we are informed, been banished (rather to his relief) to the countryside, to live on a mountain top and make wooden toys, is commanded to travel to Prague (there are references to Kafka) to investigate. Continue reading James Church's Inspector O novels: An appreciation →