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In a "crackling good mystery novel," a North Korean state detective is drawn into a murder case in a page-turner "that keeps you guessing to the end" (The Washington Post).
Sit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south.
Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decades-old kidnappings and murders -- and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos.
A corpse in Pyongyang's main hotel -- the Koryo -- pulls Inspector O into a confrontation of bad choices. A blue button on the floor of a hotel closet, an ice blue Finnish lake, and desperate efforts by the North Korean leadership set Inspector O on a journey to the edge of a reality he almost can't survive.
A Corpse in the Koryo introduces a perplexing universe seemingly so alien that the rules are an enigma to the reader and even, sometimes, to Inspector O.
Former intelligence agent James Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart. A chilling portrayal that, in the end, leaves us wondering if what at first seemed unknowable may simply be too familiar for comfort.
"An outstanding crime novel." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"An impressive debut that calls to mind such mystery thrillers as Martin Cruz Smith's GorkyPark." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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