Description:

Almost twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the U.S. Military is still present throughout South Korea, and tensions run high. Koreans look for any opportunity to hate the soldiers who drink at their bars and carouse with their women.  When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman, is found brutally murdered in a torched apartment in the Itaewon red-light district of Seoul, it looks like it might be the work of her American soldier boyfriend.  Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, Military Police for the U.S. 8th Army, are assigned to the case, but they have nothing to go on other than a tenuous connection to an infamous prostitute.  As repressed resentments erupt around them, the pair sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to find evidence that will absolve their countryman.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

**

From Publishers Weekly

A dense wallow in the sleazy, labyrinthine decadence of Vietnam War-era Seoul, South Korea, in the company of army investigators Ernie Bascom and George Sueno gives this debut mystery a unique atmosphere. Unfortunately Limon, himself a U.S. Army veteran who served in Korea for 10 years, moves his narrative forward at a strangely leisurely pace. The two barely moral sleuths trudge through an endless succession of dark bars, propositioning or being propositioned by the local business girls (the negotiations lead to deals on several occasions), all the while asking questions about the brutal murder of Miss Pak 0k-suk. Limon renders an unforgettable setting and a nasty killing into which the local authorities and military bigshots seem reluctant to pry, gives us a patsy in the shape of the victim's seared GI fianee and creates sympathy for Kimiko, an older local woman who is trying to survive in a young girl's market. But the plot lags, and Limon underutilizes Bascom, whose innocent-looking puss conceals a classic crime-fiction psychotic. A mixed-bag first effort, with an evocative setting and a sluggish pace.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

George and Ernie pal around as military investigators for the Eighth Army in Korea, making daily visits to Itaewon for bars, booze, and "business" women. When an American serviceman apparently murders a young Korean woman, they use their unusual contacts to find clues but stumble on evidence of a conspiracy aimed at grabbing millions of dollars in army contracts instead. Limon's clipped narrative style fits the military life he describes and the duo's methodology as well. A competent and promising first novel with a unique setting.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.