- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Minotaur Books,US (5 Dec 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312352093
- ISBN-13: 978-0312352097
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 475,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Inspector 0 returns from a mission abroad to find his new police commander waiting at his office door. There has been a bank robbery - the first ever in Pyongyang - and the commander wants action.0 must start investigating - and immediately - as various ministries demand action. Except, as usual, nothing is ever as it seems in North Korea. Before long, 0 has met a beautiful bank manager, a sharp club owner and the mysterious man in the brown hat, and they all have agendas - none of which involve 0 solving this robbery. But solve it he must, before the wrong ministry comes into power, and 0 is held accountable.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
"People breathe perfectly normally here, but the butterflies, they don't flap their wings."
11 Jun 2010
Format:Hardcover
Author "James Church," a career diplomat with years of experience in Asia, including, one assumes, North Korea, sets his second mystery starring Inspector O of the Ministry of People's Security, in the country's capital of Pyongyang. Though O is an Inspector, he has no idea who is really in charge of the investigations to which he is assigned. His Ministry is constantly locking horns with SSD, the State Security Department, and turf wars often erupt over jurisdiction. For Inspector O, the best approach has always been to keep his head down, do what he is told, try to laugh at the absurdities, and close his eyes to the atrocities.
A robbery at the Gold Star Bank, the first ever in Pyongyang, challenges the Ministry and Inspector O, especially since O is not called to deal with it until a week after it has happened. Still, the Ministry is ordered to solve the crime by the end of the month. O quickly discovers that someone, somewhere, is controlling his access to information, however, and he fears that he and the Ministry are being set up to fail. One of the robbers has been hit by a bus and killed while escaping, but the morgue denies that they have the body that was delivered to them. Private guards, not government security, have been on duty at the bank, and one of them disappeared immediately before the robbery. Strange characters who seem to be involved in a local bar called Club Blue also seem to be connected to people at the bank, and there are hints that the robbery was the work of foreigners.
Inspector O's uncertainties and confusion about the case determine the structure of the novel. Whatever confusion O may have about what is going on, who is doing what, and who is in charge, is matched in the reader, who obtains his information exclusively from O. This creates a free-flowing, often disjointed narrative which can ultimately be as frustrating for the reader as it is for Inspector O--until the ending, of course--a blockbuster filled with surprises.
O, who was iconoclastic and irreverent in Corpse in the Koryo, has now graduated to mordant satire in his view of life here. With tongue in cheek, he openly directs his sarcasm toward those who seem to be in charge, his conversations with them sometimes resembling a script from The Three Stooges. As the ironies of his life turn into absurdities and threaten to turn the investigation into a farce, O becomes a far more engaging character than he was in the previous novel. With an unusual mixture of dark humor and violence, Hidden Moon recreates the frazzled and frantic life of a mid-level bureaucrat in Pyongyang and casts light on a life that offers little hope of change. Mary Whipple
CORPSE IN THE KORYO (Inspector O Novel)
HIDDEN MOON (Inspector O Novel)
Bamboo and Blood (Inspector O Novel)
The Man with the Baltic Stare (Inspector O Novels)
A robbery at the Gold Star Bank, the first ever in Pyongyang, challenges the Ministry and Inspector O, especially since O is not called to deal with it until a week after it has happened. Still, the Ministry is ordered to solve the crime by the end of the month. O quickly discovers that someone, somewhere, is controlling his access to information, however, and he fears that he and the Ministry are being set up to fail. One of the robbers has been hit by a bus and killed while escaping, but the morgue denies that they have the body that was delivered to them. Private guards, not government security, have been on duty at the bank, and one of them disappeared immediately before the robbery. Strange characters who seem to be involved in a local bar called Club Blue also seem to be connected to people at the bank, and there are hints that the robbery was the work of foreigners.
Inspector O's uncertainties and confusion about the case determine the structure of the novel. Whatever confusion O may have about what is going on, who is doing what, and who is in charge, is matched in the reader, who obtains his information exclusively from O. This creates a free-flowing, often disjointed narrative which can ultimately be as frustrating for the reader as it is for Inspector O--until the ending, of course--a blockbuster filled with surprises.
O, who was iconoclastic and irreverent in Corpse in the Koryo, has now graduated to mordant satire in his view of life here. With tongue in cheek, he openly directs his sarcasm toward those who seem to be in charge, his conversations with them sometimes resembling a script from The Three Stooges. As the ironies of his life turn into absurdities and threaten to turn the investigation into a farce, O becomes a far more engaging character than he was in the previous novel. With an unusual mixture of dark humor and violence, Hidden Moon recreates the frazzled and frantic life of a mid-level bureaucrat in Pyongyang and casts light on a life that offers little hope of change. Mary Whipple
CORPSE IN THE KORYO (Inspector O Novel)
HIDDEN MOON (Inspector O Novel)
Bamboo and Blood (Inspector O Novel)
The Man with the Baltic Stare (Inspector O Novels)
Format:Hardcover
It's amazing that the Inspector O novels haven't been seized upon by all fans of well-written crime/spy fiction already. James Church exposes the grubby reality of current-day life in communist Korea, and introduces a fascinating protagonist for us to follow. Look, this really is an excellent novel: quit reading the review and buy it!
Hidden Moon is the second (I think) novel in Church's series but you don't need to read the previous one. If you enjoy the tales of, say Inspector Chen like Death of a Red Heroine, then Inspector O will be straight up your street.
The reader is immediately immersed in the peculiar culture and convoluted politics of the Korean political set-up and its various police systems. We meet Inspector O, an engaging character who is easy to relate to, but someone we don't get to learn all about straight away; his boss (who has a habit of saying things in triplicate); the witnesses of a bank robbery and many mysterious others who flit around the periphery of O's investigation -- some bringing harm, others help (and occasionally both).
James Church is, I believe, a member of the 'intelligence community' which informs the detail and gripping authenticity of his writing. He also has a fair turn of the pen, producing pacy, sparse and punchy chapters which occasionally turn sombre in a breathless twist, or leave you stunned at an audacious turn of events.
The action is thoughtful, the plot is well constructed, the danger escalates just when you think all is safe and well. The background characters and the Korean society itself provide a wealth of intriguing distractions until -- finally -- the meaning of a 'simple' bank robbery is revealed. Hidden Moon combines the best of crime writing with old-style Cold War thrillers. It was a delight to discover it.
James Church has leapt to the top of my reading list. If you like Eliot Pattison The Skull Mantra or Martin Limon Slicky Boys (Mask noir) then James Church should do it for you, too.
9/10
Hidden Moon is the second (I think) novel in Church's series but you don't need to read the previous one. If you enjoy the tales of, say Inspector Chen like Death of a Red Heroine, then Inspector O will be straight up your street.
The reader is immediately immersed in the peculiar culture and convoluted politics of the Korean political set-up and its various police systems. We meet Inspector O, an engaging character who is easy to relate to, but someone we don't get to learn all about straight away; his boss (who has a habit of saying things in triplicate); the witnesses of a bank robbery and many mysterious others who flit around the periphery of O's investigation -- some bringing harm, others help (and occasionally both).
James Church is, I believe, a member of the 'intelligence community' which informs the detail and gripping authenticity of his writing. He also has a fair turn of the pen, producing pacy, sparse and punchy chapters which occasionally turn sombre in a breathless twist, or leave you stunned at an audacious turn of events.
The action is thoughtful, the plot is well constructed, the danger escalates just when you think all is safe and well. The background characters and the Korean society itself provide a wealth of intriguing distractions until -- finally -- the meaning of a 'simple' bank robbery is revealed. Hidden Moon combines the best of crime writing with old-style Cold War thrillers. It was a delight to discover it.
James Church has leapt to the top of my reading list. If you like Eliot Pattison The Skull Mantra or Martin Limon Slicky Boys (Mask noir) then James Church should do it for you, too.
9/10
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Fair writing, interesting characters, poor plot
25 Nov 2007
Format:Hardcover
I was looking forward to a good read after a sterling Wall Street Journal review. Sad to write, it did not measure up. Inspector O is a good character---a Marlowe type seeking truth at all costs in a society, North Korea, which hides it at all costs. But the plot is disjointed. There are three or four threads(fair enough, a typical scheme) but they never get pulled together. An important character is not even introduced until mid-way through the novel. The writing is sometimes more than decent, hitting lyrical notes from time to time. I will give any third effort a look(or maybe try the first) but there is too much good noir out there to take a Korean side trip.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing, since I had high expectations after the first book
20 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
I was really pleased to see this come out because I really enjoyed "The Corpse in the Koryo". Unfortunately, though, it doesn't measure up. The prose is vivid and the characters are nicely sketched, and there is the same nicely done atmosphere as the first book, but the plot doesn't make a lot of sense. And the lack of sense doesn't reflect deliberate ambiguity, which can work sometimes, but rather what struck me as sloppiness. I normally don't worry too much about plotting, and I am sympathetic to the idea that in a place like North Korea, there would be a lot of chaos and strange goings-on, but I still think there was a problem with the execution. The conclusion in particular had a tacked-on, hastily-written feel to it that made me think the author couldn't figure out how to end the book so finally wrote something in a hurry.
I do hope we see some more of Inspector Oh.
I do hope we see some more of Inspector Oh.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A great follow-up to his first book....
8 Feb 2009
Format:Paperback
As mentioned in my first review I read his first book more for the insight into North Korea than for the mystery aspect. This book is less about what day to day life is like in North Korea and more about the absuridty of living in a country where nothing is what it seems to be. The character development of Inspector O is outstanding. His constant banter with his boss and others throughout the book brings humor to what otherwise would be a humorless situation. The beginning of the book was a tad slow and then it really picked up and I couldn't put it down until the end.
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