WHAT MAKES IT GREAT Do you enjoy police procedurals, or detective noir? Then meet Inspector O, a police investigator for the Ministry of People's Security in Pyongyang, the unloved local policing force of North Korea's capital city. Yes, North Korea -- James Church is the pseudonym of a former Western intelligence officer who has extensive experience in the region, and has drawn on his work to write this unique series.
For the most part, Inspector O is responsible for looking into cases that fall on the fine line between police work and state security, which in North Korea has a lot of overlap. An unidentified foreigner found dead in the city's elite Koryo Hotel, a daylight bank robbery (quite possibly the first in Pyongyang's history) that looks like it might be an inside job...these are the types of cases that land on O's desk. They are also the types of cases that the higher-ups almost never want to see actually solved, so O frequently ends up working not only against the criminals but also against the entire bureaucratic machine -- a daunting prospect, in a country like North Korea.
Staple stuff of noir: the immediate crime, the overarching conspiracy or coverup behind it, the cop or detective who fully understands what he's up against but nonetheless tries to get to the bottom of it out of sheer stubbornness or some other internal motivation. All familiar enough. But Church has crafted an interesting protagonist who works well within his unusual setting. O is the grandson of a revered anti-Japanese resistance fighter and the son of parents who were killed during the Korean War, a lineage that makes it possible for him to flout certain written and unwritten rules of North Korean society. He almost never wears his badge with Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on it -- a transgression that would have severe repercussions for an ordinary citizen -- and his grandfather's pragmatism has given him very little interest in ideologies of any kind. At the same time, he's quick to take offense when any foreigner denigrates his country, and more than one foreign intelligence operative finds out that O is not a person to be trifled with. He's able to embody the contradictions of the genre rather well. And the secondary characters (including the women, who aren't just femmes fatale or other noir-ish stereotypes) also are good about driving the plot, whether you're hoping for them to get out alive or eagerly waiting for their comeuppance.
In the later books of the series, the location shifts out of Pyongyang, and Inspector O shares the spotlight with his nephew, Major Bing -- a Chinese-Korean officer who operates in the border region between North Korea and China, attempting to keep a lid on the smuggling, human trafficking, and other illegal activities that are rampant in the area. Bing is a thought-provoking character in his own right, not quite as ready to buck the system as O is but equally devoted to maintaining his personal integrity in deeply corrupt social and political structures.
As might be expected from the subject matter, the series can be pretty brutal at times. For instance, the first book, The Corpse in the Koryo, ends in a veritable bloodbath, and the second one, Hidden Moon, sees O caught up in an interrogation scene that doesn't gloss over the physical and psychological torture elements. But if you're interested in a mystery or police procedural series that's a little out of the ordinary, and have more than a passing interest in North Korea, the Inspector O books are worth investigating.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? There are six novels in the series, which are relatively easy to acquire through the usual book channels. (My local library had several of them to start with.) Major Bing makes his first appearance in the fifth book in the series, A Drop of Chinese Blood. James Church occasionally publishes short 'conversations' with Inspector O on the 38 North website -- I recommend going back to the beginning of the conversation series. These little snippets were enough to draw me into getting the first two books from the library.
Inspector O - James Church
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT
Do you enjoy police procedurals, or detective noir? Then meet Inspector O, a police investigator for the Ministry of People's Security in Pyongyang, the unloved local policing force of North Korea's capital city. Yes, North Korea -- James Church is the pseudonym of a former Western intelligence officer who has extensive experience in the region, and has drawn on his work to write this unique series.
For the most part, Inspector O is responsible for looking into cases that fall on the fine line between police work and state security, which in North Korea has a lot of overlap. An unidentified foreigner found dead in the city's elite Koryo Hotel, a daylight bank robbery (quite possibly the first in Pyongyang's history) that looks like it might be an inside job...these are the types of cases that land on O's desk. They are also the types of cases that the higher-ups almost never want to see actually solved, so O frequently ends up working not only against the criminals but also against the entire bureaucratic machine -- a daunting prospect, in a country like North Korea.
Staple stuff of noir: the immediate crime, the overarching conspiracy or coverup behind it, the cop or detective who fully understands what he's up against but nonetheless tries to get to the bottom of it out of sheer stubbornness or some other internal motivation. All familiar enough. But Church has crafted an interesting protagonist who works well within his unusual setting. O is the grandson of a revered anti-Japanese resistance fighter and the son of parents who were killed during the Korean War, a lineage that makes it possible for him to flout certain written and unwritten rules of North Korean society. He almost never wears his badge with Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on it -- a transgression that would have severe repercussions for an ordinary citizen -- and his grandfather's pragmatism has given him very little interest in ideologies of any kind. At the same time, he's quick to take offense when any foreigner denigrates his country, and more than one foreign intelligence operative finds out that O is not a person to be trifled with. He's able to embody the contradictions of the genre rather well. And the secondary characters (including the women, who aren't just femmes fatale or other noir-ish stereotypes) also are good about driving the plot, whether you're hoping for them to get out alive or eagerly waiting for their comeuppance.
In the later books of the series, the location shifts out of Pyongyang, and Inspector O shares the spotlight with his nephew, Major Bing -- a Chinese-Korean officer who operates in the border region between North Korea and China, attempting to keep a lid on the smuggling, human trafficking, and other illegal activities that are rampant in the area. Bing is a thought-provoking character in his own right, not quite as ready to buck the system as O is but equally devoted to maintaining his personal integrity in deeply corrupt social and political structures.
As might be expected from the subject matter, the series can be pretty brutal at times. For instance, the first book, The Corpse in the Koryo, ends in a veritable bloodbath, and the second one, Hidden Moon, sees O caught up in an interrogation scene that doesn't gloss over the physical and psychological torture elements. But if you're interested in a mystery or police procedural series that's a little out of the ordinary, and have more than a passing interest in North Korea, the Inspector O books are worth investigating.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?
There are six novels in the series, which are relatively easy to acquire through the usual book channels. (My local library had several of them to start with.) Major Bing makes his first appearance in the fifth book in the series, A Drop of Chinese Blood. James Church occasionally publishes short 'conversations' with Inspector O on the 38 North website -- I recommend going back to the beginning of the conversation series. These little snippets were enough to draw me into getting the first two books from the library.