Bamboo and Blood (2008, written in 2007) uses as its background the terrible famine in North Korea that first came to light in the 1990s. Estimates (quoted in Wikipedia) are that at least a half-million people died each year during a three-year period from effects of the famine.
Much of the book (the author signs it from Lausanne) takes place in Switzerland, where Korean diplomats have joined with those of other nations to bring relief to the northern-most Korea. As is appropriate for this sort of book, most of the book's participants belong to some spy organization or other. And more than a couple don't return from Switzerland, for one reason or other.
Because this story spends so much time in Switzerland, it has something of a "foreign" feel to it, and it certainly doesn't give the same feeling as the previous two books about being in Korea. When the story does move to Korea, however, we're back on familiar territory and watch the colder Koreans live their lives in impossible circumstances.
And also as always, our hero stays. Inspector O has vast opportunities to leave his country—as have so many others already, but still he hangs on. He is not a believer in the political cause represented by the current government, but his ties to the Korean nation as he understands it are so strong he cannot flee. His lack of family—so unusual in an Asian figure but probably beneficial for a series of books—increases his potential mobility but also heightens his dedication when he declines to leave.
And I'm glad he's staying. With Inspector O on the job, anything is possible...
--Michael Broschat, Dec 2008