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James Church

James Church

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Mysteries of the East > Korean > James Church
European, pseudonym
The Inspector   O novels of James   Church
TitleDate originally publishedeBook available?In print?
A Corpse in the Koryo2006YesYes
Hidden Moon2007YesYes
Bamboo and Blood2008YesYes
The Man with the Baltic Stare2010YesYes

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 Reviews of Inspector O novels
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Review text
A revew of Bamboo and Blood
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
 
Review of The Man with the Baltic Stare
Baltic Stare shares with Bamboo and Blood the foreign travel that must be fairly rare for North Korean government officials, but as the author signs this book from Macau (and the previous one from Switzerland), we see some of the possible reasons.
 
The book is something of a strange one. It takes places some years from now, after Inspector O has retired and a number of South Koreans take position within the North Korean capital city.Why are they there? I'll let you figure that out, as it's a fundamental part of the plot. Our hero deals with a bevy of odd characters whose motives are never terribly clear. In that regard, the reader shares much of the uncertainty felt by Inspector O.
 
Once again, Church shows us that at least some North Koreans feel very strongly about their country, even if they do not subscribe to whatever philosophy might prevail in the Kim family command center.
 
So, what happens now? Can one write a book about what happens ten years in the future then go back to pre-retirement? Stay tuned.
 
--Michael Broschat, Aug 2010
 
  		 
James Church

 Links
 Asian Reporter, review of A Corpse in the Koryo
 Conversation between Inspector O and James Church
 Review of Corpse, by Peter Hayes