Kirjahaku

Tales from East Ridings.

This second volume in the Tales of the East Riding series features more intriguing characters and remarkable events from around the area.

"It's great to have these two mavericks back. . . . Mr. Limon writes with gruff respect for the culture of Seoul and with wonderful bleak humor, edged in pain, about G.I. life in that exotic city."--"The New York Times Book Review" "Combining the grim routine of a modern police procedural with the cliffhanging action of a thrilling movie serial, "Slicky Boys" is full of sharp observations and unexpected poignancy."--"The Wall Street Journal" "There's atmosphere to spare here and enough suspense to please. A colorful thriller."--"Publishers Weekly" "An irresistible tale "--"Seattle Post-Intelligencer" "Two of the more memorable sleuths in the modern mystery canon."--"The Cleveland Plain Dealer" "The writing is plain and sinewy, the characterizations are quietly brilliant and the moral vision is as cold as a Seoul bar girl's gaze."--"The Oregonian" In this sequel to "New York Times" Notable Book "Jade Lady Burning," a pair of American military cops come up against major gang culture in South Korea's back alleys. George Sueno and his partner Ernie Bascom thought they'd seen it all, but nothing could prepare them for the Slicky Boys. They're everywhere. They can kill a man in a thousand ways you don't even want to know about. And you'll never even see them coming. They steal, they kill, they slip away. George and Ernie are about to discover that even the U.S. Military is no match for evil and that human sympathy can sometimes lead to a lonely grave. Martin Limon retired from U.S. military service after 20 years in the U.S. Army, including ten years in Korea. He and his wife live in Seattle. He is the author of "Jade Lady Burning" and "Buddha's Money," which will be published in the Soho Crime series next year.

In this pulse-racing ninth adventure, Sergeant George Sueno heads north of Korea's DMZ on a mission to prevent war between the Communist North and the American-allied South. Seoul, early 1970s: US Army Sergeant George Sueno is on a mission of extreme importance to the South Korean government, as well as the US Army. Kim Il-Sung has vowed to reunite North and South Korea into one country before he hands control of the government over to his son, which means North Korea is planning to cross the DMZ and overpower the American-allied South Korean government. Sueno's mission is to prevent this by sneaking into North Korea and obtaining an ancient map detailing the network of secret tunnels that run underneath the DMZ. To do so, he will have to go undercover and infiltrate the North Korean Communist inner sanctum. Aware of the often dubious nature of the US Military's tactics, Sueno is skeptical about his assignment. But he has other things on his mind. The keeper of the map is Doc Yong, a former lover of Sueno's who was forced to flee South Korea the year before--and she has a son. Before they can be happily reunited, the plan falls to pieces, and Sueno is captured. Can he rely on the enigmatic Hero Kang, his sole contact in the hostile country? Will the lovely Rhee Mi-Sook, the leader of the North Korean secret police, be too much to handle? And who are the mysterious group of women known as the Joy Brigade?

When a U.S. Army Claims officer stationed in South Korea is murdered in grisly fashion the roustabout duo of George Sue o and Ernie Bascom go against orders to track a calculating killer. Early one rainy morning, the head of the 8th United States Army Claims Office in Seoul, South Korea, is brutally murdered by a Korean man in a trench coat with a small iron sickle hidden in his sleeve. The attack is a complete surprise, carefully planned and clinically executed. How did this unidentified Korean civilian get onto the tightly controlled US Army base? And why attack the claims officer--is there an unsettled grudge, a claim of damages that was rejected by the US Army? Against orders, CID agents George Sue o and Ernie Bascom start to investigate. Somehow, no one they speak to has been interviewed yet. The 8th Army isn't great at solving cases, but they aren't usually this bad, either. George and Ernie begin to suspect that someone doesn't want the case solved. Martin Lim n proves once again why he is hailed by his peers as one of the greatest military writers of his time. From the Hardcover edition.

How much can murder buy on the black market in 1974 South Korea? South Korea, 1970s: A young Korean woman dressed in a traditional chima-jeogori is found strangled to death on the frozen banks of the Sonyu River with only a carefully calligraphed poem in her sleeve. George Sue o and Ernie Bascom, sergeants in the US 8th Army CID, are called in by the formidable KNP detective Gil Kwon-up to investigate. George and Ernie's job is to liaise with Korean law enforcement on matters that may involve or implicate 8th Army American servicemen. But as they learn about the case, George and Ernie realize this isn't their jurisdiction--the nearby village of Sonyu-ri is occupied by the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division, a disciplined and often brutal force that won't stand for outside officers questioning its men. All that George and Ernie are able to glean before being kicked out of town is that they are close to the truth--and that a mysterious smuggler, known locally as "the Ville Rat," holds the key to the woman's murder. Luckily, the pair is officially assigned another investigation in the area, which allows them to continue nosing around for answers. They are to elucidate the circumstances of a shooting incident between a young African American private and his white supervising chief. Racial tensions run high, and George and Ernie must tread carefully to solve both cases. But they aren't exactly known for going out of their way to avoid stepping on US Army toes, and this is no exception.

South Korea, 1974. US Army CID Sergeants George Sue o and Ernie Bascom are assigned an underwhelming case of petty theft: Major Frederick M. Schulz has accused Miss Jo Kyong-ja, an Itaewon bar girl, of stealing twenty-five thousand won from him--a sum equaling less than fifty US dollars. After two very divergent accounts of what happened, Miss Jo is attacked, and Schulz is found hacked to death only days later. Did tensions simply escalate to the point of murder? Looking into other motives for Schulz's death, George and Ernie discover that the major was investigating the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion: the Army's counterintelligence arm, solely dedicated to tracking North Korean spies. The division is rife with suspects, but it's dangerous to speak out against them in a period of Cold War finger-pointing. As George and Ernie go head-to-head with the battalion's powerful, intimidating commander, Lance Blood, they learn that messing with the 501st can have very personal consequences.

Martin Lim n's series set in 1970s South Korea, an era of heightened Korean sociopolitical tension, pits Army CID agents Sue o and Bascom against a mysterious woman who may be the leader of a gang--or a thousand-year-old creature. Three American GIs have gone missing in different South Korean cities. Sergeants George Sue o and Ernie Bascom, agents for the Army CID, link the disappearances to a woman locally rumored to be a gumiho, a legendary thousand-year-old nine-tailed fox disguised as a woman. George suspects that the woman is no mythical creature, but a criminal who's good at covering her tracks. Meanwhile, George and Ernie are caught in a power struggle between two high-ranking women in the 8th Army. Scrambling to appease his boss and stay one step ahead of a psychotic mastermind, George realizes he will have to risk his life to discover the whereabouts of his fellow countrymen.

George Sue o and Ernie Bascom return for their thirteenth outing, which takes them from Seoul to the DMZ in their most politically charged murder case yet. The Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1970s: A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When 8th Army CID Agents George Sue o and Ernie Bascom pull the body to the South Korean side on orders from their superiors, they have no idea of the international conflict their small action will spark. Before war breaks out, they must discover who killed Corporal Noh Jong-bei, a young Korean soldier working with the US Army. The murderer could be from either side of the DMZ. But without cooperation between the governments involved, how can two US military agents interrogate North Korean witnesses? What George and Ernie discover gets them pulled off the case, but fearing they've put the wrong man behind bars, they disobey orders in an attempt to discover the truth.

US Army CID Agents George Sue o and Ernie Bascom become entangled with a pushy tabloid reporter as they investigate a series of violent bank robberies throughout South Korea. South Korea, 1970s: A rash of armed robberies at local Korean banks doesn't concern the American military--until a fatality occurs, and proof surfaces that US soldiers are behind the crimes. The case has been assigned to CID Agents Jake Burrows and Felix Slabem, but they certainly won't do anything that might make 8th United States Army look bad. So Sergeants George Sue o and Ernie Bascom have decided to step in and investigate the robberies--and murder--themselves. George and Ernie have their own problems to worry about, namely Katie Byrd Worthington, a pesky reporter for the Overseas Observer--an unsanctioned English-language tabloid that has found strong roots in South Korea. Katie has published a story that implicates Army higher-ups in both sex trafficking and treason, and the pressure is on for the CID to disprove her claims. But what if they aren't false? As George and Ernie dig deeper into the case, they find themselves the targets of a very unflattering publicity campaign, but perhaps also something much more dangerous.

Tasked with covering up a tabloid report about high-ranking officers, US Army CID Agents George Sue o and Ernie Bascom discover a dark web of systemic issues that have potentially fatal consequences. South Korea, 1970s: Sergeant First Class Cecil B. Harvey, a senior NCO in charge of 8th Army's classified documents, has long been a friend (willing or unwilling) to Sergeants George Sue o and Ernie Bascom. So when he goes missing with a top-secret document that even a glance at could get an officer court-martialed, Sue o and Bascom take it upon themselves to find him. Meanwhile, Overseas Observer reporter Katie Byrd Worthington is back to make life difficult for top Army brass. When she lands in a Korean jail cell, Sue o and Bascom are sent to get her out--and negotiate against the publication of an incriminating story about the mistreatment of women in the military that could land important officials in hot water.