The Man with the Baltic Stare

Starred review from June 28, 2010
Church, the pseudonym of a former U.S. intelligence officer with many years experience in Asia, audaciously sets his fourth North Korean mystery (after 2008's Bamboo and Blood) in 2016, five years after series hero Inspector O was allowed to leave the Ministry of People's Security before retirement age. O received that boon in exchange for a promise to keep mum on secrets about the ruling elite he'd learned from his grandfather. O lives as a virtual recluse for half a decade until a summons to Pyongyang drags him back into the fray. After a series of cryptic encounters, the inspector finally learns that he must go to Macau to solve the murder of a high-priced prostitute, whose corpse was chopped up into pieces. The local authorities suspect the killer to be the young man being groomed to become the new leader of North Korea. Church once again shows an extraordinary ability to bring that enigmatic country to life, a feat made even more impressive by the wholly plausible near-future setting. Satisfied readers will hail Church as the equal of le Carré.

In the latest installment of the Inspector O series, the retired North Korean detective is called back to duty to solve a murder in which the prime suspect is the presumed leader of a reunified Korea. Of course, not everyone wants the North and South to become one, and others want to use the murder for their own purposes. The story is entertaining, and Feodor Chin's narration adds to the pleasure. At the outset, Chin captures Inspector O's exasperation at being summoned to Pyongyang. Chin is just as adept at portraying the other emotional states that pervade the novel, including paranoia, confusion and tension. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine