The Ville Rat

Starred review from August 10, 2015
Set in 1974, Limón’s pulse-pounding 10th mystery featuring sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom (after 2014’s The Iron Sickle) takes the two agents of the 8th U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division to a crime scene a bit north of Seoul, where someone has strangled a young Korean woman, who worked as a kisaeng, or “entertainer,” and left her in the Sonyu River. The proximity of the corpse to a U.S. Army base suggests that an American is responsible, a possibility the military brass doesn’t want to countenance. The partners, who have a reputation for not “overlooking crimes that were considered embarrassing,” welcome the challenge. George and Ernie’s persistence soon leads to their recall to headquarters, forcing them to be creative in continuing their search for the truth. This police
procedural, with its unusual locale, admirable protagonists, and well-developed plot, stands as a superior entry in a consistently impressive series. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyons Literary.

August 1, 2015
Two gritty Army CID agents investigate a murder with sensitive racial and social undercurrents. South Korea, 1974. George Sueno, who narrates in his usual punchy first-person, gets a call in the middle of the night and, with partner Ernie Bascom, meets the Korean homicide inspector they call Mr. Kill by the snow-covered banks of the Sonyu River. A body has been found; the victim is a beautiful young woman wearing a chima-jeogori-a traditional Korean dress of red silk-with a poem clutched in her hand. Suspecting the involvement of GIs, Mr. Kill hands the case off to the American duo. They piece together the identity of the victim, a "Korean business girl" who entertained American soldiers in bars like the Black Star Nightclub. Key to her murder is the Ville Rat, an elusive black market dealer. Obstacles to the investigation come via mistrustful locals and the Army itself. A third, pervasive strain of alienation exists between white and black GIs. As if to underscore this last issue, the duo is given the job of questioning black Pvt. Clinton Threets, who admits to shooting his superior, Sgt. Vincent Orgwell, after aggressive sexual advances. When finally George and Ernie catch up with Ville, he answers many of their questions but leaves a raft of new ones to unravel. Though a bit shaggy, Sueno and Bascom's ninth appearance (The Iron Sickle, 2014, etc.) has vivid characters, and its searing portrait of the sins of our recent past bids fair to transcend the genre.

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Starred review from August 1, 2015
It's 1974, in South Korea. The country's economy is still reeling, and 50,000 U.S. troops edgily await the start of WWIII. Eighth Army criminal investigations agents George Sueno and Ernie Bascom are reunited after Ernie's two tours in Vietnam, and they're investigating the murder of a beautiful young Korean woman in a little village just outside the DMZ, the base of the Eighth's especially edgy Second Division. Sueno and Bascom are forced by MPs to retreat, but they're also assigned to investigate the wounding of a senior Second Division noncommissioned officer by a black GI that shines a light on a mysterious American, the titular Ville Rat, who seems to be supplying Colt 45 malt liquor to bars frequented by black soldiers. Often praised for his knowledge of Korean society and culture and the massive footprint of the U.S. army on Korea, Limon has an outstanding series going, and this one may be the best installment yet. To tease out solutions to the mysteries, Sueno and Bascom must access a fascinating collection of senior noncoms who control vital things like classified documents and the army's entire liquor inventory.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)