The Nine-Tailed Fox

Starred review from August 21, 2017
The disappearance of three American soldiers serving in 1970s South Korea kick-starts Limón’s outstanding 12th mystery featuring U.S. Army CID agents George Sueño and Ernie Bascom (after 2016’s Ping Pong Heart). The missing men were all reliable, hadn’t shown any signs of stress, and didn’t have access to classified information that would have made them appealing targets for North Korean intelligence. Despite the urgency of the assignment to find the men, Sueño and Bascom run into bureaucratic obstacles and also find themselves diverted from pursuing clues to dealing with an unauthorized refrigerator delivery—an absurdity that will remind readers of the TV series M.A.S.H. They eventually get a promising lead, but it’s one that they hesitate to share with their superiors—that the case may be connected with the myth of the gumiho, a fox transformed into a shape-shifting lustful woman by the gods. Clever plotting and superior characterizations lift this suspenseful, atmospheric installment. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyons Literary.