Nightmare Range

July 22, 2013
In the 17 stories in this strong collection from Limón (The Joy Brigade and seven other novels set in Cold War–era South Korea), 8th Army Criminal Investigation Division detectives George Sueño and Ernie Bascom often deal with prostitutes, swindlers, and black marketers who pop up wherever naïve soldiers and American relative wealth intersect with Korean poverty and political desperation. Sueño draws on his ability to speak passable Korean to investigate crimes that the Army brass and the autocratic Korean authorities would just as soon sweep under the rug. Standouts include “Seoul Story,” with its tour of the social layers of Limón’s milieu, and “The Gray Asian Sky,” featuring Sueño’s heartbreaking romance with a Korean woman. An underlying theme of justice for the innocent—often a young Korean trapped in a pitiful situation or an inexperienced American soldier in over his head—keeps the tales from becoming mired in gloom. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyons Literary.

Starred review from October 1, 2013
Seventeen tough cases from the files of a pair of two-fisted military detectives, circa 1971. George Sueno and his partner, Ernie Bascom, are stationed on the U.S. 8th Army base in South Korea. Even though it's been quite a while since the large-scale conflict in that country, there's still plenty of tension between the American military and the locals, as well as capital crimes involving both groups (The Joy Brigade, 2012, etc.). Many of the stories, written over two decades, have been previously published. Some highlights: "The Opposite of O" concerns the murder of a pair of Korean sisters and the culture clash it exemplifies. "Pusan Nights" brings Sueno and Bascom in to solve a series of muggings perpetrated against shipmates aboard the Kitty Hawk; the investigation does not go as planned. "A Piece of Rice Cake" starts as a slightly humorous tale about robbery at the Officer's Club but turns into a sad episode about the hardscrabble existence of the natives. "The Filial Wife" takes the duo to the city of Taegu to tackle a case with no suspects and, ultimately, a highly improbable killer. In "Seoul Story," the guys show a softer side when they rescue a local orphan clinging to life. Limon's strengths are the muscular immediacy of his prose, the gritty righteousness of his heroes and the vivid depiction of the complex subculture that they troll. The more streamlined plots of his short stories make these elements more prominent. This is the rare collection whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Starred review from September 1, 2013

Stationed in Korea in the early 1970s, these two army detectives have covered a lot of ground. Korean-speaking Sgt. George Sueno and his mismatched partner, the fiery Sgt. Ernie Bascom, make military detecting captivating. At times dark and brusque, the tales nonetheless demonstrate an empathy with the Korean people. Consider "The Mysterious Mr. Kim," in which Sueno and Bascom reopen a case of a murdered U.S. doctor, solely on the basis of a tearful mother whose Korean son has been wrongfully convicted of the crime. VERDICT Snap up this volume immediately. All 17 stories have been published over two decades (dating back to 1993), and they provide a superb introduction to Limon's stellar series (The Joy Brigade). Limon effectively stirs compassion into his military procedurals and never loses sight of his characters' humanity.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
Best known for his novels featuring Sergeants George Sueo and Ernie Bascom, Army Criminal Investigations Division agents in Korea in the 1970s (Mr. Kill, 2011), Limn has also written numerous short stories about the pair, and Nightmare Range collects them. Nightmare Range (a mountain range that saw savage fighting during the Korean War) is representative. It concerns the murder of a Korean prostitute. A single question to a sergeant at an artillery firebase produces a likely suspect who went AWOL in the ville. When Sueo and Bascom go to arrest the suspect, they advise him to give himself up because the last GI tried for the murder of a Korean only got four years in jail. That's cold and shocking, as is what happens next, but it's informed by Limn's 10 years of army service in Korea. Each story offers some striking insight about Korea, the decades-long hangover of war and tense cease-fire, or the U.S. Army and its culture. Limn's novels are stronger than these stories, but the author's fans will want more Sueo and Bascom in whatever form.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)