A CORPSE IN THE KOYO

By James Church

January brought us a book set behind the mysterious curtain of North Korea. Inspecter O, a detective is asked to stake out a road leading out of the country and to take a photograph of an unspecified car. Without a thermos and with a camera with a defective battery it is clear from the start that this is going to be a frustrating journey for the worthy detective.

While many of our group saw the journey in the book as its most important value with its riviting view of an ordinary man trying his best to live a life where dangers are more likely from those in authority than criminals; in fact where they are often one and the same many were disappointed in the mystery itself. The story line is convuluted, never traveling in a straight line and in the end most of us were unsure of some of the characters and who did what to whom. The high marks came from those of us who just enjoyed the picture this author painted while others held the score down by demanding a more cohesive plot line.

James Church is a psuedonym for an intelligence office who obviously spent a lot of time in this country. His descriptions, observerations and views are spot on, according to most literary critics. What made the book so enjoyable is that Inspector O is never an apologist for the corrupt and tyrannical government nor is he a revolutionary opposed to it. He's just a guy trying to live up to his own standard of fairness and justice with a bit of black humor thrown in for spice. We look forward to the next Inspector O novel, where hopefully the lessons learned from the first are improved.