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Bamboo And Blood (2008)

by James Church(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0312372914 (ISBN13: 9780312372910)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Inspector O

review 1: With this title Church moves his Inspector O stories further into the thriller/espionage camp. This is a shame because the narrative power, for me, came from the tiny bit of resolution O could find in actually solving a crime in a place as strange as North Korea. The Israeli and Swiss spooks blended together, although either of them alone would have made a superb character. Still, O is a delight and easy for anyone frustrated by our increasingly in humane modern world to empathize with and root for.
review 2: I was pretty disappointed in this book. I really enjoyed A Corpse in the Koryo and Hidden Moon, but this one just seemed haphazardly thrown together. It begins somewhat mid-scene (one of many scenes never fully explained), and bounces from scene to scene w... moreithout any decent transition or explanation. Additionally, while the previous two books were set in the time in which they were published (2007 and 2008, respectively), this book goes back in time to 1997. While there's nothing wrong with an author taking the earlier lives of characters in a series, this is normally laid out for the reader, so you don't spend quite a few chapters wondering things like "But isn't so-and-so dead?" and "But surely that was earlier in North Korea's history?" While neither A Corpse in the Koryo nor Hidden Moon had endings that tied together particularly well, they had brilliant, solid endings compared to this one - one which leaves us all guessing and confused. Additionally, while the previous two books (specifically the first) gave the reader an excellent glimpse into what life was like in North Korea, this one didn't. It talks about people dying of the famine that gripped the country in the late 90's, but they could have been anywhere in the world for all the feel of place the book had. Not up to Church's previous standards. less

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