Bamboo and Blood, James Church
Bamboo and Blood, James Church
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Bamboo and Blood
The Inspector O Novels, Book 3

Author: James Church

Narrator: Feodor Chin

Unabridged: 10 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/23/2011


Synopsis

The critically acclaimed A Corpse in the Koryo brought readers into the enigmatic workings of North Korean intelligence with the introduction of a new kind of detectivethe mysterious Inspector O. In the followup, Hidden Moon, O threaded his way through the minefield of North Korean ministries into a larger conspiracy he was never supposed to touch. Now the inspector returns. In the winter of 1997, trying to stay alive during a famine that has devastated much of North Korea, Inspector O is ordered to play host to an Israeli agent who appears in Pyongyang. When the wife of a North Korean diplomat in Pakistan dies under suspicious circumstances, O is told to investigatebut with a curious proviso: Dont look too closely at the details, and stay away from the question of missiles. O knows he cant avoid uncovering what he is supposed to ignore on a trail that leads him from the dark, chilly rooms of Pyongyang to an abandoned secret facility deep in the countryside, guarded by a lonely general, and from the streets of New York to a bench beneath a horse chestnut tree on the shores of Lake Geneva, where the Inspector discovers he is up to his ears in missilesand worse. Stalked by the past and wary of the future, O is convinced there is no one he can trust and no one he cant suspect. Swiss intelligence wants him out of the country; someone else wants him dead. Once again, James Churchs spare, lyrical prose guides listeners through an unfamiliar landscape of whispered words and shadows, a world wrapped in a level of mystery and complexity that few outsiders have experienced. With Inspector O, noir has a new home in North Korea, and James Church holds the keys.

About James Church

James Church is the pseudonym of a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. He has wandered through Korea for years. No matter what hat he wore, Church says, he ran across Inspector O many times.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tuck on January 21, 2010

i don't know, james church's novels just keep getting more and more weird and nightmarishly noir. i liked his first one best, "a corpse in the koryo", but then again, all are very compelling. i like his descriptions of the natural environment, people, and buildings better though. which may kind of d......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on October 15, 2017

Inspector O has become something of a regular fixture for me these last two months. Since subscribing to Audible, I've listened to the first in the series, A Corpse in the Koryo, and now this, the third (I'd read the second, Hidden Moon a few years back) and while I have to grit my teeth as I listen......more

Goodreads review by Ludditus on March 14, 2018

There is a reason this book starts with a rather unusual note: “Many of the events mentioned in this story actually happened, though not necessarily at the time, in the sequence, or exactly in the way they swirl around Inspector O. For that reason, and many others, this book is a work of fiction.” I......more

Goodreads review by Alejandrina on September 19, 2022

Not so much a mystery in the tradional sense, but more of a spy story written in a style reminsescent of John Le Carre without Smiley and the Soviets. Instead you have North Korea during the great famine of the 1990s (read up on that disaster!), missile sales in the background and Kafkaesque depicti......more

Goodreads review by Mal on April 06, 2017

James Church’s Bamboo and Blood is one of the most unusual detective novels you’ll ever come across. Opening in a frigid North Korean winter in 1997, the story revolves around the hapless Inspector O and his unhappy boss, Chief Inspector Pak of the Ministry of Public Security, described in the novel......more