In his debut novel, author James Church takes the reader to North Kora where Inspector O is given a simple assignment of taking a picture of a car coming up on the highway but nothing is as simple as that in this land filled with rules and political intrigue.
Inspector O is then sent on another mission at the Hotel Koryo where a foreigner was found dead only to realize that there is much more than meets the eye. At every turn Inspector O doesn't know whom to trust, from the lowly newspaper agent to the government officials.
The most interesting tidbits in this novel are how everyone watches one another. Inspector O knows his apartment has been searched and when he travels to places it seems everyone already knows who he is and what he is supposed to do. In this way the author was able to create a very convincing claustrophobic atmosphere.
However, between the intersperesed sections in the chapters where Inspector O is being debriefed by an Irishman, and the weak mystery the storyline becomes very muddled and hard to follow.
What's worse is that I felt indifferent towards the main characters because I felt like I didn't know any of them. If anything, I found the characters on the periphery more interesting because I assume that they represented the regular people living in a totalitarian regime and how all they want is to get by in life.
Added 02/08