Thriller set in Korea- The Plotters – Un-su Kim

Submitted: 17th February 2019

The Plotters of Korean Noir

Ever wondered what it would be like to visit the most secretive country on earth? What about the underground of that city? The criminal underworld?

This novel takes you right to the heart of its pulsating and disease-ridden heart. Korean Noir – The Plotters – Un Su Kim is a visit on a knife edge..

BookTrail the locations in the novel

Setting: The secret and hidden city of Korea

BookTrail Travel to The Plotters locations

Bookreview

Whoah, what just happened! This is one of the few Korean set novels I’ve read but I’ve never seen this side to the city before!

The Plotters of the title are the criminals in the city who pull all the strings. They sit at the high end of the criminal fraternity, shouting orders and issuing threats.

Reseng has been an assassin for fifteen years. His ‘boss’ is Old Raccoon, who operates out of the library he calls The Doghouse. Old Raccoon is an avid reader and reads a lot of books which was bizarre to think about as he issues yet another hit. He has a ‘friend’ by the name of Bear who runs a pet crematorium but will, for a fee, cremate a human body.

Reseng finds it increasingly hard to keep his emotional distance from his victims. That, is the very bad and ultimately deadly problem. As if he refuses to kill someone, then the plotters kill him. Reseng fears this fate as he knows of dead assasins.

What a world Un Su Kim has created. Despite the lack of specific locations, the setting overall spoke loud and clear. This is Korea, an Asian society where ‘face’ and pride rule, even in the assassins world. The language and phrasing are also ‘ non-Western’ which ties the whole book into one very distinct Asia set novel.

IT’s gory and violent. The many matter of face discussions of who to kill and how to kill them make them seem all the more dangerous. Life here means nothing it would seem.