Hidden Moon: An Inspector O Novel (Inspector O Novels) [Paperback]

James Church (Author)

Book Description

Series: Inspector O Novels | Publication Date: October 28, 2008

“Hidden Moon reads more like a spy novel by a Korean Kafka. Final word: Fascinating.” —Rocky Mountain News

In A Corpse in the Koryo, James Church introduced readers to one of the most unique detectives to appear on page in years---the elusive Inspector O. The stunning mystery was named one of the best mystery/thrillers of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune for its beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a terrain Church knows by heart.
          And now the Inspector is back.
          In Hidden Moon, Inspector O returns from a mission abroad to find his new police commander waiting at his office door. There has been a bank robbery---the first ever in Pyongyang---and the commander demands action, and quickly. But is this urgency for real?  Somewhere, someone in the North Korean leadership doesn’t want Inspector O to complete his investigation. And why not? What if the robbery leads to the highest levels of the regime? What if power, not a need for cash, is the real reason behind the heist at the Gold Star Bank?
          Given a choice, this isn’t a trail a detective in the Pyongyang police would want to follow all the way to the end, even a trail marked with monogrammed silk stockings. “I’m not sure I know where the bank is,” is O’s laconic observation as the warning bells go off in his head. A Scottish policeman sent to provide security for a visiting British official, a sultry Kazakh bank manager, and a mournful fellow detective all combine to put O in the middle of a spiderweb of conspiracies that becomes more tangled, and dangerous, the more he pulls on the threads.
          Once again, as he did in A Corpse in the Koryo, James Church opens a window onto a society where nothing is quite as it seems. The story serves as the reader’s flashlight, illuminating a place that outsiders imagine is always dark and too far away to know. Church’s descriptions of the country and its people are spare and starkly beautiful; the dialogue is lean, every thought weighed and measured before it is spoken. Not a word is wasted, because in this place no one can afford to be misunderstood.

Praise for Hidden Moon:

“The book’s often sharp repartee is reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s dialogue, while the corrupt North Korean bureaucracy provides an exotic but entirely convincing noir backdrop. . . . Like Marlowe and Spade before him, Inspector O navigates the shadows and, every now and then, finds truth in the half-light.” —The Wall Street Journal

“[Hidden Moon] . . . is like nothing else I’ve ever read. Church creates an utterly convincing, internally consistent world of the absurd where orders mean the opposite of what they say and paperwork routinely gets routed to oblivion.” —Hallie Ephron, The Boston Globe

“Church uses his years of intelligence work to excellent advantage here, delivering one duplicitous plot twist after another . . . the author’s affection for the landscape and people of Korea is abundantly evident. [A] stunning conclusion.” —The Washington Post

"...the real pleasure of Hidden Moon is its conversations, loaded down with layers of secrecy and suspicion that surface words are meaningless in the face of buried intention. Thanks to Church, mystery readers are learning about the minds and hearts of North Koreans--and putting a human face on a world so far away." --The Baltimore Sun

Critical Acclaim for A Corpse in the Koryo:

“A Corpse in the Koryo  is a crackling good mystery novel, filled with unusual characters involved in a complex plot that keeps you guessing to the end.” --Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post

“The best unclassified account of how North Korea works and why it has survived . . . This novel should be required bedtime reading for President Bush and his national security team." --Peter Hayes, executive director of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development

“A new offering that reminds you of why you started reading mysteries and thrillers in the first place.” --Chicago Tribune

“What's perhaps most remarkable---and appealing---about A Corpse in the Koryo is the tremendously clever complexity (and deceptions) of the plot. The reader is left to marvel at the author's ability to keep his readers on their intellectual toes for almost three hundred pages. We can only hope that Church has many more novels up his sleeve.” --Tampa Tribune

“An impressive debut that calls to mind such mystery thrillers as Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In Inspector O, the author has crafted a complex character with rough charm to spare, and in eternally static North Korea, he has a setting that will fascinate readers for sequels to come.” --Time magazine (Asia edition)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The former U.S. intelligence agent writing as James Church offers a unique perspective on North Korea in his standout second Inspector O mystery, following 2006's acclaimed A Corpse in the Koryo. Series hero O, an inspector with the ministry of public security, is determined to maintain some moral and professional standards while toiling in an inefficient bureaucracy where competing intelligence services spend significant time spying on each other to detect the slightest trace of ideological impurity. His assignment this time is a classic no-win: his superior directs him to investigate a bank robbery, an unheard-of crime in Pyongyang, but no one is cooperating, suggesting that the truth is not something the government actually wants discovered. O is further taxed when a visiting British dignitary's arrival apparently triggers an assassination plot that could have ramifications for the current regime. With wit and efficiency, Church masterfully evokes the challenges of enforcing the law in an authoritarian society and weds the intriguing atmosphere to a fast-moving and engaging plot. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Following up his exciting A Corpse in the Koryo (2006), which introduced the likable North Korean police officer Inspector O, Church (a former intelligence officer writing under a pseudonym) offers up a mystery involving a rarity in Korean society: a bank robbery. Men in silk stockings (also very rare) have held up the Gold Star Bank in broad daylight, and, frankly, the authorities have no idea how to handle it. So they give the case to Inspector O, hoping that his expertise with offbeat cases will help. Little do they or he expect the treachery that lies down the road. Like its predecessor, the novel relies heavily on its setting, which the author brings vividly to life, and on its characters, the witty, wily Inspector O and the various colleagues, witnesses, and suspects he encounters. While the first novel invited comparisons to Martin Cruz Smith and Robert Janes, this second in the series makes it clear no comparisons are necessary: this series stands on its own. Pitt, David --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312387660
• ISBN-13: 978-0312387662
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair writing, interesting characters, poor plot, November 25, 2007

By 

Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Moon: An Inspector O Novel (Inspector O Novels) (Hardcover)

I was looking forward to a good read after a sterling Wall Street Journal review. Sad to write, it did not measure up. Inspector O is a good character---a Marlowe type seeking truth at all costs in a society, North Korea, which hides it at all costs. But the plot is disjointed. There are three or four threads(fair enough, a typical scheme) but they never get pulled together. An important character is not even introduced until mid-way through the novel. The writing is sometimes more than decent, hitting lyrical notes from time to time. I will give any third effort a look(or maybe try the first) but there is too much good noir out there to take a Korean side trip.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, since I had high expectations after the first book, September 20, 2009

By 

Canghuixu (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Moon: An Inspector O Novel (Inspector O Novels) (Paperback)

I was really pleased to see this come out because I really enjoyed "The Corpse in the Koryo". Unfortunately, though, it doesn't measure up. The prose is vivid and the characters are nicely sketched, and there is the same nicely done atmosphere as the first book, but the plot doesn't make a lot of sense. And the lack of sense doesn't reflect deliberate ambiguity, which can work sometimes, but rather what struck me as sloppiness. I normally don't worry too much about plotting, and I am sympathetic to the idea that in a place like North Korea, there would be a lot of chaos and strange goings-on, but I still think there was a problem with the execution. The conclusion in particular had a tacked-on, hastily-written feel to it that made me think the author couldn't figure out how to end the book so finally wrote something in a hurry.

I do hope we see some more of Inspector Oh.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great follow-up to his first book...., February 8, 2009

By 

R. Fleck - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Moon: An Inspector O Novel (Inspector O Novels) (Paperback)

As mentioned in my first review I read his first book more for the insight into North Korea than for the mystery aspect. This book is less about what day to day life is like in North Korea and more about the absuridty of living in a country where nothing is what it seems to be. The character development of Inspector O is outstanding. His constant banter with his boss and others throughout the book brings humor to what otherwise would be a humorless situation. The beginning of the book was a tad slow and then it really picked up and I couldn't put it down until the end.