Almost twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the US Military is still present throughout South Korea, and tensions run high. Koreans look for any opportunity to hate the soldiers who drink at their bars and carouse with their women. When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman, is found brutally murdered in a torched apartment in the Itaewon red light district in Seoul, it looks like it might be the work of her American soldier boy friend. Sergeants George Sueno and Ernie Bascom, Military Police for the US 8th Army, are assigned the case, but they have nothing to go on other than a tenuous connection to an infamous prostitute. As repressed resentments erupt around them, the pair sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to find evidence that will exonerate their countryman.
This is the first book in what had now become a series featuring Sueno and Bascom and like most first efforts its a little rough around the edges. The story is not too bad especially describing how the military machine is running during this time. The author is a twenty year US Army veteran who spent 10 years in Korea so this part of the book is not lacking authenticity.
Pacing of the plot is random however with the author going off on a few tangents that add nothing to the story which would not have suffered being culled by 50 pages.
This is a 5 out of 10 but as the series has now run to 13 novels I'm assuming things improve and I'll keep an eye out for more of them.
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