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A review by rosseroo
The Line by Martin Limón
3.0
Years and years ago, I greatly enjoyed the first book in this series (Jade Lady Burning) and the next two, and then for some reason, I had the impression that Limon had stopped writing, so the series dropped off my radar. I noticed this new one the other day and was shocked to see that it's the 13th in the Sueno and Bascom series! Thankfully, it's not a series that you have to read in order, and while there are some allusions to events that must have been covered in the last several books, I never felt like I was missing out on anything.
The main pleasure of the series is the depiction of 1970s Korea, which the author draws from his ten years serving there in the US Army. It's hard to conceive that the country hadn't yet built up any manufacturing, and the only tourists were planeloads of Japanese businessmen on sex holidays. On the flipside, the depictions of life on the various US army bases and camps is like being in an entirely different world.
There are two main plotlines here -- most important is the murder of a South Korean soldier stationed at the titular DMZ. There's also the disappearance of the wife of an officer, who seems to have vanished into Seoul's nightlife. CID sergeants Sueno and Bascom shuttle back and forth between the cases, even though (naturally) they're ordered to drop one, and they get into tight jams with various Army officials, JAG lawyers, and even Korean gangsters. The storyline ultimately gets a little over the top by the end, and the heroes have to rely too many times on their friends passing key information to them, but I was kept engaged by the setting and quick pace.
The main pleasure of the series is the depiction of 1970s Korea, which the author draws from his ten years serving there in the US Army. It's hard to conceive that the country hadn't yet built up any manufacturing, and the only tourists were planeloads of Japanese businessmen on sex holidays. On the flipside, the depictions of life on the various US army bases and camps is like being in an entirely different world.
There are two main plotlines here -- most important is the murder of a South Korean soldier stationed at the titular DMZ. There's also the disappearance of the wife of an officer, who seems to have vanished into Seoul's nightlife. CID sergeants Sueno and Bascom shuttle back and forth between the cases, even though (naturally) they're ordered to drop one, and they get into tight jams with various Army officials, JAG lawyers, and even Korean gangsters. The storyline ultimately gets a little over the top by the end, and the heroes have to rely too many times on their friends passing key information to them, but I was kept engaged by the setting and quick pace.