The Door to Bitterness

This is the fourth book in this series set in South Korea in the 1970s. I read the first two in 2004, and the third in 2006. Then this one, the fourth in the series, I just finished. An interesting enough series and idea for a series, but there was always something slightly off, hence the long gaps between reads. And this time the "slightly off" aspect was in full force and no longer slightly off but completely off. The characters were hard to take and unlikeable. Both the killers and the lead military police. The military police, Sueno and Bascom, being the leads, with Sueno the narrator.

A hellish world patrolled, at least on the American side, by a bunch of drunks. And fainters. Well, one. I grew rapidly tired of Sueno constantly show more fainting, going into a dream state, and being quite . . . 'sorry' about the killers backgrounds.

So that's the lead character side. Plot-wise . . .. I've read a lot of mysteries in my time, so I'm not sure if it is notable that I knew 99% of what was happening before the lead detective, 100s of pages before the events unfolded. Well, maybe 88%, with 10% things I wouldn't know without more knowledge of Korea.

I do not recommend this book or this series to anyone. show less