Set in and around the 8th US Army's compounds in the 70s in South Korea, Limón's series contains both a picture of the US army at the time and of the South Korean society (and the Northern in the previous book). This is the 9th novel in the series - and after the unusual 8th book, it is back to the normal storytelling and places. Or almost normal anyway.

Sueño is back in Seoul after his mission to North Korea in the previous book and with his lover and child gone into hiding, the dynamic duo of Sueño and Bascom is back to their usual behavior - annoying everyone in power and stumbling into embarrassing secrets.

The novel opens with a gruesome death - a Korean man walks into the compound and kills an officer with an iron sickle. Before long everyone in the army and in the Korean police and army seems to be hunting for the men except for our two sergeants - who are told to stay away from the case even if Sueño is the only American investigator who can speak and understand any Korean. That does not last long of course -- they are already digging into it when the police asks for them by name (Mr. Kill, who we met in a previous book, makes the request). And things start getting weirder and weirder. More Americans die by the sickle and it seems like the 3 organizations who supposedly are looking for him have their own agendas - and truth is not on anyone's agenda. Except Sueño and Bascom of course.

And as the story unfolds, the truth, and the reason why noone wants it out, starts emerging. As usual, its root is deep into the Korean war 20 years earlier but even for the standards of the series, it is a disturbing one.

Sueño gets beaten more often than usual, another doctor falls for him and we get to see another side of South Korea in the 70s - the lands away from the big cities and the American army, the mountains which unlike the valleys are almost bereft of people and the way mental illness is treated in the country (it is not a happy story...)

The novel stand on its own - even if some references will be unclear although there is a lot of nuances that may be missed - by now the author skips the long explanations about the girls who sell themselves and the mamasans who keep them - the basics are there but having read the whole series, a single sentence conjures a complete picture based on what one already knows.

Another strong entry in the series. The whole series is recommended - as long as you can handle the gruesomeness. But the South Korea of the 70s, seen from the eyes of the American soldier (both the author's (Limón was there as well) and his character's), is illuminating. ( )