Orphan child Reseng was taken in by Old Raccoon and trained to be an assassin at the Library of Dogs. Old Raccoon is one of the leading plotters of political assassinations, and Reseng is his prize weapon, his hands and feet.

Reseng is acutely aware of his likely future; successful assassins usually end up on some other plotter's assassination list, and sooner or later he is likely to be killed himself. As the story starts, his missions seem to be getting sloppy; he departs from the script, annoying the plotters who engaged him. He starts to suspect that his time is coming and that he needs to take steps to protect himself. Then he encounters a plotter for the first time, in a most unexpected quarter.

This is a somewhat different crime story with a few clever twists and an engaging protagonist. Good stuff. ( )

Ich habe nicht das Buch gelesen, sondern die komplette Lesung als Hörbuch gehört.
Auf die Story war ich gekommen, da mir jemand gesagt hat, das wäre wie eine koreanische Version von Murakami. Alles in Allem fand ich die Story interessant, wobei mir aber der Anfang (Den Part mit dem alten Mann und dessen Geschichte mit dem Wal) am besten gefallen hat. Nach dem Anfang dachte ich, das Buch würde in eine andere Richtung gehen, doch es hat mir gut gefallen. Manchmal waren die Namen etwas verwirrend und gegen das Ende hin fand ich es etwas fader. Einige Parts fand ich auch etwas unlogisch (Vor allem den Part, wo Old Racoon den Killer ganz einfach findet, obwohl er untergetaucht ist. Das war für mich ziemlich unlogisch, denn dann hätten ihn auch seine Widersacher mit Leichtigkeit in seinem "neuen Leben" finden können )
Alles in allem aber eine sehr interessante Story in einem fiktiven Korea. ( )

It was ok - not really my style of book. The summary I read that led me to pick the book was misleading. I should have read the goodreads summary instead - it was much more on target. ( )

The Publisher Says: From the novelist dubbed "the Korean Henning Mankell" (The Guardian) comes a fantastical crime novel set in an alternate Seoul where assassination guilds compete for market dominance. Perfect for fans of Han Kang and Patrick deWitt.

Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind—a plotter—working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Just who are the plotters? And more important, what do they want?

Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library," Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans. And when he uncovers an extraordinary scheme set into motion by an eccentric trio of young women—a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair-bound sister, and a cross-eyed librarian—Reseng will have to decide if he will remain a pawn or finally take control of the plot.

Crackling with action and filled with unforgettable characters, The Plotters is a deeply entertaining thriller that soars with the soul, wit, and lyricism of real literary craft.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Oh, you're gonna love this:

As if it wasn’t ironic enough that the country’s top assassination provider was brazenly running his business in a building owned by an international insurance company; the same assassination provider was also simultaneously managing a bodyguard firm and a security firm. But just as a vaccine company facing bankruptcy will ultimately survive not by making the world's greatest vaccine but, rather, the world's worst virus, so, too, did bodyguard and security firms need the world's most evil terrorists in order to prosper, not the greatest security experts. That was capitalism, Hanja understood how the world could curl around and bite its own tail like the uroboros serpent. And he knew how to translate that into business and extract the maximum revenue. There was no better business model than owning both the virus and the vaccine. With one hand you parceled out fear and instability, and with the other you guaranteed safety and peace. A business like that would never go under.

–and–

“People think villains like me are going to hell. But that’s not true. Villains are already in hell. Living every moment in darkness without so much as a single ray of light in your heart, that’s hell. Shivering in terror, wondering when you’ll become a target when the assassins will appear. True hell is living in a constant state of fear without even knowing that you’re in hell.”

Witty, trenchant, and true. I would go so far as to say tendentious. The wonder of meeting Reseng is that his existence is so extreme, committing murders for a living, and yet so extremely simple. Show up at this place at that time and do your job...kill. Like working at a meat-packing plant or a fish cannery. People aren't in any significant way more important than cattle or catfish. In this hypercapitalist alt-Seoul, there's little enough difference paid to any even notional difference between them, when it comes to one of the Plotters making a meticulous and scrupulously untraceable plan to off the person they're being paid to murder.

Make no mistake, these are murders, and they are violent. Author Kim does not stint on the violence. What makes it different from all those ghastly Stieg Larsson clones is that it's not sexual violence. There's a modicum of sex, and even a brief interlude where Reseng, having gotten himself in the crosshairs of nasty competing assassins because his boss (and sole parent figure since he was orphaned) is getting shoved out of the business, explores domesticity. It's...bizarre. To him as well, which is why it doesn't last.

The whole novel unfolds at the strangest pace. If you've watched Squid Game or Parasite, you'll see it here: the off-kilter way pacing is handled for us calibrated to US norms. It serves the plot in all of these cases, and it makes this story's universe really *feel* genuine, lived-in, and solid. I think that's a major plus compared to most of the violent thrillers I've read.

What caused me to give the read four stars in place of another half was, in fact, the mismatch between the violence of Reseng's profession, his philosophical musings about it (I chose one illustrating what I'm talking about above), and the cool remove of his actions and reactions. These things don't work together as well as it seems to me others believe they do. It's like watching a Godard film with a boy you want to bonk and then not getting any after you've invested unrecoverable hours trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

For all that, this here's a terrific entertaining read. Alienation, outrage, warped filial devotion, blood and gore...all present and accounted for. It's a weird trip and I'm glad I took it. ( )

"Bear provided a corpse-disposal service, albeit an illegal one...He was surprisingly cuddly-looking for someone who burned corpses for a living."

My first dip into South Korean literature and what a shrewd and explosive read. The Plotters is a mash of John Wick meets Tarantino with a good dollop of satire; I was gripped from the start. I’d never have chosen this book myself, but I received it as part of my Willoughby Book Club subscription and I’m so glad the team picked this one for me.

I really enjoyed Reseng’s nature and personality. He was funny, sarcastic, clever, resourceful and well-read, unusual for a killer for hire. In a real-life situation I could definitely see myself being friends with him!

Whilst this is the story of an assassin in the dodgy gangland of Seoul, it’s ultimately about change and acceptance. I will be hoping for more English translations from Un-Su Kim. ( )