Idiosyncratic, offbeat and intriguing, the Inspector O series wraps a murder-mystery in political intrigue with a captivating central character at its core.
This is the third novel in the Inspector O series. New readers are advised to start with ‘A Corpse in the Koryo’ rather than trying to get to grips with O’s character and his particularly peculiar situation all at once. The earlier books have been rather more traditional whodunnits, set in communist North Korea with O as an eccentric detective who solves mysteries, even when they slither into the perilous territory of state security.

In ‘Bamboo and Blood’, author James Church shifts the focus of the story away from ‘interesting international detective’ and deep into the territory of espionage and tradecraft. There is a murder to investigate and a mystery to solve, but these are the incidental interludes in the plot. ‘Bamboo and Blood’ is a Cold War spy story, and the political position of North Korea in the late 1990s has ceased to be the backdrop to the action: the political position of North Korea IS the story.

There's detailed info about the plot and characterisation here:
http://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/bamboo-and-blood-a-cold-war-...

Author James Church has certainly succeeded in creating a fictionalised representation of a bewildering political situation, where no one is quite sure what or who they’re working for, or which outcome is preferable. Church is a master at writing dialogue at cross-purposes, where both parties could be having a conversation across slightly different dimensions. The result is sometimes bitingly comic, and sometimes bitterly sad. It’s also as confusing as can be; we only know as much as O does and half the time we don’t know the half of what O understands or experiences. So the narrative feels fragmented and unpredictable; light on description and long on dialogue. A lot like real life, in fact.

So ‘Bamboo and Blood’ works on many levels, some more successful than others. James Church has distilled his own experience as a diplomat in the far east into fiction, and his portrayal of North Korean society and its political system is fascinating. The character of Inspector O is a splendid creation, quietly quirky but solid and dependable. Church portrays the spiralling weirdness of low level espionage with witty disdain, so O is rubbish at tradecraft, yet spends much of this novel catching trains where he doesn’t meet people, decoding messages at dead letter drops, and so on.

Yet it’s hard to finish this novel and feel completely satisfied. I was pretty certain that some significant events had sneaked past me, and that I hadn’t quite understood all the plot lines. It’s also hard to categorise ‘Bamboo and Blood’. It’s not a detective story, but it’s not a modern espionage thriller, either. There’s very little running, shouting, car chasing or gunplay. Jason Bourne would be completely out of place; Alec Leamas would be right at home.

‘Bamboo and Blood’ harks back to the heyday of the cold war spy story, when Le Carre wrote sparse but brilliant novels, and where the important moments of the story were never spelled out but subtly implied. So give yourself time to read and digest this story; it’s not a by-the-numbers mystery where you can count up the clues and come up with the killer.

8/10
( )

This book and I didn't easily rub shoulders. I found the "sparse, lyrical prose" hard to read and the action hard to sort out. Eventually, just over half way through, things began to jell, but even so I am not sure that, most of the time, I knew what was happening.

I kept feeling that I was missing out on understanding some events and references because I have not read the first two books in the Inspector O series (see the list of titles below).

Inspector O is sent to join a North Korean delegation conducting negotiations in Geneva. The delegation resents his presence and he is given a cryptic message to pass on, but he never sees his orders in writing. This all adds to the mystery of what he is supposed to be doing, and, for me at least, confusion about the various threads of the plot. I guess I could probably make more sense of it all, if I read the book again, but the inclination is not there. What is clear is that a number of people in Geneva believe Inspector O. is a very influential member of the North Korean secret service, but others are constantly suggesting he should go home.

The book gives a depressing view of North Korea in winter 1997-8, where food is scarce.

The next morning, we were in my office, and Pak seemed a little ill at ease. It wasn't unusual these days. All of us were that way - a little at ease all the time. Bad stories were coming in from the country side. Here in the capital, people were disappearing from offices, food was scarce, heart was random, electricity was unpredictable and even when there was some, it didn't last very long. No one pretended things weren't bad, though we didn't talk a lot about it. The question was whether we would get through it.

North Korea is well equipped with military weapons and selling missiles appears to be the main purpose of the Geneva delegation. The Americans want some say in who these weapons are sold to. The situation gives rise to whether the North Korean rural population would not rather have food than the national security that the missiles provide.

This is one of those books that I really haven't enjoyed but the fault is probably mine. ( )

Very odd mystery, almost more of a spy novel, involving murders which may or may not be related to N. Korean attempts to trade missiles for food during famine, attempts by Israel to keep Iran from buying the missiles, etc. Inspector O never know anything for certain, including what role his estranged brother plays in the affair.

A fascinating story, it took some time to get into the story and quite a while before I really understood what was happening. The fact that some comments within the narrative meant exactly the opposite of what was said, was at first confusing and then when I began to understand the author's humour, became very amusing. Well worth reading although it is not a book to try and read in a hurry.
Because this is his second book in the series I am going to get his first, which may be will make my understanding of this book easier. Perhaps I have read the wrong one first, but that's life. ( )