Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows well after decades as an intelligence officer. This chilling portrayal leaves readers wondering if what at first seems unknowable may simply be too familiar for comfort. n nOn the surface, A Corpse in the Koryo is a crackling good mystery novel, filled with unusual characters involved in a complex plot that keeps you guessing to the end. n---Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post n nOne of Publishers Weekly Top 100 Books of 2006 nOne of Booklist's Best Genre Fiction of 2006 nOne of the Chicago Tribune's best mystery/thrillers of 2006 n nSit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south. n Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far, far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal and death. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decade's-old kidnappings and murders---and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos.

This is a world where nothing works as it should, where the crimes of the past haunt the present, and where even the shadows are real. n Author James Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart after decades as an intelligence officer. n n. . . an outstanding crime novel. . . . a not-to-be-missed reading experience. n---Library Journal (starred) n nInspector O is completely believable and sympathetic . . . The writing is superb, too . . . richly layered and visually evocative. n---Booklist (starred) n n. . . an impressive debut that calls to mind such mystery thrillers as Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. . . . n---Publishers Weekly (starred)n