Author recommendation--Martin Limon

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Limon has written a series of six mysteries that center on a pair of Army criminal investigators, George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, who are stationed in Korea in the 1970s. (Limon himself spent 10 years with the Army in Korea during that period.)

As such, they are constantly moving between the world of the G.I.'s and the Koreans who work in the "villes" of bars and brothels that border on the bases.

Sueño is unusual in that he has learned to speak Korean, so he moves easily between the two cultures. He credits the military with saving him from a childhood and youth in foster homes, but he is too smart to be taken in by the bullshit that flows freely on both the U.S. and Korean sides, and he doesn't hesitate to bend the rules or let justice prevail over the letter of the law. Bascom is a hot-headed Vietnam veteran whose combat experience comes in handy more than once.

There's plenty of tough guy action for those who like that, but there's also a vivid portrait of a society that is both struggling to rise out of poverty and wartime devastation and dealing with the massive presence of foreign troops inside its borders and a hostile neighbor to the north. Sueño and Bascom spend a lot of time dealing with prostitutes, bar owners, and organized crime figures, but they also encounter interesting characters from other areas of Korean society.

The first book in the series is Jade Lady Burning, and the most recent (and one of the best) is G.I. Bones. The impoverished Korea that Limon portrays doesn't exist anymore, but he gives you a real sense of that time and place.

[monmouth]

1. Thank you. I love this genre of books....n/t

[fadedrose]

2. Series Books

I added Limon to the Fiction Books Series authors. I added the thread to my bookmarks so that when I get a couple of series finished that I'm working thru, I can go back and find some good stuff that would otherwise be lost to me.

Thanks, Lydia...

PS Where'd you get the funny keyboard that has a worm curling up on your "n" in George Sueno's name?? What do you call it and what brand is it?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. It's an "eñe" (pronounced "enyeh"), and the mark is called a "tilde."

it's there because Sueño is supposed to be a Mexican-American. His name is pronounced "swen-yo".

The way you make the letter (at least on a Mac keyboard) is to hit "Option-n," which gives you the tilde. Then you hit "n" again, which puts the "n" under the tilde.

[fadedrose]

4. Thank you - and I will bookmark this trick.....eom