Can the term "historical mystery" be applied to works set in the early 1970s? Perhaps not. But Martin Limon's series, now up to six volumes, reliably and compellingly captures the lives and times of George Sueno and Ernie Bascomb, sergeants assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Eighth Army in Seoul four decades ago.
In this latest episode, Sueno, a hulking Hispanic-American, has the hots for Dr. Young In-ja, a female physician at a local public health clinic. At the doc's bidding Sueno drops in on a traditional Korean soothsayer named Auntie Mee, who claims she's being haunted by the spirit of a dead American soldier. Mee tells Sueno that unless the unnamed soldier's remains are repatriated to America, Miss Kwon, a shy country girl contracted to work in the Itaewon bar district, will die.
Combing through dusty reports and canvassing old-timers in the Itaewon bar district, Sueno and Bascomb gradually piece together events that took place in the Itaewon district in the months after the 1953 ceasefire, when a group of ruthless men were willing to stop at nothing to monopolize the area's commercial potential. Now, it appears their surviving victims have banded together to exact retribution, and it's up to Sueno and Bascomb to figure out how an American soldier pronounced missing and presumed dead 20 years ago fits into the equation.