Post Cold War Political Thriller Features Korea

The year was 1993. The Cold War had recently ground to a halt, and international relations were in a state of flux. Burke Hill, the disgraced former FBI agent who redeemed himself  in Beware the Jabberwock, had become director of clandestine activities for a global public relations firm headquartered in Washington that was actually a CIA spinoff. About the time a devastating explosion in Pyongyang's Presidential Palace killed the North Korean dictator and his heir apparent, Burke gets a tip about a highly secret plot for South Korea to develop nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, in Seoul, an independent-minded homicide detective suspects civilian leaders who espouse closer relations with the U.S. are being systematically eliminated. He is consistently thwarted by the prosecutor who handles his cases.

The Poksu Conspiracy cover features the Great South Gate in downtown Seoul, South Korea's National Treasure No. 1. Beneath it are the hangul characters for poksu, which means "vengeance." Later in the story, it involves two Chinese characters for "pok"and "su,"but you'll have to read the book to learn about that.

The Prologue introduces a third character who is central to the plot but remains in the background through most of the story. Born in 1919 a few months after the March First Movement's abortive effort to achieve Korean independence from Japan, he grows up with a burning desire to wreak vengeance on the Japanese for the execution of the father he never knew. When Burke Hill and Capt. Yun Yu-sop of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Bureau finally get together, they discover they are after the same man, whose current identity is unknown.

Although The Poksu Conspiracy is called a political thriller, it could be identified as part spy story, part Korean police procedural. It runs a little over 154,000 words and has a sizable cast of  characters. Since many of them have strange-sounding Oriental names, I will include a Who's Who in the front of the book to help readers keep up with, what else, who is whom in the story.

Poksu will be available as an ebook for the Kindle by the end of October. I need some advance reviews, so if anyone would like to do a review Amazon, I can send you  a PDF of the book. Just email me here.

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