J.M. Lee is an accomplished author in his native Korea. For the first time, one of his novels is available in English in the US. Based on the life of Yun Dong-ju a dissident Korean writer who died in Fukuoka prison, The Investigation is a locked room mystery with an unusual setting.
The novel takes place in Fukuoka Prison in the Korean peninsula in 1944. The most sadistic of the prison guards is found murdered with his lips sewn shut. The prison houses Korean political dissidents as well as criminals. All the prisoners were accounted for at the time of the murder. A young prison guard is assigned to the investigation. It soon becomes apparent that nobody wants this crime solved.
This novel is a mystery, a war story, another view of the role of Japan in World War II, a glimpse into Korea, and the redemptive power of poetry.
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