Drop of Chinese Blood, The Inspector O Novels

“Stellar. . . . A satirical look at paranoid intelligence structures and the snappy, irreverent narration add to the fun” in this international thriller (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

James Church’s Inspector O novels have been hailed as “crackling good” (The Washington Post), while Church himself has been embraced by critics as “the equal of le Carré” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Now Church—a former Western intelligence officer who pulls back the curtain on the hidden world of North Korea in a way that no one else can—comes roaring back with a new novel introducing Inspector O’s nephew, Major Bing, the long-suffering chief of the Chinese Ministry of State Security operations on the border with North Korea.

The last place Bing expected to find the stunningly beautiful Madame Fang—a woman Headquarters wants closely watched—was on his front doorstep. Then, as suddenly as she shows up, Madame Fang mysteriously disappears across the river into North Korea, leaving in her wake a highly sensitive assignment for Bing to bring back from the North a long missing Chinese security official. Concerned for his nephew’s safety, O reluctantly helps him navigate an increasingly complex and deadly maze, one that leads down the twisted byways of O’s homeland.

Once again, James Church has crafted a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart.

Praise for the Inspector O series

“Like Marlowe and Spade before him, Inspector O navigates the shadows and, every now and then, finds truth in the half-light.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Inspector O is a complex, nuanced figure.” —New York Times