This thriller by a retired army officer has many things going for it: two very well-drawn central characters who are U.S. military police based in Seoul; a large cast of colorful secondary characters; some lively and inventive plot twists; and a setting--South Korea in 1975, 20 years after the Korean War--quickly brought to vivid life. George Sueno, the brains of the two-man Army CID team, grew up in foster homes in East Los Angeles, learned Korean quickly, and isn't nearly as baffled by the complexity of Korean customs as most of his fellow soldiers. His partner, Ernie Bascom, found a home in the Army better than the one he'd left in Detroit to go to Vietnam; he's a blaze of mad action and sexual energy. They make an excellent team, bringing back memories of Chester Himes's Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson--two cops who also bent the rules to get results.

From Library Journal
In this novel of military intrigue, Limon (Jade Lady Burning, LJ 9/1/92) reveals Korea's dark underbelly. In Seoul, U.S. Army criminal investigation division agents George Sue?o and Ernie Bascom work and carouse in the bar and brothel district called Itaewon. When a beautiful, mysterious Korean woman asks them to deliver a note to the British soldier who jilted her, they agree. Then the man is found murdered in an alley, and George and Ernie realize that they were used to lure the man to his death. Their investigation becomes a personal vendetta, and their own lives are imperiled as they are drawn into the world of the "slicky boys"?a highly organized band of black marketeers operating (literally) underground in Seoul since the Korean War. Although action-packed, this is standard fare. A marginal purchase.?Lori Dunn, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Troy, N.C.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
These boys are no sweethearts, and their smash-and-burn investigative techniques would get them arrested back home. But all that hot blood is pumped by brave hearts, and in their element these guys are princes.

From Booklist
The premise of Limon's novel is certainly unique: two American military police officers stationed in Korea in the mid-1970s must solve the murder of a British soldier. (The title comes from the term used to describe the Korean criminal underground dealing in stolen military supplies.) And Limon, who served in Korea in the 1970s, clearly knows his material. However, the novel frequently feels padded, as though it were a small story in a large package. Scenes often go on too long; dialogue sometimes seems as though it's there to fill out the page, not to contribute to the plot. (Limon has written one other novel about these characters--the popular Jade Lady Burning [1992]--and several short stories.) Slicky Boys is sure to appeal to fans of Limon's first novel, and its premise will intrigue readers of military fiction. It's also worth noting that Paramount Pictures has optioned the film rights; demand is sure to grow if a movie deal is set. David Pitt

From Kirkus Reviews
Corporal George Sue¤o and Sergeant Ernie Bascom, scapegrace hotshots in the US Army's CID, join forces with the South Korean mob to bring a vicious murderer to book: a gritty, gripping follow- up to Lim¢n's debut procedural (Jade Lady Burning, 1992). When a British soldier is brutally murdered in mid-1970s Seoul, George (a savvy latino from East L.A. who's mastered the Korean language) and Ernie (a violence-prone Vietnam vet) maneuver frantically to get a piece of the investigative action; their ardor is attributable to the potentially embarrassing fact that an unidentified young woman had bribed them to pass the victim a note that sent him to his rendezvous with death. Once on the case, the two coupled sleuths realize they need more help than either the police or even their superiors can provide. At no small cost in blood and effort, George and Ernie make contact with the enigmatic eminence who controls the underworld organization known as the Slicky Boys. The crimelord (who calls himself the Herbalist So) sets them on a twisty path that leads through the capital city's flossier fleshpots and back alleys to the headquarters of the fledgling republic's seagoing service. Several homicides later, the NCOs discover that their man is not simply a black-market profiteer who killed out of panic. Indeed, dogged detective work reveals that he's a dangerous deserter from the American Navy who's probably selling military secrets to the Communist North. Cerebral George almost dies in a showdown confrontation with the cold-blooded turncoat for whom they've baited an irresistible trap, but Ernie (who lost round one to their quarry) drags himself from a hospital bed in time to get revenge and save his partner. An above-average trackdown tale made memorable by dashes of local color as pungent as kimchee. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Cliff-hanging action...thrilling...unexpected."


"There's atmosphere to spare here, and enough suspense to please.  A colorful thriller."


"Hot blood is pumped by brave hearts, and in their element these guys are princes."


"Sue±o and Bascom are two of the more memorable sleuths in the modern mystery canon."
Cleveland

"The writing is plain and sinewy, the characterizations are quietly brilliant and the moral vision is as cold as a Seoul bar girl's gaze."



From the Paperback edition.

Book Description

"It's great to have these two mavericks back. . . . Mr. Limón writes with gruff respect for the culture of Seoul and with wonderful bleak humor, edged in pain, about G.I. life in that exotic city."-The New York Times Book Review

"Combining the grim routine of a modern police procedural with the cliffhanging action of a thrilling movie serial, Slicky Boys is full of sharp observations and unexpected poignancy."-The Wall Street Journal

"There's atmosphere to spare here and enough suspense to please. A colorful thriller."-Publishers Weekly

"An irresistible tale!"-Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Two of the more memorable sleuths in the modern mystery canon."-The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"The writing is plain and sinewy, the characterizations are quietly brilliant and the moral vision is as cold as a Seoul bar girl's gaze."-The Oregonian

In this sequel to New York Times Notable Book Jade Lady Burning, a pair of American military cops come up against major gang culture in South Korea's back alleys.

George Sueño and his partner Ernie Bascom thought they'd seen it all, but nothing could prepare them for the Slicky Boys. They're everywhere. They can kill a man in a thousand ways you don't even want to know about. And you'll never even see them coming. They steal, they kill, they slip away. George and Ernie are about to discover that even the U.S. Military is no match for evil and that human sympathy can sometimes lead to a lonely grave.

Martin Limón retired from U.S. military service after 20 years in the U.S. Army, including ten years in Korea. He and his wife live in Seattle. He is the author of Jade Lady Burning and Buddha's Money, which will be published in the Soho Crime series next year.

From the Publisher

"Colorful...There's atmosphere to spare here, and enough suspense toplease, as [Limn] assembles a cast of unusual folk and sets them spinningamidst the complexities of an occupied and divided land."
--Publishers Weekly

"Gritty, gripping....Made memorable by dashes of local color as pungentas kimchee."
--Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Martin Limn's Jade Lady Burning:

"It is not often that so impressive a debut as Jade Lady Burning appears....Searing in its intensity."
--The New York Times Book Review

"An extraordinary book."
--The Washington Times

"Its heroes...are two of the more memorable sleuths in the modernmystery canon....As gripping as it is disturbing."
--The Plain Dealer, Cleveland

"One of the most original concepts for a mystery yarn to emerge inrecent memory."
--BooklistCopyright © 1997 by Martin Limón.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Life is good in peacetime Korea for U.S. Army Criminal Investigation officers George Sueno and Ernie Bascom. After all, what is there to do but drink beer and cavort with hookers as they ostensibly patrol Seoul's red-light district? But when they innocently become involved with the murder of a British solider, they've got to find the perpetrator before their careers are ruined -- or before they're slaughtered themselves.

—Rick Koster

FROM THE PUBLISHER

George Sueno rose out of the barrios of East L.A. His partner, Ernie Bascom, escaped the mean streets of Detroit. And both have found a home in the U.S. Army - the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Korea. Their beat is Itaewon, the red-light district of Seoul. Together they've looked into every bar and brothel, making sure the bourbon is chilled...and the women hot. When a working girl offers them a hundred bucks to deliver a note to Cecil Whitcomb, a British member of the U.N. Honor Guard, Sueno and Bascom are happy to oblige. They figure not only is it a good deed, it's also easy money. But reality hits the next morning - in the form of Whitcomb's brutally mutilated corpse. Sueno and Bascom thought they were playing Cupid, but they were played for suckers. It cost one soldier his life, and it could land them in Leavenworth if they fail to find the killer. Suddenly the neon streets they once loved are a lurid and deadly labyrinth. For Whitcomb wasn't the first victim...nor will he be the last. Defying their superiors, the two CID agents plunge into a world of deception, betrayal, and paranoia. Their sole source of information is a thriving black market run by a ruthlessly efficient criminal network: the slicky boys.

FROM THE CRITICS

LA Times

A smart combination of classic noir thriller and police procedural.

Publishers Weekly

Retired career military man Limn has fashioned a colorful second thriller (after Jade Lady Burning) that pits two U.S. Army CID cops against a brutal Korean crime ring. It's 1975, and George Sueo and Ernie Bascom are cruising Itaewon, the red-light district of Seoul. Sueo, the brains of the two, grew up in foster homes in East L.A., learned Korean quickly and isn't nearly as baffled as most of his fellow soldiers by the complex Korean customs: "Their culture was just another puzzle to unravel, like so many I'd faced when the County of Los Angeles moved me from home to home." Bascom, meanwhile, has found the Army a better home than the one he's left behind in Detroit. A Vietnam vet, he's a blaze of mad action and sexual energy. Sueo and Bascom penetrate a terrifyingly efficient gang of Korean criminalsthe "Slicky Boys"run by a crafty villain called Herbalist So, who never shows himself to foreigners, though he makes an exception for the two American cops. It's good that he does, because Sueo comes to rely on him for help in finding the killer of a small-time British thief. Limn is not the most fluent of storytellers: he scants character motivation and his dialogue can be stiff. But there's atmosphere to spare here, and enough suspense to please, as he assembles a cast of unusual folk and sets them spinning amidst the complexities of an occupied and divided land. (May)

Library Journal

In this novel of military intrigue, Limon (Jade Lady Burning, LJ 9/1/92) reveals Korea's dark underbelly. In Seoul, U.S. Army criminal investigation division agents George Sueo and Ernie Bascom work and carouse in the bar and brothel district called Itaewon. When a beautiful, mysterious Korean woman asks them to deliver a note to the British soldier who jilted her, they agree. Then the man is found murdered in an alley, and George and Ernie realize that they were used to lure the man to his death. Their investigation becomes a personal vendetta, and their own lives are imperiled as they are drawn into the world of the "slicky boys"a highly organized band of black marketeers operating (literally) underground in Seoul since the Korean War. Although action-packed, this is standard fare. A marginal purchase.Lori Dunn, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Troy, N.C.

Kirkus Reviews

Corporal George Sueño and Sergeant Ernie Bascom, scapegrace hotshots in the US Army's CID, join forces with the South Korean mob to bring a vicious murderer to book: a gritty, gripping follow- up to Limón's debut procedural (Jade Lady Burning, 1992).

When a British soldier is brutally murdered in mid-1970s Seoul, George (a savvy latino from East L.A. who's mastered the Korean language) and Ernie (a violence-prone Vietnam vet) maneuver frantically to get a piece of the investigative action; their ardor is attributable to the potentially embarrassing fact that an unidentified young woman had bribed them to pass the victim a note that sent him to his rendezvous with death. Once on the case, the two coupled sleuths realize they need more help than either the police or even their superiors can provide. At no small cost in blood and effort, George and Ernie make contact with the enigmatic eminence who controls the underworld organization known as the Slicky Boys. The crimelord (who calls himself the Herbalist So) sets them on a twisty path that leads through the capital city's flossier fleshpots and back alleys to the headquarters of the fledgling republic's seagoing service. Several homicides later, the NCOs discover that their man is not simply a black-market profiteer who killed out of panic. Indeed, dogged detective work reveals that he's a dangerous deserter from the American Navy who's probably selling military secrets to the Communist North. Cerebral George almost dies in a showdown confrontation with the cold-blooded turncoat for whom they've baited an irresistible trap, but Ernie (who lost round one to their quarry) drags himself from a hospital bed in time to get revenge and save his partner.

An above-average trackdown tale made memorable by dashes of local color as pungent as kimchee.