Tower and Town, May 2018

  (view the full edition)

Book Review

You heard it here first. Star in the North, by D B John, is going to be the big thriller this summer. It’s set in North Korea and the author is one of the few Western journalists to have visited that country with its terrifyingly unpredictable, repressive and paranoid regime. A CIA agent searches for her kidnapped sister, while dealing with the North Korean government’s rising stars on a diplomatic mission. Meanwhile, back in the DPRK, Mrs Moon (a brilliant character) is struggling to survive by illegal market trading, bribery and sheer bloody-minded determination. The interweaving narrative strands are compelling, the characters are believable and sympathetic, and there are plenty of false leads, red herrings and mcguffins. Life under the secretive, suspicious, corrupt and desperate administration of the Kim dynasty is brilliantly and chillingly evoked, and there’s a (literally) explosive ending.

Debbie Guest