The Plotters is a deeply entertaining Korean thriller

Behind every killing, the saying goes, there is an anonymous mastermind. This person works behind the scenes, in the shadows. That’s the premise of The Plotters.

Novelist Un-su Kim, also known as the Korean Henning Mankell, has written a gripping crime novel set in an alternate Seoul, where assassination guilds compete for market dominance.

The best bit about the work is the plotter, a mastermind who working in the shadows. Then there is an assassin, who never questions anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read.

However, Reseng is not your typical assassin. In-between scouting out his next victim and sourcing information about how best to dispose of them, he reads books that are otherwise never opened.

The Plotters begins with Reseng on the job and at a personal crossroads. He spies on his latest target, a high-ranking military officer, from the cover of a forest behind the man’s cottage.

The assassin watches the guy play with his own prized loyal hunter, a handsome and fearsome mastiff who chases down thrown toys and retrieves them for his master without ever wondering why they were thrown.

There’s a lively gallows humor in the book and scenes where Reseng pays regular visits to the man who cremates gang-war victims, and he casually slices off one man’s fingers as coolly as you might make a salad.

The Plotters is gripping yes but it a deeply entertaining thriller that has both wit and lyricism. Go for it.

Ahmad Nazir is a UAE-based freelancer writer