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A review by latad_books
The Silence of Bones by June Hur
4.0
This was a little slow moving, but ultimately was an enjoyable book. June Hur tells the story of Seol, a young woman indentured to the police force in a town in 1800s Korea.
Seol is the youngest of three siblings who were exiled for reasons that are gradually revealed in some detail over the course of the book. The siblings have lived quiet lives, and several years earlier her elder brother and sister fought, and her brother left them, never to be heard from again, and Seol desperate to find him. When, years later, money was scarce, Seol’s sister indentured Seol to the police. Seol was not happy, and left to look for her missing brother. Thought to be an escapee, she was branded when caught and returned to work.
Seol works as a damu, a female servant/assistant to one of the investigators. Male police officers were not allowed to touch female suspects, so damu were vital during investigations.
At the start of this story, a young, wealthy woman is found dead and mutilated, and investigator Han and Seol are assigned. During the long and complicated investigation, we find out a little about the dead woman, who was a convert to Christianity, which, is illegal. We meet a variety of people also to whom the dead woman’s secrets, including her religious beliefs and her sexual relationships, would be harmful.
During all this Seol feels she must dig deeply into people’s statements and motives, and not be swayed by political pressures; she ends up making breakthrough after breakthrough on the case, thanks to her role as a damu, which allows her to interrogate various women involved (and ignored by other investigators) with the case.
Running through all this is Seol’s constant feeling of loss for her brother, and the pain she feels for the people suffering as a result of her quest for the truth.
Seol is fabulous; she has an unshakeable core of integrity and this leads her to make hard decisions. She has a keen eye, and despite her two investigations (dead woman and her brother) causing her a lot of pain, I loved how she stuck to her plans.
This was a fascinating look at a tiny piece of Korean history I knew nothing about, and not only was the murder investigation full of what I enjoy (false leads and political tampering), I enjoyed watching Seol keep going forward.
And the story’s ending was both heartbreaking and gratifying.
Seol is the youngest of three siblings who were exiled for reasons that are gradually revealed in some detail over the course of the book. The siblings have lived quiet lives, and several years earlier her elder brother and sister fought, and her brother left them, never to be heard from again, and Seol desperate to find him. When, years later, money was scarce, Seol’s sister indentured Seol to the police. Seol was not happy, and left to look for her missing brother. Thought to be an escapee, she was branded when caught and returned to work.
Seol works as a damu, a female servant/assistant to one of the investigators. Male police officers were not allowed to touch female suspects, so damu were vital during investigations.
At the start of this story, a young, wealthy woman is found dead and mutilated, and investigator Han and Seol are assigned. During the long and complicated investigation, we find out a little about the dead woman, who was a convert to Christianity, which, is illegal. We meet a variety of people also to whom the dead woman’s secrets, including her religious beliefs and her sexual relationships, would be harmful.
During all this Seol feels she must dig deeply into people’s statements and motives, and not be swayed by political pressures; she ends up making breakthrough after breakthrough on the case, thanks to her role as a damu, which allows her to interrogate various women involved (and ignored by other investigators) with the case.
Running through all this is Seol’s constant feeling of loss for her brother, and the pain she feels for the people suffering as a result of her quest for the truth.
Seol is fabulous; she has an unshakeable core of integrity and this leads her to make hard decisions. She has a keen eye, and despite her two investigations (dead woman and her brother) causing her a lot of pain, I loved how she stuck to her plans.
This was a fascinating look at a tiny piece of Korean history I knew nothing about, and not only was the murder investigation full of what I enjoy (false leads and political tampering), I enjoyed watching Seol keep going forward.
And the story’s ending was both heartbreaking and gratifying.