The Plotters
A Novel
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4.0 • 52 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A fantastical crime novel set in an alternate Seoul where assassination guilds compete for market dominance.
"The Plotters’s first convenient comparison may be to the ever-expanding John Wick movies" --Los Angeles Review of Books
Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind--a plotter--working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Just who are the plotters? And more important, what do they want?
Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library," Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans. And when he uncovers an extraordinary scheme set into motion by an eccentric trio of young women--a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair-bound sister, and a cross-eyed librarian--Reseng will have to decide if he will remain a pawn or finally take control of the plot.
Crackling with action and filled with unforgettable characters, The Plotters is a deeply entertaining thriller that soars with the soul, wit, and lyricism of real literary craft.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In The Plotters, Un-su Kim weaves a tale of assassins and conspiracy that’s full of sticky moral conundrums. Abandoned as a baby and raised to be a hit man in the South Korean underworld, taciturn book lover Reseng can’t quite quit the only life he’s known. And like the book’s titular plotters—shadowy figures who order hits for a variety of reasons—Reseng and his ilk are bound together by intricate criminal codes. The Plotters cinched us in a slow vise, creating a terrifyingly real world. We were utterly astounded by this intense, fascinating story of an antihero and his hunger to escape his existence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Korean author Kim makes his U.S. debut with a powerful, surreal political thriller, in which assassination is a business "driven by market forces." The faceless plotters of the title employ hit men such as Reseng, an orphan found in a garbage can who was adopted by a man called Old Raccoon. The bookish Reseng grows up in Old Raccoon's library a place "crawling with assassins, hired guns and bounty hunters." In the first chapter, Reseng kills a retired general from the days of South Korea's military junta after spending a sociable evening at the old man's house. The complex plot, in which Reseng becomes involved with a more polished, CEO-like hit man named Hanja, builds to a highly cinematic and violent denouement. Most memorable, though, is the novel's message about the insidiousness of unaccountable institutions, from those under the military junta to those that thrive in today's economy. The consequence of the pervasive corruption is an air of existential despair. This strange, ambitious book will appeal equally to literary fiction readers.
Customer Reviews
Not a fan
I gave up on this book. The characters are odd and not believable and feel like they are drawn out of a graphic novel. Not much happens. It is not a page turner if that is what you are looking for.