The Investigation by Jung-Myung LeeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was actually excellent. It is a murder mystery, but this takes a backdrop to the events occurring at the time (the war, imprisoned Koreans, Japan trying to eliminate Korea as a country, etc.)
I loved some of the symbolism, like the Korean prisoners singing "Carry me back to Old Virginny", and "Va Pensiero" in their concert (which, although from an allied country, is about losing one's homeland).
Not to mention, the Korean poet from the story is a real person, who was really imprisoned in Fukuoka prison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yun_Dong-ju
Having said all that, I found some of the love for literature and poems to be a bit of a stretch, and, to be frank, I was hoping for a good old fashioned murder mystery, and this book, while a very heavy book otherwise, was light on the actual murder mystery (it is indeed a mystery with clues, but these are less important than the other points of the book, such as literature and Korean oppression). Approach this book as historical fiction rather than murder mystery.
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