Since Mum establish out this was on my TBR pile, she'southward asked me whether I've read it every time I've seen her. Why? Because the author'south parents live in our village and he is, therefore, "practically a local." I'm grateful she did though considering Star of the Northward is a superb and incredibly timely thriller, coming out every bit it did a month before the contempo summit between the US and N Korea.

A young American woman disappears without trace from a South Korean island.

The CIA recruits her twin sister to uncover the truth.

Now, she must go undercover in the globe'south most deadly state.

Only by infiltrating the dark center of the terrifying regime will she exist able to salvage her sister…and herself.

The disappearance in 1998 provides the spark for this novel but the action properly gets going twelve years after in 2010. John cleverly tells his story, while shedding calorie-free on this unfathomable government and the mysterious land over which it presides, by focusing on iii main characters: Jenna, a academy professor and the missing woman'southward sister; Cho, rising through the ranks in the Northward Korean capital of Pyongyang; and Mrs Moon, a resourceful subcontract worker scratching a living in Hyesan, in the northern province of Ryanggang.

I enjoyed the way in whichStar of the Northward'due south narrative switches between these 3. John leaves it just long enough between each changeover, that I never felt as if I was losing the thread of anyone's story. This helped me come to know each character, care near them and their fate, to the point where I still wonder how they are and what they're doing even after having finished the book.

John non just chose his characters well only he fabricated them feel real to me. They're all brave at times simply they are as well refreshingly man, despite of or maybe in spite of their training or workout. Information technology'south those moments where they are emotional or plain reckless that I felt the tension in their lives coming to the surface, threatening the fragile equilibrium of their lives and, more chiefly, their safety and that of those around them.

With fascinating and often horrific detail,Star of the North places y'all firmly within one of the globe's almost secretive regimes in a fight for survival, frequently feeling as if information technology's a race to rescue characters I didn't desire to see autumn casualty to the vagaries of this brutal country. It may veer a lilliputian off the rail close to the end just I was fully willing to go with it because it was irreverent fun.

Reading Star of the North feels similar being on an adrenaline-fuelled covert op. Not that I've always been on one, heed you. (Well, not that I could tell you anyway!) I can't recommend this one enough.Star of the North is a terrific, topical, and truly terrifying thriller.

Star of the North by D.B. John is published past Harvill Secker, an imprint of Vintage. It is available as an audiobook and an ebook and in hardback. You tin detect it at Amazon UK, Aural UK, Foyles, Hive (supporting your local independent bookshop), Waterstones and Wordery.

D. B. John has lived in South korea and is one of the few Westerners to take visited North Korea. He co-authoredThe Girl With Vii Names, Hyeonseo Lee'due southNew York Times bestselling memoir most her escape from North korea.

My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy via NetGalley. I've since bought my ain copy of the hardback but doubtable information technology may disappear when Mum next visits.

Share: