Book Review: The Plotters

Reviewed by Michael Attard

The setting is early 21st-century South Korea. The main character of this crime fiction, from whose point of view the story is narrated, is Reseng. Reseng doesn’t fit into the stereotypical role of a protagonist. As far as antagonists go, it’s a long list. This is primarily a story of corruption. The plotters at the top of the food chain, the assassins at the bottom, and the other bad guys in between are merely chess pieces confined to the squares on the board, destined to be moved or swept away by a hand from above.

Reseng is an assassin, and the story goes that he was found at birth in a garbage can. He was then raised by an assassin named Old Racoon, who lived and worked at a library. This is the rationale for how Reseng became an assassin. Growing up in a library explains his penchant for books. This is even though he never went to school and was not encouraged to read – in fact, discouraged, by Old Racoon. In this way, the reader is drawn in to have empathy for Reseng. Add in the fact that he has two cats, which he lovingly cares for, creating a likable assassin – at least on the surface.

We meet Reseng as he is looking through the sites of a gun pointed at the chest of an old man. The presumed target is watering his garden and playing with his dog. Why Reseng doesn’t pull the trigger is debatable. But as fate would have it, the elderly man discovers him. They chat and the old man invites Reseng to dinner, and even to spend the night. The following morning, Reseng leaves, climbing back up the hill to where he was the previous day. “Reseng fixed the crosshairs on the old man’s chest and pulled the trigger.”

A lot of people are killed in this story and some readers may find the vivid stab-by-stab action of numerous knife fights to be gruesome. The job and the fact that the assassins themselves in turn will eventually be killed, puzzlingly, doesn’t encourage them to escape. As Reseng puts it, “In the end, none of us can leave the place we know best, no matter how dirty and disgusting it is.”

At one point early in his career, Reseng did have an excellent chance to escape. He was hiding out in a different city under an assumed name. He had a job and even met a wonderful young lady who loved him. Old Racoon gave him the option to either return to Seoul or to make something different of himself. He chose to resume his life as an assassin.

The plotters were always very particular as to how they wanted someone murdered. And this business wasn’t just bad guys knocking off other evil villains. Reseng was sent to kill a very young, petite prostitute, who was assumed to know too much about some powerful guy. He was told to break her neck. There are eight pages of conversation between them where the reader is hoping that Reseng will let her go. That was not to be. Although, Reseng, with his own form of mercy, did allow her to take pills. But, he was in trouble, once again, for not sticking exactly to the plotter’s wishes.

Having dissatisfied a few people, he is not totally surprised when he finds a bomb in his toilet. One of the book’s plots thus revolves around Reseng trying to find out who is trying to kill him. He goes to the “Meat Market.” “Nothing there was forbidden by law, justice, or morality.” A second plot emerges when Reseng learns that Hanja, another very bad guy, is going after Old Racoon’s “assassin for hire business.”

A woman named Mito is tracked down, but Reseng can’t believe that she is a plotter, let alone an assassin. It turns out that she is involved in both of the above-mentioned plots. Her plans include a special role for Reseng. When he confronts her, telling her how easy it was to track her down, she responds, “You didn’t find me. I summoned you.”

Mito, Reseng, and other characters sometimes exhibit what might be seen as normal personality traits. There are certain bonds of friendship, although it’s more along the lines of the quip: “With friends like you, who needs enemies?” There is even a hint of loyalty here and there. But basically, no one trusts anyone, and they all expect to be betrayed. Revenge and personal gain play their part. But overall, the most depressing shared characteristic is the fact that they accept their roles and fate. They can be witty, but always underlying their thoughts and actions is a dark cynicism.

More people are cut up and killed. At one point, Reseng tells Mito that he is going to kill her along with two other people. She responds with an assassin’s nonchalant wit, “In that case, kill me last please. I have a lot to do.” But when Reseng barely survives a brutal knife fight, it is Mito who keeps him alive.

Eventually, Reseng is on side with Mito’s plan to bring the whole house of plotters down. However, he never really believes that her plan will be successful. In the finale, a lot of knee caps are shot out. Perhaps a sign of an underlying morality. Then we are left with a summary. “The life of an assassin was like cigarette smoke – too hazy and indistinct to settle anywhere.”