Buddha's Money

The New York Times Book Review hailed the return of George Sue±o and his partner, Ernie Bascom, in Martin Lim¾n's electrifying thriller Slicky Boys, proclaiming, "It's great to have these two mavericks back!" Now the pair of investigators for the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is once again walking the wild side of Seoul. In their most explosive case yet, the soldier-cops pursue the key to an ancient source of power and untold wealth--a dangerous odyssey into an exotic shadow world of sensuality, treachery, and evil.

Sue±o and Bascom work the neon alleys of Itaewon--Seoul's supermarket of cheap thrills, where brightly painted girls promise a little piece of paradise in exchange for a few pieces of silver. But in Itaewon, the path to paradise can take some wicked turns....

Herman "the German" Burkowicz retired from the U.S. Army for a more lucrative career smuggling Korean artifacts. But the price of one such rarity may be paid by his kidnapped nine-year-old foster daughter, Mi-ja. Sue±o and Bascom advise him to pay the ransom: a priceless skull carved out of jade. The problem is, Herman doesn't have the skull...and Mi-ja's abductors are in no mood to wait. They've already sent a grisly sign of their growing impatience. Working feverishly in a race against time, the two CID investigators discover that the coveted skull is much more than a hunk of jade: It's a long-lost relic of Genghis Khan. But more crucially, it's the key to the destiny of the entire Pacific Rim, from Beijing to Bangkok.

The search for the skull takes Sue±o and Bascom from the seductive lair of Lady Ahn--heir, she claims, to the Dragon Throne of China and therefore the rightful owner of the jade skull--to the sinister inner sanctum of the Buddhist cult of Mahakala, Lord of the Demons. The labyrinth of intrigue and deception leads back to Itaewon and to a crime committed by an American soldier against a Buddhist nun--a crime that now threatens to ignite a conflagration of rage across the Korean peninsula. Monsoon season has arrived in Seoul, and for Sue±o and Bascom, the storm is about to explode.

Gritty, intense, and compelling, Buddha's Money is a shattering thriller, leading readers on a trail of lies and double-crossings as dark and twisting as an Itaewon back alley.


From the Hardcover edition.