'The Gentleman from Japan': Impersonation and intrigue in China and Europe

"You don't know anything, you like noodles, and you aren't Japanese. Can we put that on your gravestone?"

"If it fits."

Inspector O, James Church's acerbic North Korean cop, is back, in a new work featuring exotic characters, international intrigue and snappy dialog. The narrative shifts between northeast China and the Iberian Peninsula.

While Japan pops up frequently in the book, such as in reference to occupation of Korea and Manchuria, O, the "gentleman" of the title, is clearly not Japanese. Now semi-retired, he lives in Yanji, a city on the Chinese side of the river, with his nephew, an officer with China's security police.

Uncle O is recruited by Luis, a half-Portuguese, half-Chinese policeman who he'd previously encountered in Macao, and who figures O can pass as a Japanese.

Under the guise of a Japanese gangster, O meets the shady operators of a machine factory in Barcelona, Spain, where he investigates a "dumpling" machine, actually contraband that somebody — we're never sure who — wants to ship to Asia for use in manufacturing something particularly nasty.

Church notes in his preface that his novel was inspired by the still-unsolved murder of the "Gyoza King," 72-year-old Takayuki Ohigashi, in Kyoto in December 2013.

With the world's attention currently focused on the audacious murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport, it's perhaps not hard to guess what Inspector O's next assignment is likely to be.