REVIEW: The Red Palace by June Hur
A young palace nurse investigates a pattern of grisly murders in this romantic YA historical mystery from the author of The Silence of Bones.
Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father’s approval.
But Hyeon is suddenly thrust into the dark and dangerous world of court politics when someone murders four palace nurses in a single night, and the prime suspect is Hyeon’s closest friend and mentor.
In her hunt for the truth, she encounters Eojin, a young police inspector also searching for the killer. When evidence begins to point to the Crown Prince himself, Hyeon and Eojin must work together to search the darkest corners of the palace to uncover the secrets behind the bloodshed.
CW – violence
Dear Ms.Hur,
I had heard wonderful things about your books written in Joseon Dynasty Korea and admit I jumped on the chance to read this one despite the fact that it’s mainly a murder mystery inquiry. There is a thread of a romance winding through it and I dearly hope that you will turn this into a series but for romance fans, that isn’t a reason to try this book. What is an added attraction is the fact that it’s an immersive journey into a world I knew little about and which I ultimately found fascinating.
Baek-Hyeon is an eighteen year old nurse who works in the Changdeokgung Palace helping to take care of the women there. According to Confucian tradition, unrelated men and women can’t touch each other so the female nurses examine female patients and relay the information to male physicians. Hyeon is the illegitimate daughter of a high ranking noble and his concubine and has worked hard since the age of eleven to finally achieve this goal all in the hope that her (frankly he’s a dick) father will acknowledge her and be proud of her.
Late one evening, she and a friend are called to the pavilion housing the Crown Prince. They immediately realize something is going on but it’s not until morning that word reaches them that four women have been brutally slain at the nursing school. Hyeon races there and is heartbroken to learn their identities as well as appalled at their wounds. Three of them fought hard for their lives while one had no defensive wounds. Sneaking away from the police on the grounds, she runs into another servant who questions her but helps her escape over the wall. Then comes the worst news; her beloved mentor, the woman who saved her and taught her, is now suspected and will be “questioned” (eg tortured) by the police in a matter of days if she won’t speak up. Allying herself with an inspector who recognizes her skills and knowledge might be the only way to save her mentor. But at what cost?
It took me a little while to get my feet under me with this book. I know precious little about historical Korea and had a steep learning curve to climb. Once I could ease up on frantically trying to keep my head above water, things began to make sense. Bits of information needed to understand why these characters are acting as they do are carefully doled out when needed without it seeming like a social history lesson. But there are a lot of things to know both in regard to the roles of these people in society and in their families. This turned out to be a fascinating social and historical tour.
I will admit to heading to the Internet to get a better idea of the fashions worn and places mentioned so I could get my mental bearings. One thing I have discovered over the years is that while I’m reading, frequently I’m visualizing the scene. The Internet came through for me. Thank goodness for images from K-dramas, eh?
This is the type of investigation that proceeds slowly, with clues gradually building to a final understanding. There is a climactic final conflict but this occurs after Hyeon and Eojin have put all the pieces together. Yes, there is a little villain exposition but that does clear up a few blanks in Hyeon’s knowledge and lets her actually save the day. Yay female intuition, ingenuity, and problem solving! Also yay that Korean culture figures prominently in solving the investigation. This truly is a story that couldn’t have taken place anywhere else or been solved any other way.
There was one issue for me. Several times in the investigation, characters revealed clues and information to Hyeon seemingly for little reason. After a while this began to be hard to believe. Really – this high ranking person is going to spill this stuff to one they considered a servant? Still that did help get the job done and as this is told in first person, it was probably the only way to convey what needed to be told.
Hyeon grows as a character. She began not quite as a squashed cabbage but definitely as a woman without a great deal of self esteem and with a large chip on her shoulder. As the story continued, she learned a few things she didn’t know and revised her feelings about a few people and herself. Her final triumph was something I didn’t see coming but wow, she nailed it and will be able to move on past that person. You go, Hyeon! As I said, I hope that there will be a sequel because I’m attached to Hyeon and Eojin now and I want to see her, and maybe them, blossom even more. B+
~Jayne
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Why is this YA?
@LML: Both Hyeon and Eojin are eighteen. Given the time period, they would probably be considered adults in that era but they still “read” as young adults.
@Jayne: This sounds interesting and different. I looked into her earlier Korea-set mystery, The Silence of Bones, and even had it out from the library, but I never got into it, so I’m glad to see you review this one.
Does this book read as YA? By this I mean are is vocabulary very approachable, is the pacing lean, and does the story have a strong hook that makes the book easy to enter? Do the characters experience angst?
(I don’t mean simplistic. A lot of YA books are complex and cross over well to adult readers, as I’m sure you know, but some readers who haven’t tried many view them that way. That’s why I’m clarifying my question.)
@Janine: I tried reading “The Silence of the Bones” too and just couldn’t get into it either. The pace was very slow.
This book kinda reads like older YA (as I view college age characters now). There is angst galore as Hyeon desperately wants her father’s attention and approval. Despite their ages, Hyeon is now a fully trained nurse with a job and Eojin a police inspector who passed his exams two years before this. Other adults (as we would consider people adults) accept the two in their roles but as written, Hyeon and Eojin still read like they have some maturation ahead of them. But I enjoyed the book overall and lately I’ve been getting tired of YA books.
@Jayne: Thanks. Since the other one was slow, how was the pacing of this one?
@Janine: I would describe it as “deliberate” in that I had to concentrate just due to the fact that I knew almost nothing about the Josean Dynasty. Once I felt more comfortable and didn’t need to pay such *close* attention, it felt like the book read “faster.”
I have read Silence of the Bones and Forest of Stolen Girls and enjoyed them both. I’m so happy, Jayne, to read a favorable review for this one, as it has been oh reserve at the library for months. (My corner of Maryland has a hefty Korean population, so the libraries are very alert to books by Korean authors and/or stories set in Korea.)
Re: pacing of the stories–‘Silence’ was indeed slow at the beginning, but once I was caught in the story it seemed to pick up. ‘Forest’ was quicker off the mark (or I was more comfortable in the world), but one would never call it fast-paced. My interest was held throughout.
I think the YA tag is a good one. The heroines in the first two books did a good bit of growing up (as in gaining emotional maturity) over the course of their stories.
@Barb in Maryland:
Do you have any other ones you could recommend?
Jayne
No recommendations at this time. I am just dipping my toes into this bit of booklandia. Most of my library’s Korean setting/Korean author books are in Korean, which I do not read.
This sounds interesting, thanks for the review. Is the Crown Prince in the story Sado? I just want to get an idea of how bloody and dark this story is likely to get.
@Aoife: Yes, it’s Crown Prince Sado. But most of the dark things he does/has done are off page up until the end. On page he only attacks someone but they survive.
Thank you, Jayne. That sounds good, I’ll give this one a try! I’ve been reading a lot of Japanese and Chinese novels and light novels, but it seems much harder to find something with a historical Korean background.