Review
The Consultant is not only a hugely entertaining book, it's a clever book. As the morally ambiguous consultant goes about his business of arranging natural deaths to streamline corporate restructuring, he offers readers his razor-sharp observations on consumerism, capitalism and what it means to feel anonymous. It's also damn funny -- M. W. Craven author of the Sunday Times bestselling Washington Poe series
This tale of an accidental accomplice to serial murder spellbindingly combines the eerily affectless, morally ambiguous tone of a Patricia Highsmith novel with John Dickson Carr's fecundity in devising "impossible" crimes - Telegraph
An epic satire of society and power, The Consultant charms and shocks, luring you in to its sizzling plot with no mercy, until you're petrified of how it can possibly end. A blistering indictment of our modern world, this thriller will make you question everything. Brilliant -- Eve Smith
An intriguing premise, cleverly executed, makes for a brilliant read. For The Consultant, a killer who never meets his victims, it all starts to go wrong when he's told to kill someone he knows. Darkly funny, with a fascinating protagonist, it's excellent! -- Guy Morpuss, author of Five Minds and Black Lake Manor
Wow . Such a fresh take. Perfect murders in the imperfect world of business and power. Quietly and stylishly told. There's an honesty in the simplicity and brutality that is enlightening and thought-provoking. I'll be thinking about it for a while -- Will Carver
A spicy and pacey Korean crime novel in translation. the reader is brought along on a thrilling journey that probes the cracks in capitalism by exploring what people would really do for money - Huffington Post, 23 Brilliant New Books for 2023 To Get Your Reading List Started
Consultant unfurls from the perspective of a first-person narrator who writes scenarios of perfect crimes. It examines ... the violence of modern anonymity and capitalism. - Readers News
The details and specifics of murder consulting are intriguing, and the plot propelled by its cerebral narrative and reasoning is refreshing ... it's a page turner, reminiscent of the American show, CSI. -- Segye Ilbo Literary Prize Judges
These facts about Sung-soon Lim might astound you ... Every book of his boasts a drastically different sensibility, prose, and subject matter. His world building is unparalleled, his prose precise, and you can see the echo of extensive research that must have gone into the storytelling. - Channel Yes
[The Consultant]is toweringly the most interesting of the autumn bunch ... beautifully crafted, witty, slick novel has a profound meta-physical basis - Tablet
Book Description
Sometimes work can be murder... Severance meets Dexter in this sharp, satirical crime novel about a murder-planning consultant in corporate Seoul
About the Author
Im Seong-sun is a writer, the author of ten books. His first novel, The Consultant, was awarded the 2010 Segye Ilbo Literary Award, and his short story 'The Sheeple Wandering a Gallery and Their Predators' won Korea's Young Artist Award. Seong-sun's sci-fi novel Ouroboros earned him the Korean SF Award.
An Seon Jae (aka Brother Anthony of Taizé) was born in England in 1942. He studied at Queen's College, Oxford, before joining the Community of Taizé in 1969. Since 1980, he has been living and teaching in Korea. He took Korean nationality in 1994. He has translated the work of many major contemporary Korean writers into English. In 2015, he was awarded an Honorary MBE.