I really wanted to like this more than I did, it just didn’t hit right at all. There was no tension, I expected a thriller but that’s on me. I wanted to know more about the company but was left dissatisfied. And I really didn’t like the main character, he was really irritating, maybe I missed the humour or something, but this was not for me.

The plot is certainly different to other books I've read which kept it more exciting! It was very interesting to delve into the dark world of the book.

A highly original novel translated from the Korean about a desk-based assassin. The irony of the title “Consultant”, aka somebody who designs corporate solutions for others to carry out, was not lost on me as somebody who has dealt with management consultants often in their daily working life. However, the restructuring in this consultant’s portfolio usually involved the loss of life. Beautifully written and translated, the story was compelling and engaging but I found the main character’s lack of curiosity frustrating at times and there could have been more depth and complexity if this had been developed further.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to review an unpublished copy.

Thanks ever so much to Raven Books for sharing this title with me on @netgalley!

The Consultant by Im Seong-sun, translated by An Seon Jae.

Perhaps I should preface my review by saying I don't often read crime novels. In fact, I don't think I ever have done, but I was willing to make an exception for this one. The premise is, I guess, quite unique, in that the protagonist, the vaguely-named Consultant, is employed by a shady corporation, referred to as the Company, to carry out contract killings. This was the part that interested me most and, as usual, I wanted to know more and break through the mystery: who is behind the Company? How did it come about? How do they pick their employees? But, as per usual, I was disappointed as not much was revealed. Okay, it's part of their perfectly concealed identity, fine, I can deal with that.

Let's move onto the other key element here: the protagonist... only he is the manest man to ever man. A complete caricature of everything that is wrong with patriarchy-infused men and one of those uncomfortable creations where you end up wondering how much truly is satire/parody and how much it's just the author being deadly serious. The protagonist lusts after every woman he sees, thinks he's deep for philosophising about everything he does (it's not that deep bro: you kill people for money, which is exactly what you signed up for), and a very long trope-filled etc.

And the DRC episode? Yeah, maybe not. Suffice to say it added nothing to the plot and completely dehumanised an entire country, nay, race of people. Sadly, it only serves as mere background noise to the protagonist's slightly deluded mental breakthrough: the real Company here is ~society~ because we're all complicit in the exploitation of developing nations for our own gain! Definitely on a par with being paid to carry out contract killings, right? Right?

Right.

I wish the novel had focused more on the actual Company itself, as opposed to this incredibly dull and predictable narrator. It got off to an intriguing start, but I slowly lost interest, which is a shame, as this had the potential to go down the Severance route of corporate weirdness (please someone talk to me about Severance, this is a cry for help).

2/5

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Consultant is a translated novel, written by Im Seong-sun in Korean and translated to English by An Seon-jae. It's inspired by true events and its take on the events and their consequences is fresh and intriguing.

It's a story about an ordinary man who gets employed by The Company to write and orchestrate assassinations. But instead of the utterly too frequent cold-blooded lithe person who commits murders, we see a man who functions mostly as a crime writer who researches into his victims' lives and plans how these people can die without it look like a murder. So unique and unprecedented, at least for me.

I'm fairly new to literary fiction, but I found the writing to be accessible, concise, and very, very sharp (in a brilliant and keen kind of way!). The main character was also a no-nonsense type, which matched the prose. Every sentence served a point and delivered a message, without lengthy descriptions and inner monologues. I was captivated, and even though I was so tired from work, I looked forward to reading this book late at night. I was always left wanting more.

The book also has a healthy dose of social and political commentary that is well-placed in the story as well as thought-provoking. For instance, if you thought you're far, far away from ever committing murder, this book will tell you, "Ha, think again". At one point, the main character went on vacation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, torn by its civil war. There, we not only get to think about its brutality but also the rest of the world's complicity and hand in it. And at the same time, the main character meets the extension of The Company's resources and impact. Theme and character arc wrapped up tightly and smartly!

I really liked this book. It's poignant and thought-provoking with a fresh take by a brilliant storyteller. And for readers who want their intelligence and worldview to be challenged, this is for you (well, us)! I'll definitely read more books by Im Seong-sun.

This is a smart Korean translated novel by Im Seong-sun that managed to take me by surprise, inspired by real global events, it is ostensibly about the history, art, legends and the business of assassination, and the specifics of an unnamed writer. He is ex-military, an average ordinary man who in the climate of high unemployment is recruited by The Company and paid well to write about perfect murders. He only comes to understand his role when he reads how his stories have been used to carry out actual real life murders in newspapers. What to do? The distance afforded to him from the murders makes him feel little personal responsibility, justifying to us, the reader, his profession, he is a 'restructuring' Consultant, developing a real expertise as an assassin.

He carries out in depth research, his enemies are detectives, coroners, and forensic scientists, his plans for accidents and other forms of 'natural', ordinary, everyday deaths must outwit them all, no foul play must be suspected. He might be deemed to be a valued white collar worker, although there are repercussions, he is a loner living a dull life, although he becomes increasingly well compensated as the number he kills rises. Nothing perturbs him or makes him question his occupation until he has to write the script for the death of someone he knows and likes. The maelstrom of his inner feelings has him taking a vacation to civil war-torn DRC in Africa, needing to see mountain gorillas, his experiences finally pushing him to examine more closely what he does when he find himself caught up in the horrors of what is happening in the country.

His eyes are opened as he sees the global implications of the trade in coltan with its links to mobile phones and the perpetuation of war. Seong-sun takes the profession and world of Korean assassination, and with his philosophical, social and political commentary slices through the layers that obscure just how we too are likely to be killers. This is a read that cuts close to the bone and makes an impact that I was not prepared for, which illustrates just how outstanding and skilled an author this is. This is for readers who are looking for a challenging and thought provoking book that is willing to explore the concept of sin, responsibility, death, the impossibility of accountability, and enters surprising global territory with wit and remarkable intelligence. Highly recommended will bells on. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

An intriguing fresh look at the work and life of a career assassin in Korea.
Especially liked how he got into his profession for the company,such an unusual way he was drawn into it.
Loved to read about the planning of each job to make murder look like an accident.
Excellent read,one of the best books I have so far this year.

Im not sure what i was expecting from this book , maybe a Korean noir with an assassin who finds his conscience and heart - an easy to read page turner. However, this really well translated, complex story offered much more with meditations on who is really responsible for many of the murders around the world, and how far back blame goes. The protagonist is based mainly in Seoul, but also in DRC questioning not only his actions, but the murderous effects of civil war and mining of precious metals for consumer gadgets and certainly provided food for thought. This is a book I will continue to think about for some time.
Thank you to netgalley and Raven books for an advance copy of this book.

The Consultant Im Seung-Sun
5 stars

What an amazing and original concept for a book.

The main character in this book, (we do not ever learn his name) is a reasonably obscure Korean man, not outstanding in either his education or his lifestyle. However he is good at writing stories detailing the perfect murder. Not only the perfect murder but one where no foul play can be proven or even suspected.

One day he is contacted by ‘The Company’ given a scenario and asked to write one of these perfect murders. He gets paid handsomely for this and it is only when, quite by chance, that he comes across his murder plot that has actually happened and is in the newspaper. When he starts investigating he discovers that all of his fictional murders have actually occurred.

The Company that he works for calls this ‘re-structuring’ and after his initial misgivings The Consultant is able to almost dismiss what he is doing and continue to live a life using the large amounts of money he is given for his ‘work’. It is almost as if the murders of people as instigated by him has no effect on him or his day-to-day life.

However all this changes when he is asked to provide the way of killing someone who he has had a relationship with and he begins to question his whole career.

I found the concept of this book fascinating and so original. The author manages to intersperse the story with sarcasm and invective against modern society in a very clever way. I would love to read any other books that he produces. Highly recommended if you like something a little different from the norm.

.
Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net Galley

Not for me sadly found the story a bit confusing and hard going did read until the end but difficult to follow.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ).

The Consultant is very good at his job. He creates simple, elegant, effective solutions for… restructuring. Nothing obvious or messy. Certainly nothing anyone would ever suspect as murder.

The ‘natural deaths’ he plans have always gone well: a medicine replaced here, a mechanism jammed there. His performance reviews are excellent. And it’s not as though he knows these people.

Until his next ‘customer’ turns out to be someone he not only knows but cares about, and for the first time, he begins to question the role he plays in the vast, anonymous Company. And as he slowly begins to understand the real scope of their work, he realises just how easy it would be for the Company to arrange one more perfect murder...

But how far will he go to escape The Company? And how far will they go to stop him?

Fabulous ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The idea of this book was interesting but the execution was not what I expected. The writing style of the translation might have had a lot to do with it, sometimes things get lost in translation. There is no tension or mystery, is just a flow of situations that feel a bit disjointed. I struggled reading it, to be honest. I really wanted to love it as Korean literature is one of my favourites but unfortunately this one didn't work for me.

I struggled with the writing of this book, the sentences were short and choppy and felt disjointed. The plot was ok, but the writing style made me lose interest a little.

Not sure this was the right genre of book for me. I found it quite a difficult read but persevered to the end.

I'm not sure if some of the appeal of this was lost in translation and the editing made it seem to drag a bit but it just didn't do it for me. I found it to be incredibly slow burning with little ever actually happening. I thought the premise sounded amazing but it just didn't give me what I needed. As I said, it could just be a translation issue rather than an issue with the book itsself. It sadly wasn't for me

This was a slow burning read that read at times and at other times felt too slow. The writing was good but felt stilted at times, however I think this maybe due to the translation of the original text and it didn't actually affect my enjoyment once I got used to it. The book is also full of lots of descriptive writing and an intriguing story, I loved the Squidgame reference.

The assassin in crime fiction is, of course, no new thing. One who makes his or her work look like accidents is pretty well trodden too. From Lawrence Block's Keller to Kotaro Isaka's Three Assassins and many, many more in between it takes something special to bring something new to the genre. In movies/ tv/ literature we've had assassins described as accountants/ liquidators/ auditors and in Im Seong-sun's novel a 'consultant'.
The first novel of his to be translated into English, it's been around in its original form for some time and has an 'era piece' feel to it through the technological detail and cultural references.
It felt, reading this, as if there were three parts to this: the story, the translation and the editing and it's tricky to know exactly which element made this fall short for me.
While I've not had much exposure to Korean fiction, I have in other languages and feel the best translations work not when they're trying to make the story seem like a (insert your country here) story, but manage to balance the process well enough that you can appreciate the narrative while still seeing the original culture it comes from.
Here, I found the writing jarring and I felt that went far beyond any cultural reasoning and I don't know whether that comes down to the translation choices or the editing. Whichever it is, I assume the final release of the book will have corrected some of the many editing errors (repeated words of the 'and and' nature , as well as distracting over use of certain phrases: finding four uses of 'Of course,...' on the same page, An abundance of By the way' 's and similar_
Storywise, the increasingly disenchanted killer deciding he wants to know more about the mysterious company he works for is a common enough staple. The description of the book that made me request this: 'combines the tension of the best crime fiction with searing social criticism to present a searing take-down of global corporate life.' is an interesting one: that description itself and repeated use of 'searing' is typical of the way the book itself reads._ Personally, I found the book tension free: to the point I assumed it was an authorial decision. (At times it reminded me of American Psycho in its long descriptions of apparent;y non related historical or social issues. ) There is little 'action' which is not an issue in itself - although when some DOES come, it is such a side step in plot terms from the main narrative it felt like a different book.
Ultimately, I found this underwhelming compared to recent translated works I've read. Perhaps I was at fault for hoping more for a literary equivalent of a Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon or Hoor Jee-woon Kim: all of whom are capable of offering the tension and social commentary in their work that the description promised, but for me, despite it being one of my first exposures to Korean fiction, it felt a little too familiar.