Beware Beware: A Juniper Song Mystery

Beware Beware is the second book to feature the American-Korean Juniper Song. She’s now advanced from the ranks of the amateur detectives to become a rookie PI with an experienced mentor to offer advice as and when required. As mysteries go, this has a well-constructed central theme, and there’s a well-signaled clue as to the key relationship that makes it all work. The settings in LA’s Koreatown are also done well. There’s a nice sense of what to eat and drink on a night out. But the book is less successful when it comes to dealing with the racism and sexism.

She’s a young American Korean woman navigating the difficult cultural waters between the generations in Koreatown. Meeting people becomes more difficult as our hero finds herself among the movers and shakers of Hollywood. If she was going to experience being patronized and treated with disrespect, there’s every chance for it to happen on a class basis. But she sails through this book without any real problems produced by her race or sex. Thematically we also confront the problems of rape and assault but, for the most part, the victims are passive and the author is not obviously outraged.