12 Novels You Should Read in July – CrimeReads

Big thanks to the kind folks at CrimeReads for highlighting Skin Deep in their July roundup!

Here’s more evidence that the private detective is enjoying a very welcomed resurgence in the crime fiction world. Sung J. Woo’s new novel features an inimitable PI, Siobhan O’Brien, a Korean adoptee who has somewhat haphazardly inherited her old boss’s agency and finds herself at a crossroads, unsure if she should continue down the line. The proverbial last job comes through, dragging Siobhan upstate to a seemingly idyllic liberal arts college with a girl gone missing from her dorm. The college is a hotbed of subcultures, and Siobhan has to learn each of their quirks and rivalries to keep the case moving forward. Skin Deep manages to be an entertaining, wickedly clever mystery and also a thoughtful meditation on adoption, culture, and identity. –DM

CrimeReads

Starred Library Journal Review of Skin Deep

Check out the nice review of Skin Deep from Library Journal!

Despite her Asian features, her father really is Irish, her mother Norwegian. Her name is Siobhan O’Brien, never mind everyone’s surprise when trying to gauge the incongruity between her face and that moniker. Short answer: Siobhan is a Korean-born, upstate New York–raised transracial adoptee. At 40, she’s just inherited a private investigation agency since her boss of two years has suddenly dropped dead (of natural causes). The business has enough banked to last three months, or she could sell and net a comfy $20,000-ish. Inexperience aside, she chooses to stay open, and her first case turns out to be a doozy: to reunite her late best friend’s younger sister with her missing teenage daughter, Siobhan will need to infiltrate a radical womyn’s group at a nearby college, agree to trespassing, check into a yoga center, get poisoned by mushrooms, avoid a multinational billionaire’s posse, and, in between, maybe even risk falling in love.

VERDICT: With just the right mix of clever twists, endearing charm, looming threats, and contemporary issues (identity, privilege, cultural appropriation, the ugliest parts of the beauty trade), literary novelist Woo (Love Love) debuts quite the absorbing new mystery series, hopefully with multiple volumes to come.

Reviewed by Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC , Jun 12, 2020

Library Journal – https://www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=skin-deep

Booklist Review of Skin Deep

Thank you to Booklist, the reviewing arm of the American Library Association, for a nice review of Skin Deep!

Siobhan O’Brien is marking her second anniversary at the Ed Baker Investigative Agency when she finds her boss dead at his desk and then learns that he has left his business to her. A Korean American adoptee, who must explain her name constantly, she takes her first solo case from an old acquaintance. Josie Sykes’ daughter, Penny, cut off contact with her mother just months into her freshman year at Llewellyn College in upstate New York, and after Josie’s efforts to reach the girl are rebuffed by a feminist contingent protesting changes in the direction the college is taking, Josie hires Siobhan to find Penny. It’s a job that takes the neophyte detective into the inner workings of Llewellyn, whose former-model president, despite the college’s supposed financial straits, is launching a yoga and healing center and pursuing bizarre research on forestalling aging. Despite a somewhat hasty wrap-up, this first in a series holds promise, given Woo’s punchy prose style, diverse milieu, and the potential romantic relationship between Siobhan and the lawyer whose office is down the hall. A series to watch.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   — Michele Leber

Publishers Weekly Review of Skin Deep

The first review of Skin Deep is in, and I’m grateful it’s a good one!

This winning series launch from Woo (Love Love) introduces PI Siobhan O’Brien, a 40-year-old American of Korean descent who was adopted in infancy by an Irish father and a Norwegian mother. After two years working as an operative at the Ed Baker Investigative Agency in Athena, N.Y., Siobhan, to her surprise, inherits the agency when her boss has a fatal heart attack. Her first client as the new owner is Josie Sykes, the white sister of a deceased childhood friend and fellow Korean adoptee. Josie’s 18-year-old adopted Korean daughter, Penny, is missing and was last seen at Llewellyn College. Siobhan enrolls in a program for older students and soon becomes aware of the danger that lurks on Llewellyn’s seemingly placid campus. Siobhan holds her own as she contends with deadly doings at a yoga center, menacing college initiations, and bizarre researchers studying “the science of beauty.” Woo perceptively explores the theme of image and personal identity throughout. Readers will look forward to seeing more of the beguiling Siobhan.

Publishers Weekly

East Meets West

So here it is, the real thing. The cover has completely changed from the spec — I totally dig the 80s vibe!

The cover in full.

It so reminds me of my beloved old computer, the Commodore 64. I feel like I could step into the store here and play it as a game…

In a couple of days, my publisher will be at the Seoul International Book Fair with this book in tow. How cool is that? Turns out that dreams do come true, from time to time.

Google Alert and Korean Interview

google_alertIn preparation for the avalanche of media coverage that will be exploding like a volcano (talk about mixing some bad metaphors), I have set up a Google Alert with my name, and lo and behold, I actually got a hit.  The article is from my hometown newspaper, the Warren Reporter.  It all looks good, except they said my novel came out last month.  But hey, press is press, so I’m grateful.

koreadailyThe other bit of news I found today was that an email interview I did a little while ago got in The Korea Daily.  It’s been there for about two weeks, so if I hadn’t been so lazy setting up my Google Alert, maybe this would’ve been my first.  In any case, for those who want to read the interview in English that I’d originally done with the reporter, check out the exchange below.  The Korean version has been shifted around here and there, but it’s basically the same thing.


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Books on a Shelf

Book on a Shelf

The contract copies of the book (comp copies that are designated in the contract) arrived yesterday, and this morning, I slid them into the top shelf of my bookcase and took this shot, and I was reminded of one of my favorite jobs growing up.

The year before I left for college, I worked at the Barnes & Noble in Shrewsbury, NJ, which, like so many stores nowadays, isn’t there anymore.  Each associate was given a section to take care of, and I ended up with scifi/fantasy, which was great because at that time, I read a lot of it.  I hadn’t discovered Philip K. Dick yet, but I was quite fond of folks like Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s series), Isaac Asimov (Foundation series), and Stephen R. Donaldson (Mordant’s Need series).  Not only did I have to keep the shelves in order, I also had to keep tabs on what was selling out and had the freedom to display the books however I chose.  If there was a title I liked,  I faced the cover out, to catch the eyes of the potential customer.

So here’s what I hope, now that I’m standing on the other side — that there’s a book associate out there who likes my book enough to give it the cover treatment.

Headshots

Two posts in one day?  Surely the apocalypse can’t be far.

Actually this is long overdue.  I’ve been working with a phenomenally talented guy named Noah Dempewolf.  I met him through KoreAm Journal (which, by the way, still welcomes your support), where he illustrated a pair of my articles.  I love his work, so it was a great pleasure to have him draw up portraits for two of the main characters in the novel, David and Sue.  These wonderful drawings are featured in a broadsheet that features the first chapter of the novel.  I plan to use it for marketing purposes as the pub date nears.

David

Sue

I should also mention that Noah did the banner graphic for this site as well.  The guy can do it all.

The Cover

I finally have a cover for the book, and lemme tell ya, it wasn’t easy.  There were three other versions, one that even I attempted to mock up, but the “kid cover,” as I’m now calling it, was the one that was finally chosen.  The first one had four pairs of Asian shoes and was deemed too “chick-litty.”  The second one had three pairs of shoes, two Asian and one pair of Converse Chuck Taylors, but that, too, was ultimately too chick-lit.  The one that I had created included a pair of graphics by an artist I was working with, and it unfortunately gave off a graphic-novel vibe that threatened to confuse potential readers.

I believe the boy is holding a fish fillet sandwich.  Don’t ask.