The Only Child by Mi-Ae Seo
Book Review: 3 out of 5 star rating
Yi Byeongdo is a serial killer sitting on death row. He hasn’t said much to anyone about the murders he’s committed and the police are anxious to learn just how many murders there were. Unexpectedly, Yi Byeongdo has asked to be interviewed by a criminal psychologist by the name of Seonkyeong. Seonkyeong has no idea why Yi Byeongdo has singled her out as she does not know him.
Seonkyeong has just been surprised by her husband with the arrival of his eleven-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Hayeong. There has been a fire and Hayeong’s grandparents with whom she was living have died. Seonkyeong is anxious to help Hayeong feel at home but soon starts to feel out of her depth. Seonkyeong starts to see quite a few similarities in the histories of both Yi Byeongdo and Hayeong.
I must say that I was disappointed with this one. I have enjoyed the writing of other Korean authors and apparently Mi-ae Seo is a bestselling thriller author and screenwriter in Korea. I just could not get into this story and found it to be written in quite a lackluster way. There were moments when I thought, OK, here we go, but then nothing much happened. For being a criminal psychologist, Seonkyeong’s thinking and decisions were disconcerting. She should have known better in so many instances and that leant the book a feeling of unreality. There were quite a few unbelievable incidents in the book. While the author did a good job of weaving the separate storylines together, all I could think at the ending of the book was “You have to be kidding”.
Hopefully this book will find an audience that will love it but it’s not one that I can honestly recommend, even though it did have its moments.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
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