Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jade Lady Burning | 1992 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 2 | Slicky Boys | 1997 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 3 | Buddha’s Money | 1998 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 4 | The Door to Bitterness | 2005 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 5 | The Wandering Ghost | 2007 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 6 | G.I. Bones | 2009 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 7 | Mr. Kill | 2011 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 8 | The Joy Brigade | 2012 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 9 | Nightmare Range | 2013 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 10 | The Iron Sickle | 2014 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 11 | The Ville Rat | 2015 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 12 | Ping-Pong Heart | 2016 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 13 | The Line | 2018 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 14 | The Nine-Tailed Fox | 2018 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 15 | GI Confidential | 2019 | Martin Limón | Buy |
| 16 | War Women | 2022 | Martin Limón | Buy |
The George Sueno and Ernie Bascom series is Martin Limon’s main body of work, sixteen novels published between 1992 and 2022. The two protagonists are agents in the US Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, stationed at the Yongsan military base in Seoul, South Korea, during the 1970s. Their cases take them through the bars, back alleys, and black markets surrounding the base, as well as into the Korean countryside and occasionally across the DMZ.
Sueno is a Mexican-American soldier who speaks Korean and tries to understand the culture he lives in. Bascom is his more reckless partner, a hard-drinking rule-breaker who gets results through sheer nerve. The contrast between them drives much of the series. Limon uses their investigations to explore the tensions of the American military presence in Korea, the poverty and resentment it created, and the crimes that flourished in the gaps between two legal systems. The series started with Jade Lady Burning and has grown steadily, with Limon publishing new entries regularly through the 2010s and into the 2020s.