The Planners

Behind every murder there is an anonymous mastermind who plans it in detail. Invisible planners lurk in deep shadow; they conduct the loudest crimes, directing the most dangerous killers. But do such people really exist? Or is it only an urban myth?.. Resan is a killer. He grew up in the Dog Library under the supervision of a strange and terrifying man everyone calls the Old Raccoon. Resan has never questioned why he kills those he is ordered to kill. His real life has taken place inside books, where he sheltered from an incomprehensible, twisted world. But one day Resan crossed the line—violated the main rule of his profession: not to break the rules. And now, before him, there are only two paths: to be killed, or to change the world.

When he encounters an eccentric female trio—a shop clerk with a doctor’s diploma, her funny sister in a wheelchair, and a cross-eyed librarian with a voice like a songbird—he has no choice but to decide: remain a puppet in the hands of those mysterious planners, or begin to control the plot of his own life. Sparkling with tension, full of vivid and unusual characters, this East-meets-West philosophical noir detective story by Kim Onsu is gentle, sharp-witted, lyrical, and unpredictable.