After the Korean War ended in 1953, the north and south of the country were divided by a 4-kilometer defense barrier called the DMZ (demilitarized zone). In January 1967, North Korean Pak Jun-Seok left his poor farming village to begin his brutal military training in service to his Great Leader. Meanwhile, Lorne Boyle arrives in South Korea from his home in Alabama. Lorne discovers on his first barrier duty that any North Koreans who are found on South Korean soil are fair game for execution. To evade capture and torture, Pak and his fellow new recruits are given suicide grenade training. A year later, Pak will be chosen for a dangerous mission called The Blue House Raid. This is an assassination attempt on President Pak Chung-hee of South Korea inside his imperial palace, which means first crossing the DMZ border. As Lorne's battalion hears of the attack, they move towards the imperial palace. This is a battle involving two men from similar backgrounds on opposing sides where there can only be one winner. Will Pak and his men succeed in their assassination attempt and help to unite the Korean people for The Great Leader? Although The Blue House Raid by Robert Perron is based on true events, the characters and situations are fictional.

The Blue House Raid by Robert Perron is an extremely well-written and interesting story based on history. I enjoyed learning about both sides of the conflict, not just from the American perspective. The characters were so lifelike. I immediately liked both Pak and Lorne even though they were enemies because their backstories were brilliantly written. I found the sub-plot of the relationship between Lorne and working girl Minhee so heartwarming, they shared some quite endearing moments together. However, the scene where Minhee was introduced to the lifestyle was chilling to read but highlighted the desperation Korean girls felt to escape their lives of poverty so vividly. There were excellent scenes of tension throughout which made this an absolutely compelling read, especially towards the end as the assassination attempt was being executed. However, there are some very emotional scenes too, especially when Pak visited Chong's family. Although this is a work of fiction, the plot really highlights the casualties of war and how little is thought of human life. The author also brought attention to the disturbing indoctrination of hatred the North Korean soldiers endured against the Americans. An absolutely compelling read and one that I would highly recommend.

Robert Perron’s The Blue House Raid is a perfect work of art. What makes perfection in a piece of literature? When plot, character, theme, setting, pace and style blend exquisitely to form a unified whole. South Korea’s presidential palace is called the Blue House, and in 1968 with the Vietnam War raging, North Korea launched a commando raid to decapitate the South’s president. Perron opens his novel by introducing us to the two protagonists, each in his own element—Lorne Boyle, an American sergeant stationed near the border between the two at-war countries, and Pac Jun-seok, a captain in the army of the North. We get to know them both intimately; their hopes, dreams, friends, surroundings. And we await their sure-to-come final face-off. In the meantime, as the tension builds each step of the way, Perron shows us the details of their worlds.

Books get no finer than Robert Perron’s The Blue House Raid, which is perfection itself. Reading it put me there by the kind of magic telepathy that great writers master. I felt the cold, the rough terrain, the whore houses and the girls who worked there, the poverty of both countries, the fanatic devotion of the North, the gritty service of the South’s American protectors. I anguished at the moral choices of Boyle’s decision to marry or not his yobo (mistress), and Jun-seok’s commando group’s to kill-or-not a group of Southern woodsmen captured on the way to attack the Blue House. In Perron’s almost unnoticed style (the best kind), there was only the authenticity of the story, an alien world of barbed wire, ditches, bunkers, hootches, paddies, weapons, dance clubs, and its military slang. Its life or death tension inching onward toward an outcome of two men of honor, enemies coming face to face in the midnight darkness of a frozen paddy—yes, I’ll say it again, The Blue House Raid is a flawless work of art.