Reinvestigation 1 … … 9

Reinvestigation 2 … … 7
Author's Note … … 401 Re-investigation 2 … … 7
Author's Note … … 401

Re-investigate the unsolved case from 22 years ago!
DNA left at the scene, half-baked CCTV images…
Can we catch the culprit of that day now?

This novel, consisting of 100 chapters, moves tensely between the criminal's memoir and the detective's investigation.
The killer who killed college student Min So-rim in Sinchon 22 years ago recounts the murder in his memoir, analyzes modern society based on his own experiences, and attacks the systems and ethics of our society.
He argues that the Enlightenment underlies the system and that our society needs a new ethic.


'I am a sick person… … .
I am an evil person.
'I am an unlikable person,' begins Dostoevsky's novel Notes from the Underground.
I don't think there's a better sentence to begin my confession with.
I killed a man 22 years ago.
He was killed by stabbing him twice in the chest with a knife.
―Page 9 of the text

And I became very aware of what I was dealing with.
It wasn't God, or conscience, or an inner voice.
There was no sound of sirens receding, no police marks, and no detectives or two.
What I had to deal with was this society's criminal justice system.

―Page 23

As a murderer, I, like everyone else, need meaning and ethical guidance in life.
No, because I am a murderer, I want a strong and unique moral core that will keep me from collapsing.
―Page 86

In response to this, on another axis, detective Yeon Ji-hye's reinvestigation begins.
Detective Yeon Ji-hye, a member of the 1st Violent Crimes Investigation Division, 1st Team, 1st Squad, Violent Crimes Investigation Unit, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, is assigned to reinvestigate the murder of a female college student in Sinchon that occurred in August 2000.
The victim of this murder, which occurred in room 1305 of the Lumiere Building in Sinchon, was Min So-rim, a college student at Yonsei University at the time, who was found stabbed to death with what was believed to be a deadly weapon.
At the time of discovery, the air conditioner was on in Min So-rim's studio apartment, and the body was covered with a raincoat and blanket.
The CCTV of the Lumiere Building elevator was broken on the even floors and only the CCTV of the odd floors was working. There was an image of a man coming down from the 13th floor around midnight on August 3rd, but his hat was pulled down so low that only the outline of his chin could be seen.
Unidentified DNA was found on Min So-rim's body, but there was no match at the time.


“An investigation headquarters was set up at the Seodaemun Police Station and intensive investigations were conducted for over six months.
Well, I'm sure there were over 1,000 people interviewed.
Well, we investigated everyone, including the victim's friends and acquaintances, local residents, local gangsters, and even ex-convicts who might have come and gone from Sinchon.
But we couldn't catch the culprit."
Jeong Cheol-hee said.
“Are you saying we should investigate that again now?”
Choi Ui-jun asked, blinking his eyes.
“I have the DNA test results.
“Well, there’s a picture of the suspect too.”
Jeong Cheol-hee said.

―Pages 13-14 of the text

Yeon Ji-hye, who was tracing past records, discovers a missing part in the investigation records from that time.
There was a record of a male student from Yonsei University being summoned for having argued with Min So-rim, but there was no specific record of him.
Jeong Cheol-hee, who looked at the record, remembers that he had slapped the student in the face during an investigation in the past.
My name is Lee Gi-eon.
22 years later, Yeon Ji-hye and Jeong Cheol-hee visit Lee Ki-eon, who is now the CEO of an IT company, and learn that Min So-rim and Lee Ki-eon were members of an unregistered Dostoevsky reading group in 2000.

“But there was a peculiar recruitment notice.”
“What was it?”
“The announcement began like this:
'I am a sick person… … .
I am an evil person.
I am not a likeable person.' And if there is anyone who can relate to those sentences, I would like to spend a semester reading Dostoevsky's three major novels and other books in depth and discussing them.
And there is no awareness education and no seniority or juniority.
There is no evaluation and no right answer.
There is no name and no membership fee.
It's useless.
It was written, 'We do not accept those who come without reading or who prefer people over books.'
There was an email address written underneath it.
I found out later that the phrases written at the top of the book club announcement were not sentences from Dostoevsky's three major novels.
“This is the first part of ‘Notes from the Underground.’”
(……)
“How many people came to the meeting?”
“There were seven of us at first.
Including Min So-rim and me.”
―Pages 298-299

Yeon Ji-hye meets the members of the Dostoevsky reading group through Lee Gi-eon's introduction.
Gu Hyeon-seung, now a film director, Joo Mi-deum, a carpenter, and Kim Sang-eun, who works at an international organization.
The three said they often met at the main church's workshop.
One day, as the interview continued, Joo Mi-deum brought up the story of Min So-rim's whereabouts before she died...

“Actually, the person who recommended ‘Baekchi’ to me was Min So-rim.
That day was the last time I saw Min So-rim.
I think it was around late July or early August.
“It was a few days after the summer semester ended.” Yeon Ji-hye became nervous after hearing Joo Mi-deum’s words.
The first testimony about Min So-rim's last ten days was coming out.
―Page 409

“Jang Gang-myeong writes in Jang Gang-myeong’s style.

“Uncomfortably and precisely, meticulously and persistently, so to speak, immobilely.”

What 『Reinvestigation』 focuses on is the Korean criminal justice system and the ethical awareness of its members.
Society maintains community by defining and enforcing crimes and their appropriate punishments.
But whether it is truly appropriate and ethical is always debatable.
In 2022, Korea is more passionate than ever about absolute justice and new ethics, both politically and socially.
The common sense of society began to move towards areas that previous punishment systems had not covered.
However, the discussion about what ethics should be established before us is still poor.
What ethics do we need, what justice should be enforced and in what way?
This novel is uncomfortable, yet persistent, and asks the questions we need most right now.


Meanwhile, 『Reinvestigation』 is special.
The author himself referred to it as a 'watershed work'.
Jang Kang-myeong, who has been diagnosing modern society by reflecting on contemporary events, attempts to diagnose Korean society in 2022 in this novel by using Sinchon in 2000 as a mirror.
By reading Korean history diachronically, we discover the root of the emptiness and anxiety underlying modern society in Sinchon in 2000, when the foreign exchange crisis swept through the area.
In a society where standards and agreements have disappeared, where absolute values ​​have faded, humans remain in a state of infinite emptiness and anxiety.
The "unsolved case" that appears in the novel is a grand metaphor for a reality where crime and punishment are not properly assessed and punished, and it is a place where absolute values ​​are not enforced, that is, the limit of rationality.

It is no coincidence that the Dostoevsky reading group appears here.
By placing Dostoevsky's novel, which he wrote as a devout Christian and fought fiercely against nihilism, as an allegory, 『Re-Investigation』 accurately analyzes the nihilism and emptiness of modern times while placing itself in the position of literature that fiercely fights against them.
When fiction comes closest to reality, it becomes true.
Jang Gang-myeong writes truthfully today as well.
And now we present to our readers the true novel.


▣ Author's Note

I had two goals in writing this novel.
First, let's write a realistic police novel.
Let's realistically portray the investigation process of Korean detectives without exaggerated action or tools like superpowers.
Second, let's capture the landscape of Korean society in 2022 and trace its origins.
(……) If I were to describe the deepest problems in Korean society in the 2020s in two words, I would choose ‘emptiness’ and ‘anxiety.’
I believe that the origins of this emptiness and anxiety lie within the very systems of this society.
In other words, I believe that in a society designed this way, no one can completely escape the trap of emptiness and anxiety.