“I never expected this happiness to last forever.

But neither did I imagine an ending like this.”

Unpredictable! A Korean mystery with an unprecedented twist!

A new book by Jeong Hai-yeon—who has immersed herself in the thriller genre for nearly a decade and captured readers’ attention with her full-length and short stories—has been published by Elixir.

Flamingo's Place opens its story with a man dumping a body in a lake. The prologue, which begins with, "The lake swallowed up Dahyeon's body," and ends with, "But, who killed Dahyeon?" is more than enough to intrigue readers. Jeong’s strength as a writer is her choice of settings and story development that arouses anyone’s curiosity, reaching its peak in Flamingo's Place. Starting with the prologue, the book consists of 21 chapters, each unfolding in unexpected ways and boasting remarkable storytelling that makes it hard to stop turning the pages to the next chapter. In particular, the gradual buildup leading to an explosive climax creates an unbelievable surprise twist rarely found in Korean mysteries.

Yet, Flamingo's Place isn’t just a “mystery with an unexpected plot twist” that unfolds solely for the sake of that twist. The twist stands out thanks to the well-organized plot and well-developed characters, which together bring out the greatest enjoyment in the story. While the twist is shocking, the book's charm endures even without it. This is exactly why one cannot help but rate Jeong Hai-yeon highly as a writer of thrillers and eagerly anticipate her next work.

Jeong received a commendation award for her 100 Days of Youth in the Korea Story Contest in 2012, the grand prize for her An Investigative Journal of a Cute Guy in Bongmyeong Apartment in the 2016 YES24 e-series Contest, and a gold prize for I Did the Killing in the 2018 Detective Mystery Thriller Contest co-hosted by CJ E&M and Kakao Page.

She used to write romance novels in her 20s before releasing a work titled Double, which shifted her career path toward thrillers put her in the spotlight with comments like "An amazing page-turner" and "A promising talent in Korean thriller literature." She says that she “likes to imagine the nasty intentions of a man or the evil lurking behind his words disguised as sincerity.” She is skilled at creating intriguing settings with excellent readability. Her new book Flamingo's Place, in particular, is packed with the experiences and greatest strengths that she has accumulated to this day. Not only does it boast of readability and a setting that instantly draws readers into the story, but each chapter also demonstrates excellent storytelling, full of suspense. The well-developed characters and well-organized plot clearly showcase her prowess as a writer of thrillers.

Her published works include Double, her debut novel, which has also been exported to China and Thailand, as well as full-length novels Malice: A Diary of the Dead, An Investigative Journal of a Cute Guy in Bongmyeong Apartment, On My Way to Kill Myself, The Day of Kidnap, and I Did the Killing. She also writes prolifically, taking part in anthologies such as My Hobby is Leaving Troll Comments and My Talent is Speaking with Rough Words, Those, When you go to Cafe Holmes? and a collection of women’s mystery stories titled So as Not to Forget a Single Name.

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