Traffic Accident Specialist Detective 3B

# Korean Mystery Writers' Association, 2021, Korean Mystery Literature Award, Grand Prize

# Contract signed for dramatization and cinematization, January, 2022

Park Byeong-bae splits lawyer Choi Garo's office with a partition wall to investigate victims of wrongful traffic accidents. "The police are telling me that my sister jumped off the bridge in a small village and killed herself. But her car was found one kilometer away from the bridge, and I think she had a car accident." Hearing this, Byeong-bae dives into the case. Something's fishy about it. The strangest part is the position of the corpse. Byeong-bae instinctively realizes that the placement of the corpse can't be explained by laws of physics. But the police assert that it's a suicide case, and try to put the pieces together as one. The case reminds Byeong-bae of his own wrongful case, so he decides to be his own judge and investigates the case. Garo senses what he's up to. She wants Byeong-bae to stay within the boundaries of law. They have an argument, but it's nothing a glass of soju together can't fix.

Why is Byeong-bae so enraged by governmental authority? The answer's in his own traffic accident. He was a happily married physics teacher in the past until one day when prosecutor Han Gang-cheol causes a car accident by running a red light and speeding. Pessimistic about her paraplegia, Byeong-bae's wife kills herself, and his child injures his head and becomes disabled. But Gang-cheol denies everything, and the officer in charge, Chu Won-seok, gets money from Gang-cheol and takes the investigation to his advantage. Even when Byeong-bae approaches him with physical evidence, Won-seok ignores it and helps Gang-cheol.

Enraged by such treatment, Byeong-bae retires from his teaching position and focuses on the revenge against Han Gang-cheol and Chu Won-seok. With his meticulous plan, he uses HIV-positive blood for revenge and gets caught by the police. Weary of everything, Byeong-bae tells his lawyer that he doesn't mind getting the maximum sentence. But Choi Garo isn't just any public lawyer. Even though Byeong-bae had given up on everything, Garo helps Byeong-bae.