Yellowthread Street

Rating:
Summary: Yellowthread Street
Review: It's a free-for-all. It dispels any notion that mystery writers--when they start out--always take it slow, take time to warm up, blossom three books later. Yellowthread Street, the debut novel in the series of the same name--is a fireworks display, crackling with nonstop humour, frenzy, jagged but compelling style, and crazy subplots buttressing a crazy main story. Typical Marshall, right out of the gate--and, if anything, this first entry is the most gonzo of all I've read. So far.

The top dog is Inspector Harry Feiffer, who investigates a series of jewellery-store robberies, where the perpetrator wields a nasty blade called a kukri, targeting the fingers of unhelpful store owners or staff. Feiffer is also busy fielding phone-calls from his concerned wife, as well as an anonymous caller with a grudge. Then--when it turns out that certain jewellery stores that were robbed are connected to organized crime--Feiffer has got a posse of gangsters to worry about; he and they hunt the finger-chopping robber simultaneously, but gangsters like to use machine-guns, indulge in shoot-outs, and also employ henchmen who dabble in clubs with spikes.

Detectives Auden, Spencer, and O'Yee also appear for the first time, all working bizarre cases. A cinema-owner anticipates being held up now that an American destroyer has docked in the harbour, a married couple from New Jersey have become separated and are both beckoning the cops to help find each other (???), and there's been a double axe-murder (oh wait, Feiffer's handling that case too). The cops' heads spin--as may the reader's--as they try to wrap up each case in time to help Feiffer face the gangsters and the finger-chopper in a violent finale.

Ed McBain had mined this territory a few years earlier in a frenetic little gem called Hail Hail The Gang's All Here!, so Marshall's opener is not totally original. But he takes frenzied, multi-scenario, multi-cop loopiness to another level, and then actually tones it down in later Yellowthread Street books. I tend to prefer the more controlled chaos of most of the follow-ups, but what a daring debut!

Rating:
Summary: The first Yellowthread Street murder mystery
Review: This was the first in the series of ficitonal murder mysteries set in Hong Bay, Hong Kong. Protected by Detective Chief Inspector Harry Fieffer, Detective Inspector Christopher O'Yee, and Detectives Phil Auden and Bill Spencer, Hong Bay seems to be an authentic, frenzied, violent part of Hong Kong. While the station deals with a 'lost' American tourist and his harridan wife, more serious crime intrudes, with a Mongolian who is demanding 'protection' from local merchants, and attacking those who resist. The denouement is typical Marshall, a combination of fast action, violence, and chaos, with chaos being the most prominent factor. In this book, Spencer is the 'new guy', and Marshall convincingly shows us how Spencer has a difficult time fitting in with the other detectives. But as experienced Yellowthread Street readers know, the detectives prevail---at a price. Marshall is the pre-eminent writer of humorous, suspenseful police procedurals writing these days, and I am continually impressed by his expertise. Long may the detectives of Hong Bay continue to fascinate us!

Rating:
Summary: The first Yellowthread Street murder mystery
Review: This was the first in the series of ficitonal murder mysteries set in Hong Bay, Hong Kong. Protected by Detective Chief Inspector Harry Fieffer, Detective Inspector Christopher O'Yee, and Detectives Phil Auden and Bill Spencer, Hong Bay seems to be an authentic, frenzied, violent part of Hong Kong. While the station deals with a 'lost' American tourist and his harridan wife, more serious crime intrudes, with a Mongolian who is demanding 'protection' from local merchants, and attacking those who resist. The denouement is typical Marshall, a combination of fast action, violence, and chaos, with chaos being the most prominent factor. In this book, Spencer is the 'new guy', and Marshall convincingly shows us how Spencer has a difficult time fitting in with the other detectives. But as experienced Yellowthread Street readers know, the detectives prevail---at a price. Marshall is the pre-eminent writer of humorous, suspenseful police procedurals writing these days, and I am continually impressed by his expertise. Long may the detectives of Hong Bay continue to fascinate us!