Frogmouth (Yellowthreat Street Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Frogmouth
Review: Animal lovers beware! Frogmouth equals terrific and highly original mystery, but the killer's horrid specialty is the slaughter of animals by the droves. In the Hong Bay district of Hong Kong (Marshall's lively fictional setting), a petting-zoo is massacred, no creature left alive. The descriptions of hoards of found-dead "dumb chums"--mainly birds--that occur early in the novel, and then again later as the hateful killing spree continues, are of course unpleasant, and I did not enjoy them; but Marshall goes only so far as he needs to go in describing the carnage, and moves on. I just know, however, that for dedicated animal lovers the scenes involving the murderer's work will be more stomach-turning than they may have been for me, and I was quite unsettled m'self.

The author is smart enough to run an over-the-top, supremely humourous subplot (as usual, really), where two of his stable of Yellowthread Street detectives stake out an automated banking machine, favourite spot for a run-and-grab thief who may simply be too fast for anyone to catch--his escape route, after snatching money out of bank patrons' hands, is up a steep hill that gave one pursuing cop a heart attack. Enter Detective Auden, who ends up running several impromptu races against the thief--apparently a cheery Tibetan who eggs on any intrepid pursuit so as to have some strong competition--while bigger and bigger crowds of people watch and wait for free money to be dropped during the action, and Auden's partner, Spencer, acts as "coach" for his fellow detective, but otherwise does nothing constructive. It is, typically, a very funny little subplot, not without its hidden puzzle (Spencer wracks his brain trying to figure out who is making any money out of this, if it ends up flying all over the street!).

There is a third, also successful, subplot: something is haunting the Yellowthread Street squadroom. Strange, frightening noises prompt Detectives O'Yee and Lim (naive greenhorn) to start tearing the place apart to find ghosts, maybe spectres of prisoners who were tortured in the holding cells (now which of these likeable cops would DO such a thing?). I felt sure that the explanation for the "haunting" would not be steeped in the supernatural--as weird as Marshall's incredile police procedurals get, he does not deal in spectres and such--but just when I convinced myself that there were no poltergeists infecting the cops' headquarters, Detective Feiffer, out at the scene of the second, terrible animal slaughter, thinks he sees a ghost, of an old man, sitting
sadly on a bench in the receding mist. Then, the man, or whatever he is, disappears...

Frogmouth is unique, even among other entries in this series. Ultimately, it is a sad, heart-rending story, with a final revelation that did bring a tear to my eye, because of the poor, dead animals, but also because of the pain a person is revealed to be feeling, which would cause him or her to harm so many harmless creatures. Frogmouth has an inherently disturbing plot, but it is hauntingly, powerfully effective.