"Faces in the Crowd" provides an interesting look at crime and law enforcement in 1880's New York, but the author failed to properly research how the telephone system worked at that time. If he had, he'd have realized that it is preposterous to think it would have been possible to "tap" 8,000 telephone lines, let alone monitor them all.

I have given several of Marshall's Yellowthread Street Hong Kong police procedurals 5 stars, and deservedly so, for they mix suspense, mystery, and zany humor in wonderful combinations. This time, however, Marshall has strayed into the King-Koontz genre, and has failed---dismally.
As usual, there are three plots, one involving Detective Chief Inspector Feiffer, one with his deputy, Christopher O'Yee, and one with Detectives Phil Auden and Bill Spencer. All 3 threaten the lives of these police officers more than in other Marshall books. But really! Is a bomb going to do away with Auden and Spencer? I doubt it. And is O'Yee going to be murdered by somnambulist thugs? Of course not. And is Feiffer going to die in some supernatural way? No way.
The bomb plot, in particular, is massively overwritten, with the same sub-basement slime, bomb wires, and tension between Auden and Spencer repeated ad nauseum. The O'Yee plot is interesting, but O'Yee's repeated failure to get help---even though help surrounds him outside the police station and below, in the sub-basement---strains credibility.
And as for the supernatural plot, well I'm not of Asian descent, nor have I travelled much in that part of the world, but I don't find it believable at all. A crime wave caused by an eighty-year old man using magical powers is just too much.
I hope Marshall returns from left field in the next Yellowthread Street book I read, for I am fond of his characters and their travails. But this book is only a nightmare.

It is the final weeks of the ninety-nine year lease that Great Britain has had on Hong Kong before it is returned to China. For the Yellowthread Street Police Station, the countdown to the transition has not changed a thing. They are very busy working on various police assignments. ...... Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer dreads his task of uncovering a murderer who scares his victims into ripping their own eyes out of their sockets. Corpses have been found everywhere on the island. Detective Senior Inspector Christopher Kwan O'Yee struggles with a visiting group of six crazed but armed demons, who nonchalantly stick a sharp knife into the law enforcement officer's desk as their calling card. Detective Inspectors Phil Auden and Bill Spencer are trying to unclog the plumbing that must have been put in the building during Confucius' time. However, instead of clearing the line, the pair uncover a World war II aerial bomb that could go off any minute. This is only the beginning of the new day. ...... The sixteenth Yellowthread Street mystery is a humorous police procedural that has a lot of activity going on at the same time (like a real police station would have). Several of the subplots are very interesting and all the Hong Kong law enforcement official are fun to read about. However, a primary story line never surfaces, leaving readers a bit disconnected with the overall humorous mishaps confronting the local Hong Kong police force. Those fans of Mr. Marshall who enjoy his surreal comic writing style will want to read this novel; however those who want a suspense-laden mystery as well should pass on this book and go to one of his previous Ye llowthread tales that combine the sublime with a charged suspenseful mystery. .....Harriet Klausner

Marshall jumps from character to character so quickly in this book that it's quite confusing to follow. One creepy criminal is throwing spoiled fruit juice bombs into people's cars in Manila Bay, meanwhile a "cockfight" is disrupted by gunshots. The way the entire plot unravels is quite unbelievable, but for people who like to read books where the bodies stack up (unfortunately, sometimes, that's me), it's a fairly good read.