This is William Marshall at the top of his form, writing once again about the police officers of Yellowthread Street in British Hong Kong. Chief Inspector Pfeiffer, Inspector O'Yee, and Auden and Spencer are challenged this time by a locked room mystery, a mysterious assignment for O'Yee "from Headquarters", and by a congenial set of brothers who are into fantasy fulfillment as psychotherapy. Marshall skilfully weaves the three stories together; all 3 denouements are superbly done.
I can regularly be seen on the D.C. Metro, when reading a Marshall book, with my eyebrows way up my forehead, as Marshall either turns the tension up yet another notch, or describes some of the most bizarre scenes in crime fiction. This time, my facial muscles hurt from the scene with Spencer and the seagulls. Not to be missed!
Marshall is one part Ed McBain's 87th Street police procedurals, one part Janwillem van de Wetering's Gripstra/De Gijr existential police procedures in Holland and elsewhere, and one part Frederick Forsyth, in terms of the suspense involved. With ingredients like that, how can you miss?

If you have not read any of Marshall's Hong Kong Police stories you have missed a real treat. Hard to find, but worth the effort. Makes you want to put Hong Kong back in the hand of the Brits today just to ensure the continuation of these characters. Wow!

This is another superlative police procedural mystery, set in the fictional Hong Bay section of Hong Kong, starring those inimitable Hong Kong police officers, Harry Fieffer (the boss), Christoper O'Yee (Amerasian), and Detectives Auden and Spencer, playing once again their combination of Marx Brothers and NYC's finest. Anyway, in this outing, the boys are challenged by the arrival of a science-fiction convention, with the usual fans dressed up as their favorite aliens, parades, and general mayhem. O'Yee is hunting for...well, we won't spoil it...something REALLY hard to find, while Audena and Spencer are looking for a mugger in a multi-story parking garage. Feiffer is looking for the fiend who is incinerating citizens for no apparent reason.
Marshall once again combines the zany with the suspenseful, and once again my eyebrows are sore from raising them at all the hair-raising (pun intended) hold-your-breath scenes. If you're looking for a great police procedural series, and one that doesn't take itself too seriously, you are in the right place in Hong Bay with Marhall's band of loonies. Long may they reign!

Oh man, this is the funniest book in the whole series. Yes, it's part of a series, and the whole series is funny. It takes place in "Hong Bay" precinct in Hong Kong, pre-Chinese-takeover. (The introduction to each book in the series points out that the Chinese could have taken over Hong Kong years ago just by turning off the water tap.) Let's mention here, in case it is not obvious, that nothing in this book actually IS science fiction; it's murder mystery/police procedural.

The characters in the Hong Bay precinct station are a mixed lot of mostly Europeans and Asian-Europeans, or European-Asians, the inhabitants of the precinct are a complete cross section of would-be capitalist Chinese. There is a little bit of stereotyping, with the wily Chinese frequently outwitting the Europeans. Everyone, cop and civilian alike, is just a tad greedy and eager to get ahead or to get something someone else has.

In this particular book, an all-Asia science fiction convention is taking place. Like any science fiction convention, there are people who insist on attending in costume, and there are people who indulge a bit too much in recreational substances. In the opening chapters, we have a wonderful scene where the police station is trying to figure out where to put yet another costumed arrestee; various cells are already holding The Swarm - all of it - and other familiar sci-fi characters. As the new one is a midget, our lieutenant suggests stuffing him in the fire extinguisher closet, since that's the only space left.

I won't give away too much of the plot; let me just say that in addition to the murders, the side plot involving the little old lady piano player in the hotel is definitely worth following.

For fans of police procedurals, and of any murder mysteries, who have also ever been to any convention in a big hotel with a costume party, this is MUST reading- definitely worth doing an out-of-print search on. We have two copies, ha ha, so I can loan one out to friends without the risk of losing our only copy, because there are scenes I like to re-read when I need a good chuckle. The offbeat world of Hong Bay is reliably funny.

This is an unusual murder mystery set, as are most of William Marshall's books, in the fictional Hong Bay section of Hong Kong in the last several decades of British rule in Hong Kong. This time, Chief Inspector Fieffer, O'Yee, Spencer,and Auden are looking for a seemingly cold-blooded killer who is murdering Hong Kong residents who apparently have no connection to each other. As in other Yellowthread Street mysteries, it is up to Fieffer and company to figure out the connection between the crimes they are investigating. In this book, the connection is filled with irony, sadness, and greed, making this book far more than just a murder mystery. Marshall deserves to be much better known, and read, in this country than he apparently is. I hope, with Amazon.com's help, that he finds additional readers.

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!

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!

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.

This is another in the wonderful series of fictional mysteries set in Hong Kong in the last several decades of British rule. The continuing characters, Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer, Christopher O'Yee, and Detectives Auden and Spencer, once again are challenged to a series of baffling crimes. Marshall succeeds in blending the suspenseful with the humorous. "Zany" is the adjective that seems to describe his humor most accurately. In this adventure, someone is using gelignite to blow up citizens of Hong Bay, part of Feiffer et al's beat on Yellowthread Street. A secondary plotline has O'Yee hunting for a stuffed bird on behalf of a wealthy Hong Kong businessman.
I usually give these books 5 stars. However, the labyrinthine explanation at the end of the book went on a little longer than I thought was necessary. But I readily admit that those readers with a LeCarre bent will probably feel right at home.
I know of no other mystery writer who can combine the gruesome with the gross, the horrible with the humorous, and the suspenseful with the silly. I've already started another Marshall mystery, and hope to review it here shortly.

I'll say this--William Marshall's jagged, chopped-up writing style certainly suits what he has chosen for the opening to this splendid whodunit: an early-morning high-speed freeway crash between a massive truck and a van containing four people and a huge load of plate glass. The resultant carnage, as the glass literally explodes, makes clue-finding tough for Inspector Harry Feiffer--and what he does finally discover about the four shredded victims in the mashed and perforated van makes no sense.

The author also runs two subplots, two added puzzles for other star members of his stable of perpetually harried detectives. O'Yee is working the phone at the squadroom, ignoring various crank callers and assorted weirdos, to try and convince a troubled ten-year-old boy to come in and surrender a loaded gun he says he found by a dead body. The child, untrusting, refuses to cooperate, and when O'Yee carefully tries to instruct him on how to re-set the gun's Safety mechanism while he's still in the phone-booth, that's when a third party attacks the boy. Meanwhile, Spencer and Auden stake out the store of an herb-seller, trying to catch a thieving Dalmatian dog. They decide to fight dog with dog, and soon recruit a German Shepherd named Petal to help capture the dishonest canine. But Petal--even when re-named Fang--proves to be a bit of a dreadful incompetent--though Auden never loses faith, and starts having long conversations with Petal. Together, they come up with a daring plan.

This is a superb Yellowthread Street novel, standing up there with the best of them. The main trickery threw me for quite a loop; I was rocked by the solution to what really went on when the two vehicles slammed into each other before dawn. Need I say that all is not as it seems. But Feiffer wrestles with the clues and contradictions, and the truth leads him to confront a dangerous foe in a confusing maze of halls and doors on the top floor of an empty mansion.

Peter the Great, written by William Marshall and published by Longman Group Limited in 1996, is a nonfiction historical work about the life and works of what some from the time hailed as "the greatest Monarch of our age (p 88)." The text lends a good deal of understanding to the now defunct U.S.S.R. and present-day Russia. Marshall presents Peter as a rather nontraditional ruler whose genius schemes and manipulations (though not always immediately successful) ushered in a new era for Russia and laid the foundation on the world scene and in Russia for what was to come in following centuries. Perhaps the most striking feature of Peter the Great as presented in this text was his unconventionality as a ruler. Peter's lifestyle was rather crass as far a world leaders go, and extremely unorthodox when compared to his Russian predecessors. Peter's shabby, foreign dress combined with his heavy drinking and love of the company of "common folk" were just a few peculiarities that contributed to his rough image. Marshall points out that at times this was to his advantage and at others it may have worked against him. Perhaps Peter wanted it that way, being the manipulator that he was. Peter lived the way he ruled. It was his way or the high way, and this may have been one of his ingredients for success (at least initially). One of the main emphases of the book (and rightly so) is the military ventures of Peter the Great. Marshall attributes Peter's love of the military to his growing up in the foreign districts of Moscow. Indeed much of Peter's character and behaviors are attributed to this. From the moment that Peter assumed authority, his immediate and long term goals centered around the military. Russia needed a warm-water outlet to western Europe. Peter desired conquest of foreign held territories bordering Russia. A large and effective military was needed to defend what Russia already held against its enemies. At the time Russia's infrastructure was infantile or nonexistent. The course of action that Peter pursued to attain his goals set Russia on a hurried pace to a seat at the world's table. Marshall repeatedly points out that Russia was already on a course for prominence and development (set by Ivan IV) but Peter did a great deal to speed the process. For Peter the key to advancing Russia lay in the Westernization of his empire. Peter was constantly recruiting foreigners for service and leadership in the military and his government, a process that Ivan IV had begun. The need for funds to finance Peter's great military and naval schemes as well as interior development had many significant short term and long term effects upon Russia. Extremely heavy taxes were imposed upon the Russian people as well as the Church. Soldiers for the army and sailors for the navy were forcibly enlisted. Forced migrations to areas where labor was needed were common. This was cause for much dissent at the time, but it had a much more far reaching effect. A general feeling of the need for service to the state was being instilled in the Russian people. People were becoming nothing more than a cog in the wheel of the great machine which Russia was to become. As Marshall puts it, "The hallmark of his working life was service to the state, for the common good (p 10)." This is a sentiment that the U.S.S.R. played heavily upon and one of the reasons Russia was able to do so much so fast. Peter eventually assumed the title of Emperor, and allowed no opposition. While Peter was a religious man, he certainly lacked the piety of previous tsars. The Church was strong and the Patriarch held considerable authority with the people. Peter cowed the Church, ended the position of Patriarch and made the Church no more than a department of the state to be used for its benefit. A darker side of Peter is revealed when he founded the "Most Drunken Synod (p 56)." The ceremonies performed were a mockery and meant to weaken the Church, but it also raises questions about the mental stability of Peter. While Peter was not an extremely educated man, he was intelligent and he understood the power of education. He founded many schools and academies to teach the art of warfare, medicine, and shipbuilding among other things. His emphasis on practical knowledge and technology as opposed to basic research and theory illuminates Peter's impatient and demanding nature. He desired that the only things taught or learned were those of immediate importance and that could be implemented directly. In all things that he did, Peter wanted what he wanted the way he wanted and as soon as possible. That is evident in the building of St. Petersburg against the council of his advisors. He then had to force the population and development of the city. Peter wanted to glorify his empire, he sought to do that by expanding. To expand Russia needed a large up-to-date military and navy. To achieve that Russia needed money and people and foreign help. To advance the military and support expansion Russia needed to develop its infrastructure. I believe Peter went about meeting these needs in the wrong order. I dispute the claim by Marshall that Peter was a social egalitarian (p 11). He failed to recognize any rights at all, save that of his autocracy to rule unchallenged. Some may say that this was what was needed at the time, but a garden sown with weeds will always grow weeds and will eventually leach everything it can out of the soil and die. We have seen such a thing happen in our own lifetime with the demise of the U.S.S.R. and the poor state of Russia.

If you have been wondering how William Marshall can keep the Yellowthread Street series going with the Hong Kong changeover, this latest entry will answer your question in an entertaining and surprising fashion. Along the way, the author gives us his usual macabre humor, wacky characters, and far-out plot events. The Usual Gang is all here -- Harry Feiffer, Christopher O'Yee, Auden and Spencer -- all struggling with the impending loss of their lifelong jobs and for some, their only home. The actual murder plot is not that tricky to solve, but in Marshall's books, character is what matters most, and he shines in this department once again. He also has a decided knack for tying together threads of the story that you might think are widely disconnected at first. Marshall also always provides terrific details about the world of Hong Kong you probably won't find anywhere else. A satisfying novel, and a fun addition to this long-running and unusual mystery series.

I found this book in the library when looking for information on the 1931 film Dracula, and was rewarded with all the material I wanted. The bulk of the book is about portrayals of Dracula on stage, screen, and in literature; although there are a couple of early chapters on the historical fact behind the legends they add little to what is generally known about Vlad the impaler, and make no attempt to trace vampire legends any earlier. Although one of the chapters is titled "The Ancestors of Dracula", this chapter is about literary ancestors of Bram Stoker's character. The main limitation to this book is that its publication date precedes much of the more recent interest in vampires, probably spawned by the success of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. No mention is made of vampiric representations or appearances in the visual arts or music--an updating of the book might well cover the several versions of Dracula that have been done as operas or ballet. But as a reference to various media presentations of the Count up to 1975, this is fairly good.