William Leonard Marshall (1944–2003)

William Marshall’s Sci-Fi isn’t sci-fi. It is an early eighties police procedural set in British Hong Kong. Influenced by Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series, the cops from the Yellowthread Street station are a culturally mixed bag of oddballs that remind me of characters from MASH as much as they do McBain’s New Yorkers. Sci-Fi has a hilarious opening scene in which the station runs out of cells to put costumed miscreants from the All-Asia Science Fiction convention. There is a green show more blob with burglar tools, an enticing jar with a million dollars, and a spaceman in an asbestos suit with a flamethrower. Violence happens, and brains get teased. show less

The first in William Marshall's 'Yellowthread Street' series of crime novels, and easily one of the best. In any case, an excellent book to 'get acquainted' with the series. This is a well paced story (actually a series of story-lines) with engaging characters, dialog and plot. Marshal who has a colorful CV (including a stint as a mortuary assistant) writes with tremendous energy, a dry comedic sense, and an affection for Hong Kong and its inhabitants. There's more than a touch of Donald show more Westlake's Dortmunder novels here; in the comedy, affection for characters and quite complex plot development. What lifts this - and the series - above the level of simple entertainment is Marshall's sense of how Hong Kong's Chinese and English cultures collide and combine, and in some ways continue along entirely separate channels. In this respect Marshall's Hong Bay District of Hong Kong is a little like Ed McBain's multi-ethnic 87th Precinct of his fictional Isola/New York. Set in 1974, it also captures something of the timelessness of Hong Kong, and a passing era. Recommended. show less

I randomly picked this book to read and had no idea what to expect from it. It was a humorous set of tales revolving around a police precinct in 1970s Hong Kong. Parts are grisly, parts are madcap. It was light reading and I enjoyed the offbeat dialogue and occasional plunges into pure mayhem.

"Yellowthread Street" is one of the older cop stories that Farrago press is reissuing. It is the first in a series of 16 books set in Hong Kong around 1975, well before the handover. The book reads more, though, like Keystone Cops or Laurel and Hardy and could really be any time after 1912.

There are 8 cops plus a cleaner on the night shift at the Yellowthread Street Police Station in the fictitious Hong Bay, a part of Hong Kong where outsiders should not wander. The neighborhood teems with show more brothels, strip joints, gold dealers, pawn shops, noodle shops, and criminals of all sorts.

Each of the 8 cops plus a cleaner has a story, an ambition, a hobby, a vice. They, and we, rush around crowded Hong Bay chasing their dreams plus the gangsters, drunks, and the occasional lost tourist.

If you are looking for a plot, go elsewhere. On Yellowthread Street what you find are gritty, funny, tangled stories of Hong Kong law enforcement.

I received a review copy of "Yellowthread Street" by William Marshall (Farrago) through NetGalley.com. It was originally published by William Marshall in 1975 and has been reissued in 1984 and 2005. show less