William Leonard Marshall (1944–2003)

2nd in the Yellowthread Street series.

A serial killer is methodically working his way through the cinemas in the sleazier parts of Hong Bay (which is sleazy enough to begin with), and Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer is at a loss—there are no leads, no obvious connections between the victims. There is pressure from “above”, since the murders are affecting Hong Kong’s image and thus the tourist trade.

Set in the (still) British colony of Hong Kong at the fictional police station at Hong show more Bay on Yellowthread Street, this installment is nowhere near so funny as the first one (Yellowthread Street) but is instead a solid police procedural with traces of the humor among the detectives and uniformed officers that made the first book so memorable. Still, it’s solidly written. The reader doesn’t know exactly who the killer is, but in a subthread, we get glimpses of the way he thinks and acts; as the book proceeds, those brief looks at his behavior expand. The resolution of the plot brings the subthread and the main story together in a truly satisfactory fashion.

The book was published in 1979. Evidently the term “serial killer” was not in wide use, and Marshall never uses it in the book. The attitude towards serial killers is also much different from what we see in today’s police procedurals, with profiling and other means of detecting and arresting the killer. In 1979, at least in this book, this kind of murder was considered so random as being nearly impossible to resolve. The eventual apprehension of the killer is due to dogged police work. That aspect of the story makes it even more intriguing to today’s reader.

What is particularly good about Marshall’s writing is the way he weaves into the story the “almost” events—a number of times when a member of the Yellowthread Street force unwittingly passes by the killer, a Keystone Kops occurrence when the killer gets away from a combined force of detectives and uniformed officers. It’s simultaneously both funny and not-so-funny, which I consider an outstanding piece of writing.

Though 30 years old, the book does not feel outdated; as a matter of fact, it stands head and shoulders above those written by far more popular modern authors. While Marshall is not at the same level as Michael Connolly or Dennis Lehane, he’s still a superior writer in the genre with a unique sense of humor.

Highly recommended. show less

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

"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