Jake Needham

If Larry David and Richard Lewis were to have a child together, and yes, that's a bizarre thought, but if they could, the result would be someone like the police detective, Samuel Tay, in Jake Needham's book, The Ambassador's Wife. Tay is someone who always seems to see his cup as half empty; he's a loner, age is creeping up on him, and at no time does he suffer fools gladly. And yet, for me, he is one of the more interesting characters in this genre of mystery story. He's a twenty year show more veteran of the Special Investigations Section of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Singapore Police Department. When the wife of the American Ambassador to Singapore is found tortured and murdered at the local Marriott Hotel in Singapore, Tay is immediately called in to investigate. The crime is puzzling because no one was registered in the room where the murder was committed, and there is no evidence of the ambassador's wife even being in the Hotel on the day she died. At first the identity of the body is unknown, so it is up to Tay to figure out who the woman is and how she came to be found in those circumstances. When it becomes clear to Tay that the FBI will also be investigating the crime, and the CIA is probably involved in some way, things become complicated.


There were several reasons why I liked this book so much. One was the location. I knew nothing about Singapore before I read this mystery, so I found Needham's descriptions of the city as seen through the eyes of Sam Tay to be informative and often funny. One of the best observations from Tay was his description of the heat and humidity. He reflects that if he owned Singapore and Hell, he would "rent out Singapore and live in Hell."

Another reason I liked the book was because Needham took his time in revealing plot developments. Along with moving the plot forward, he also continued to fill me in on the kind of man Sam Tay is. One of the best sections on that was when right in the midst of the murder investigation, which at that point needs Tay's full concentration, he suffers a personal crisis that momentarily stymies him. He seems so sure about his views on everything around him, but he discovers he too has vulnerable moments when he hasn't a clue how he feels or what he should do. It doesn't seem to have occurred to him that he too can be human and at the mercy of every day life.

After reading about half of The Ambassador's Wife, I bought Jake Needham's next book in the Samuel Tay series, The Umbrella Man. Now that I've met Sam Tay, I look forward to reading more about him, and how he tackles his next case. I encourage anyone who likes good mysteries with well fleshed out investigators to do the same. show less

Jake Needham's novel, The Ambassador's Wife (2011) featuring Inspector Samuel Tay sets the stage for a great international law enforcement series. Tay is introduced on page one as he reluctantly answers his cell phone one morning in his home city, Singapore. Approaching 50, the son of a Singaporean-born Chinese mother and an American-born Chinese accountant father, the police inspector appears to be a character on the downward slope of a burnout trajectory. He has a sour outlook on show more Singapore, its citizens, and the American Embassy that is revealed in most of his conversations and interactions with others. Tay does not really need his inspector job because his deceased father left him a small fortune in real estate. His boss has noticed the personality decline and, aware of Tay's financial situation, has suggested retirement before self-destruction can occur. However, the reader is given access to Tay's continuous internal monologue and sees an interesting complex and mostly hidden personality containing quick emotions and strong motivations. Tay's cynical outlook consistently conceals a sensitive, hesitant, self-doubting, but caring person.

A challenging criminal case gets Tay's juices going in more ways than one, and he starts to work his way out of his current depression. A particularly gruesome murder in the Singapore American Marriott hotel puts the police in the limelight and they must solve the crime as quickly as possible. The police Officer in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Division, the elite Special Investigations Section, doubts whether his 20 year tenured Inspector Tay can successfully handle the case because of his age and attitude. But, Inspector Tay convinces his boss that he is willing and capable of performing his duties.

The mystery story is interesting, exciting, and challenging without being overly convolued. Tay investigates the murder as the reader learns more about the inner life of the character. His brash exterior is contrasted with his internal thoughts establishing a character that is enjoyable to follow in this novel and will be great to follow in subsequent Inspector Tay novels. Mr. Needham published book two of the Tay series this year and will publish book three in 2014. I recognize even this early in the series that Tay is the Singaporean equivalent of John D. MacDonald's character Travis McGee in Florida and Robert B. Parker's character Spenser in Boston. I highly recommend The Ambassador's Wife to readers who enjoy novel series, with the suggestion of allowing Inspector Tay to grow on them. The character's cynical demeanor, like that of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, is a test of readers' persistence and intelligence that will pay off with additional insightful action for years to come in Mr. Needham's series. show less

Set in Singapore this is more psychological than a murder mystery. We learn more about the detective's insecurities and relationships than clues to the murder of the Ambassador’s wife. Apart from the street names, this novel could be set in any city, I’m not convinced there is much unique to Singapore in this book. There are a few twists and turns which make discovering the murderer interesting but the clues are scant and only revealed through the detective’s interactions not direct show more from the crime scene. This makes this book unusual and interesting from a psychological viewpoint. show less

The Umbrella Man is the second novel in the Singapore Inspector Samuel Tay series by Jake Needham. Tay, a twenty-year veteran of the Special Investigations Section of the Singapore police CID, wakes one morning to the news that terrorist attacks have occurred at three of the US named hotels in his city, with explosions causing major damage at all three sites. Racing to the area to help, Tay is injured himself spending a short time in one of the hospitals crammed with victims of the show more terrorism. When he regains consciousness, Tay expects to recover and play a role in finding the terrorists and bringing them to justice. Instead, he is forbidden by his CID supervisor, from having anything to do with the case. Tay's activity involving the US embassy and the CIA in a prior case has gained him a reputation of being a loose cannon by the The Internal Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, a government organization that supersedes the authority of the police in Singapore.

To get Tay out of the way, he is given a case involving the murder of an unidentified man in The Woodlands, a government planned housing project outside the main city. Tay has a feeling that the dead man is connected to the bombings though no one else sees it. As Tay and his subordinate Sergeant Kang investigate the crime, they uncover the identity of the dead man and discover a connection to Tay's father, dead now for 40 years. Approaching age 50, Tay discovers information about his father that changes his view of the past and forces him to re-examine his life.

The appeal of this second episode of the Tay series is that the reader learns more about the personal history of the inspector that explains his motivations, strengths, and weaknesses as a man and police official. I had a very different picture of Tay in this novel compared to the one I saw in volume 1 of the series, THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE (An Inspector Samuel Tay Novel). The Umbrella Man created more questions to understanding the complex character than it provided answers leaving me no choice but to read volume 3, when it is available. That is definitely something to look forward to. Tay is a hard man to like, but the more the reader knows about him, the more interesting he becomes. Readers should read volume 1 (with a better structure than this novel) first to get basic background on the inspector. show less