The Hatchet Man

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 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 show more 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Though 30 years old, the book does not feel outdated; as a matter of fact, it stands head and shoulders above those written by far more popular modern authors.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