Yellowthread Street

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Pub Date 14 Jul 2016 | Archive Date 22 May 2018

Description

The first in Marshall's unforgettable, classic series of police procedurals - suspenseful and hilarious in equal measure.

Yellowthread Street is the sort of place that breeds more crime than any cops can handle.

Among the gangsters and the goldsmiths of Hong Bay, Chief Inspector Feiffer and his police department had their hands full . . . tourist troubles, a US sailor turned stick-up artist, and the jealous Chinese who solved his marital difficulties with an axe.

Then the Mongolian with a kukri brought an extra touch of terror to the district . . .

Yellowthread Street brings to vivid life a seamy world where people called Osaka Oniki the Disemboweller, Shotgun Sen and The Chopper feel at home, a world of surreal possibility recorded with unique humour and a poignant sense of humanity.

The first in Marshall's unforgettable, classic series of police procedurals - suspenseful and hilarious in equal measure.

Yellowthread Street is the sort of place that breeds more crime than any cops...


Advance Praise

“Marshall has the rare gift of juggling scary suspense and wild humor and making them both work.”

Washington Post Book World

“Marshall’s style – blending the hilarious, the surreal, and the poignant – remains inimitable and not easily resisted.”

San Francisco Chronicle

“Marshall has few peers as an author who melds the wildest comedy and tragedy in narratives of nonstop action.”

Publishers Weekly

“Marshall is building a growing, iconoclastic body of work that mixes weird fantasy [and] wayward characterization . . . to produce a subtle, charged, atmospheric, lush fiction hybrid sure to satisfy those with a taste for mysteries on the far edges.”

Philadelphia Inquirer

“Despite the wild humor, Marshall’s stories contain excellent police procedure, real suspense, and fine irony . . . incessantly scary.”

Chicago Tribune

“Among the best police procedural series on the market.”

Detroit Free Press

“As an inspired poet of the bizarre, [Marshall] orchestrates underlying insanity into an apocalyptic vision of the future.”

New York Times Book Review

“Marshall’s novels feature seemingly supernatural events that turn out to have logical, if not precisely rational, origins. He has savage fun with police procedure.”

TIME

“Nobody rivals Marshall’s ability to expose the links between comic hysteria and the most mundane human foibles, from greed to cowardice to simple funk.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Moves at the speed of a bullet; don’t read it aloud or you’ll run out of breath.”

Chicago Sun-Times

“Marshall has the rare gift of juggling scary suspense and wild humor and making them both work.”

Washington Post Book World

“Marshall’s style – blending the hilarious, the surreal, and the...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781911440123
PRICE US$3.99 (USD)

Average rating from 50 members


Featured Reviews

I read several of the books in this series years ago when they were already out of print and I had to buy them in a used bookstore. I'm glad to see that a publisher is re-issuing them now because I thought that the books were a unique combination of humor with a police procedural. I also liked the setting in the Yellowthread Street police station in a rough neighborhood of Hong Kong.

In this book, the first in the series, the large cast of English, American and Chinese police officers were simultaneously dealing with a water shutdown, a string of movie theater robberies, the murder of an adulterous couple, extortion and a missing husband. The action shifted rapidly from case to case. Although there was a lot of dry, almost surreal, humor there was also suspense. This book was an enjoyable, quick read and I'll probably read more of the books that I couldn't find when I first discovered the series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

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An ordinary night in Yellowthread Street, in the imaginary Hong Bay district, Hong Kong, between policemen of Chinese and European origin, killers and unlicensed street food vendors (and come to think that the second offense is more serious than the first ), the Chinese mafia lords who respect verbatim the speed limits, tourists who get drunk and end up in jail along with American sailors dedicated to armed robbery and a Mongolian, a mountain of a man whose brain, however little, is entirely devoted to crime, and that will only be stopped by mistake.
A fun book, full of acrobatic wordplay, unfortunately difficult to translate into Italian, a real hoot.
Thank Farrago and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This book was a surprise, set in Hong Kong, it is a night in the day of a group of police. Set prior to the hand-back of HK to the Chinese, it portrays a very organised crime and protection. Having said that, this is a very funny book and following the stories, which culminates into a thrilling ending, is a joy. I was wondering where it was going when I started it, but I really, really enjoyed it. Big recommendation to try it.

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Hong Kong. The name evokes a sense of mystery, conjuring images of spies, gangsters and nefarious evil-doing. Set in a fictional "barrio" in a very real city teeming with millions of people of diverse nationalities, this police procedural is a combination of Barney Miller and Serpico. The confusion of personalities starts to clarify as the night heats up and a slow shift turns deadly.

In 1975 Hong Kong was still a British protectorate, 22 years from a reunification with China that many thought would not happen. Giving New York a serious run for "City that Never Sleeps," we join the Yellowthread Street police station's nightshift for a single evening's dance with the Seven Deadly Sins. Mr. Marshall's lighthearted approach belies the serious events which ensue but makes for a delightful journey back in time. I'm looking forward to continuing the journey through this precinct.

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Set in Hong Kong when it was still under British rule we follow Chief Inspector Feiffer as he and his team solve crimes, get involved in gun battles, chase knife wielding wife killers and try to arrest them before they all die.

It's funny and gruesome in parts but mostly, to me, funny. Very quick read and the action doesn't really stop from when it pick it up until you realise you've finished it and are looking for the next book in the series as you want to see what other situations they find themselves in. I shall be reading The Hatchet Man and Gelignite as soon as possible (books 2 and 3 in the series respectively)!!

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This is a new author for me and I really enjoyed the book. The readers of this authors received a treat when the publishers of the Yellowthread series decided to reissue these marvelous books for Kindle. This book was first published starting in 1975, the series is set in Hong Kong while it was still a British possession, as a result the series was published in a different world.

The police officers, some British, and others Chinese, of the Yellowthread Station of Hong Bay (a fictitious district of Hong Kong), are beleaguered and busy as they work through a night shift. This book is humorous as well as a wonderful read, it thoroughly represents this time period. (Yes I am that old.)

The world has changed a lot since 1975; there are no cellphones, or personal computers, and everyone smokes, but human nature has remained the same, and this book does not feel dated to me, it represents a portion of history.

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley for my honest and objective opinion.

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A police procedural, set in British-ruled Hong Kong, which manages to infuse the cops vs deadly gangsters and homicidal robbers narrative with a Carl Hiaasen-like humour. In fact, I'd say that Marshall probably outdoes Hiaasen in this one. It takes a good author to show humanity's unadorned dark side and still get laughs. Another series for me to check out and look forward to reading. Highly recommended.

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Both funny and thrilling in equal measure. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.

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Set in a fictional suburb of Hong Kong, Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer and his motley crew of detectives are part of the night shift at Yellowthread Street Police Station. What begins as a routine night soon devolves into a comedy of errors, conversations lost in translation as the team investigate a bloody murder, a lost husband, a crime spree that coincides with the arrival of a US naval ship, a rampaging Mongolian, and local gangsters.

Loved every page ! Could not stop reading. It's hard to believe that this was first published in the mid-1970s, and is the first of many; and that it was a UK TV series in the 1990s (thank you youtube).

As I was reading this, it put me in mind of William Wyler's 1951 movie, "Detective Story", starring Kirk Douglas (that tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad). Yellowthread Street seems to have been written in the same style.

Definitely a series to follow up on!

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