The Hatchet Man
A Yellowthread Street Mystery
by William Marshall
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date 14 Jul 2016 | Archive Date 19 Aug 2016
Description
Postman Lawrence Shang was watching a film called The Axeman of Shanghai when his life abruptly ended. Carpet trader Edward Peng was enjoying The Last Picture Show. Death in both cases was instantaneous, caused by a small calibre handgun used at a range of two feet.
With their deaths begins a series of apparently motiveless murders in one cinema after another across the Hong Bay district of Hong Kong – and a nightmarish investigation for Harry Feiffer, Detective Chief Inspector, Royal Hong Kong Police Force, and his staff at the Yellowthread Police Station.
The Hatchet Man’s next victim is a sailor off an American ship. Then a German is shot in an auction room. There’s an unaccountable killing on a train near the Chinese border. And the crazy old Mrs Mortimer from the Old People’s Home steps in front of a tram . . . And for Harry Feiffer, time is running out.
Reminiscent in part of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct, with real procedure, suspense and fine irony, but with extra dimensions of the surreal and the poignant, the Yellowthread Street novels have no real compare. For those open to their charms, this series is a hidden masterpiece of crime fiction.
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
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781911440130 |
| PRICE | US$3.99 (USD) |
Average rating from 9 members
Featured Reviews
Maria Grazia B, Book Trade Professional
Second volume of the 'Yellowthread Street' serie, it sees the policemen of the most infamous police station in Hong Kong dealing with a mysterious murderer who kills completely random, in the darkness of a movie theater. There are no witnesses, no clues, until, almost by accident, the circle begins to narrow and comes to light the portrait of a man who goes so unnoticed that slips away even to himself, so unnoticed to be himself a victim.
The beginning of the novel is somewhat a little confused, a little off, then engages and returns to the usual level of pyrotechnic linguistic absurdity.
Thanks Prelude Books and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Elissa S, Reviewer
Hong Kong, although Chinese, became a major crossroads of the Far East and thus a melting pot for all nationalities and races. Set amid this potpourri of humanity the fictional Hong Bay police station of Yellowthread Street is the focus of an investigation into a serial killer. With the subtle humor and ensemble cast of a Hills Street Blues* this remains an exquisitely rendered police procedural--a timeless must read.
*An American TV show which ran in the 1980s, a bit later than the events of this series: Hill Street Blues (TV Series 1981–1987) - IMDbhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081873/
Sarah P, Reviewer
I enjoyed this book, it's the 2nd instalment of the Yellowthread Street series and it's just as good as the first.
The characters are fun, there's humour and violence that work well together and the setting is well written.
I'm glad I have the 3rd book, Gelignite, ready to read on my kindle. Highly recommend this series.
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