Gelignite
A Yellowthread Street Mystery
by William Marshall
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date 11 Aug 2016 | Archive Date 19 Aug 2016
Description
In the seamy Hong Bay district of Hong Kong, crimes of every shape and size were commonplace. But not letter bombs. Not till Mr Leung and Mr Ramaswamy were successively spread bloodily over the office walls.
When Detective Inspector Spencer narrowly escaped becoming victim number 3, the Yellowthread Street police were grimly determined to track down the culprit – before the Special Branch got to him. But unless they could find the link between the neatly timed warning letters, the ghosts in the Chinese graveyard and the strange mission of Mr Conway Kan the millionaire, the killer would go free . . .
Gelignite is another tense and exciting drama from the pen of a master.
Reminiscent in part of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct, with real procedure, suspense and fine irony, but with whole extra dimensions of the surreal and the poignant, William Marshall's Yellowthread Street novels have no real compare. For those open to its 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 | 9781911440147 |
| PRICE | US$3.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Tim H, Bookseller
William Marshall tells you as much about what his characters think as what they say. And it works; you feel part of the detectives' struggle against terrorism, racism and blackmail. There are shocks, but humour too and more of the Yellowthread Street mysteries would be very welcome - they are from a masterful author.
Maria Grazia B, Book Trade Professional
Another Yellowthread Street story, imaginary Hong Bay district in Hong Kong. This time the policemen and the detective of the local police station struggles with letter bombs sent to some of the neighborhood merchants. Despite the bomber alerts every time the police of his intentions, the chief detective Feiffer's hands are tied, because his superiors believe that this is a terrorist attack, of which the population must mot be made aware.
But Feiffer is convinced of the contrary, and stubbornly continue his investigation, until he finds the culprit and the sordid motivation.
In all this Feiffer's deputy, the anglocinese O'Yee, busts an identity crisis in search of his true roots, and place the searching for a stuffed toucan before the investigation, toucan which ends up jumping out in the perhaps less the least likely place.
Perhaps the less humorous of the series, it is maybe the most interesting from the point of view of the crimi part of the plot. The characters, which in the first two volumes were rather dashed, are in this book much more detailed and enjoyable.
Thank Farrago and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Leyla J, Reviewer
I just love this author, he really knows how to tell a story. There is drama, black humour and a happy ending.
Again this book is set in Hong Kong, still under English lease, and again we find the detectives battling crime a' la Chinese style. A book I couldn't put down and I really recommend it to anyone likes a modern style of pulp fiction. I just cant get enough from this author.
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