Nightmare Syndrome

It is the final weeks of the ninety-nine year lease that Great Britain has had on Hong Kong before it is returned to China. For the Yellowthread Street Police Station, the countdown to the transition has not changed a thing. They are very busy working on various police assignments. ...... Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer dreads his task of uncovering a murderer who scares his victims into ripping their own eyes out of their sockets. Corpses have been found everywhere on the island. Detective Senior Inspector Christopher Kwan O'Yee struggles with a visiting group of six crazed but armed demons, who nonchalantly stick a sharp knife into the law enforcement officer's desk as their calling card. Detective Inspectors Phil Auden and Bill Spencer are trying to unclog the plumbing that must have been put in the building during Confucius' time. However, instead of clearing the line, the pair uncover a World war II aerial bomb that could go off any minute. This is only the beginning of the new day. ...... The sixteenth Yellowthread Street mystery is a humorous police procedural that has a lot of activity going on at the same time (like a real police station would have). Several of the subplots are very interesting and all the Hong Kong law enforcement official are fun to read about. However, a primary story line never surfaces, leaving readers a bit disconnected with the overall humorous mishaps confronting the local Hong Kong police force. Those fans of Mr. Marshall who enjoy his surreal comic writing style will want to read this novel; however those who want a suspense-laden mystery as well should pass on this book and go to one of his previous Ye llowthread tales that combine the sublime with a charged suspenseful mystery. .....Harriet Klausner