To the End

This is last installment of the Yellowthread Street mysteries, so I would like to review this book as a review of the whole series. This series is a hidden master piece of mystery fiction. I first read the HACHET MAN and I was hooked. I want to compare it to the 87th Precinct stories by McBain but that isn't quite right. Even though Marshal uses the same idea of a group of cops with attitudes like 87th, Yellowthread has an oriental way of life and thinking that makes the wildly bizzare stories real and interesting. Good literature should take the reader places he has never been and introduce the reader to ideas that are new to him. Each of the stories in this series is multi-strand in nature with each officer working to solve their case and these strands converge into one climax. Feiffer, O'Yee, Spencer and Auden are each quirky and richly developed characters. These stories are all placed in Hong Kong before it was turned over to China. That small island adds to the confined scope of each story. It is difficult to explain the plots of these mysteries because each one is so weird that American minds find it hard to follow the twists and turns, but once the reader does understand then these books take off and delight the reader. If you can find them please take time and read them. Seek out these novels, you won't be sorry and you can read them more than once. There is one plot point in one the stories that still to this day stands out in my mind. That is the mystery of the missing floor in a high rise. A complete floor disappears and can't be found even if the detective uses the stairs. The answer is .... well ...

If you have been wondering how William Marshall can keep the Yellowthread Street series going with the Hong Kong changeover, this latest entry will answer your question in an entertaining and surprising fashion. Along the way, the author gives us his usual macabre humor, wacky characters, and far-out plot events. The Usual Gang is all here -- Harry Feiffer, Christopher O'Yee, Auden and Spencer -- all struggling with the impending loss of their lifelong jobs and for some, their only home. The actual murder plot is not that tricky to solve, but in Marshall's books, character is what matters most, and he shines in this department once again. He also has a decided knack for tying together threads of the story that you might think are widely disconnected at first. Marshall also always provides terrific details about the world of Hong Kong you probably won't find anywhere else. A satisfying novel, and a fun addition to this long-running and unusual mystery series.