The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook

Feng Shui Detective #3

by Nury Vittachi

Muni de sa boussole de maître de fengshui et de sa perspicace sagesse chinoise, C.F. Wong résout des énigmes criminelles aussi embrouillées qu'un bol de nouilles.

Cette fois-ci, M. Pun, son principal employeur et mécène, a décidé d'offrir pour Noël une séance de fengshui gratuite aux membres de son conseil d'administration international. Wong se retrouve donc avec une série de missions à accomplir, à Singapour, en Inde, Thaïlande, aux Philippines, en Australie. Seule ombre au tableau : il va aussi devoir emmener avec lui son écervelée de jeune assistante, Joyce McQuinnie... Elle aura pourtant son rôle à jouer, qu'il s'agisse de retrouver des voitures de luxe qui se volatilisent, ou de démêler un attentat contre un informaticien de Hyderabad, revendiqué par plus de cent cinquante personnes...

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Asia, Humor

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Nury Vittachi is a journalist and author based in Hong Kong. His columns are published daily, weekly in a variety of newspapers in Asia as well as on his website. He is best known for the comedy-crime novel series The Feng Shui Detective, published in many languages around the world, but he has also written non-fiction works and novels for children. He is also noted for his role in founding the Asia Literary Review, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and was the chairman of the judges of the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008. Vittachi currently lives in Hong Kong with his English wife Mary-Lacey Vittachi and their three adopted Chinese children. Also writes under the name Sam Jam.

Reviews

[Pia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch gleicht mehr einer Sammlung von Kurzgeschichten, die durch eine Hintergrundgeschichte zusammengehängt wurden. Am Anfang ist es etwas komisch, weil die Kriminalfälle recht schnell aufgeklärt und dann nie wieder erwähnt werden. Hat man sich daran erst mal gewöhnt, ist es eigentlich ganz nett. Trotzdem hat mir das Buch "Der Fengshui-Detektiv im Auftrag Ihrer Majestät" um Einiges besser gefallen.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful little book and would be a great TV series, I think. Enjoyed it and was only half a days read.

[Piotr · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Cybercrone · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really actively disliked these.
The author is trying to capitalize on the success of slice-of-life detective stories such as Mma Ramotswe, Dr Siri Paiboun and Detective Kubu. Not a chance.
I really enjoy the other series. They've got interesting people, interesting geographical and cultural backgrounds and more of a properly plotted 'mystery-lite'.
The characters here are really objectionable. Only one, Madame Xu, a fairly secondary character comes close to being someone you might actually want to talk to.
The mysteries are set out and then the solve is just narrated, all at once pretty much.
The only thing I enjoyed about this was the small sections at the beginning of each short with the Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist morality tales. Those were good reading.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea....

[Alee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read several books by Vittachi following Mr. Wong, particularly because I'm very interested in feng shui generally.

*Compared the the first book in the series, , this one is a book of short stories. So, the narrative is necessarily disjointed.

*What is great is that vittachi still includes his "ancient" wisdom vignettes at the b eginning of many of the chapters.

*What I didn't like is the inclusion of Joyce - even though she brings added stuff to some of the cases, she's still a bit annoying.

*I would recommend reading his other books first....

[Rachel Nowakowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! It was just the right kind of book I needed to help me chill out. I loved the excerpts of Chinese wisdom from Mr. Wong's own book, I particularly liked the story about the nun! I loved the juxtaposition between the characters of Joyce and Mr Wong. I feel it was a great pairing, irascible, old, traditional chinese man vs fluffy, airhead, young western girl. I liked the way it educated me on the finely-tuned art of networking and business in the eastern world. I'll definitely read more of this!

[Yu Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This honest and subtly humorous collection of C.F Wong's international cases has an authentic writing style of an experienced author that has local knowledge, which Nury Vittachi certainly is, being Hong Kong based. As someone from Hong Kong, I appreciate the little jokes and references, making the read all the more enjoyable. The novel is extremely well rounded and affords readers with an inside look into the world of the Feng Shui Detective. I especially like it because the accounts have been condensed in to smaller cases, and provides a smoother transition between settings.

[Niall519 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious. This was my first encounter with CF Wong & Co.



Vittachi has a real talent for capturing accents in a written form... although I think I only counted one 'lah?' from all of the Singaporeans, which struck me as a little under-representative. ;)

[Sukma Mase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berisi kasus-kasus unik yang berhubungan dengan pekerjaan C.F. Wong yaitu detektiv Feng Shui, yang dikemas dalam cerita pendek. Menghibur. Lucu. Aneh. Informatif. Inovatif. Sangat berguna sebagai teman untuk menghabiskan waktu selama menunggu.

[Edith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice light read. I picked it up randomly at the library. A mixed between feng shui, murders, and mystery. And it's funny too.
I would read other books by him but it's the only one at the library.

[Rdfajar · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 bintang karena: unik (memecahkan kasus kriminal dengan pendekatan fengshui) dan bahasanya lentur sekali. Nury Vitacchi ini dulu mengasuh rubrik berita aneh2 di majalah FEER almarhum

[Nile · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting lively reading....well not a world class detective mystery but a good time pass....you can surely guess a few but its more of a comedy and feng shui

[James Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun as CF Wong and Joyce head across Asia on a series of feng shui readings that end up as detective cases!

[Chiara Rodier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good fun.

[Anne Marshall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish