The Hatchet Man

Yellowthread Street #2

by William Marshall

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. Full of real police procedure, suspense and fine irony, but with whole 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.

Praise for the Yellowthread Street “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

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Humor

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

William Marshall (or William Leonard Marshall) (born 1944, Australia) is an Australian author, best known for his Hong Kong-based "Yellowthread Street" mystery novels, some of which were used as the basis for a British TV series.

Reviews

[Linda Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the continuing saga of Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer and his team. Living and working in Hong Cong comes with its own set of problems .. mainly all the different cultures that lead to all kinds of misunderstandings, comic and otherwise.

The Hatchet Man, so called by the news media, is a man who is targeting the theaters. He enters, finds a target, sits behind them, and when the time is right, shoots them in the back of the head. Making very little noise, he then pockets his gun and strolls out … it’s time for him to get ready to go to work.

This is a case that CI Feiffer really hates … no clues, no witnesses, no motive. Unable to find a link between the victims, finding a random killer is like looking for a needle in the haystack.

As a reader, I seldom think about comic relief in the course of looking for a serial killer. The author does a bang up job of combining the solemnness of the crime and its victims with the humor infused from solidly written characters.

There is not a lot of forensics involved in this case….just a lot of solid investigating techniques. Having read the first of this series, YELLOWTHREAD STREET, I enjoyed meeting up again with familiar characters who seemingly bungle their way through solving crime, big and small.

I look forward to watching this author and hopefully further adventures of CI Harry Feiffer.

Many thanks to the author / Prelude Books / NetGalley who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually one of those sui generis sequels that is an improvement upon the original. It is entirely possible it's just a personal subject preference due to the fact that this book deals with a serial killer and the first one had more to do with gangsters. But this book also didn't try as much to be funny, it was as entertaining and light as a book about a serial killer can be, but not in your face joke after joke sort of thing. Policing the British colony of Hong Kong has never been easy, but the detectives in the story manage, all while maintaining a good humor and utilizing solid procedural work. Fun, enjoyable, very quick read.

[Bookish_predator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the Yellowthread Street series and it's just as good as the first!

Murder and mayhem abound with some humour dotted about to form together to make a great read.

The character development is slow and steady, with 19(?) books in the series you can understand why it's at a steady pace but you still have all the information needed to enjoy the book as it is.

I'm enjoying this series and I'm glad I have the 3rd, Gelignite, to jump into soon.

*Huge thanks to William Marshall, Prelude Books and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review*

[Kathryn McCary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of Marshall's Yellowthread Street mysteries. Someone is shooting cinema-goers in the back of the head. . .and the Yellowthread Street detectives have to try to guess where it will happen next, while simultaneously dealing with other baffling but lesser crimes. This book firmly established the series elements from the first novel, setting the tone for the next 14 books.

[🐴 🍖]

there's a super appealing tension here b/w some starkly realistic aspects (ppl talk like ppl, all hard-boiledness kept to a minimum; the investigation progresses painfully slowly as they e.g. vacuum sweets wrappers off the floor of a crime scene & sift for clues) and the outlandish particulars of the murders: somebody's bumping ppl off at movie theaters during the freakin movie, using a lil bb handgun w/ 4 barrels. <3 that kinda mix always... where this gets some minor demerits: w/o getting overly spoilery, partway thru it becomes clear that the killer's occupation is X bc his pockets are full of Y. clear to me at least; it took the squad like another 50pp to figure it out. i always thought mystery fans were, like, bragging about their deductive skills when they complained about this, but I Get It Now. will be checking out gelignite and the ny detective books 4sure

[Mary Davinroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was silly and corny, I loved reading it on a rainy night

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these books, they are just so fantastic to read - brutal storylines but nothing offensive or to gory. The have a strange pull in them that you just want to read more and more of them. In fact they have a type of humour in them which is endearing.
Set in Hong Kong prior to the hand back, it really captures the times and the atmosphere in a very readable way. William Marshall was born in Sydney in 1944 and lived in various places including Hong Kong, so he is well placed to write the about the way of life and culture. Unfortunately he died in Australia in 2003 - such a loss.
This book was provided to me in return for an honest and unbiased review

[Ben Hecking · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent follow up to William Marshall’s “Yellowthread Street” - it’s a much darker and ‘more serious’ crime thriller than the first book which was more of a crime/comedy in a way.

Marshall still has plenty of fun with the pacing and descriptions and his characters are richly drawn. I’m really starting to get a real sense of who these people are - the tensions between them, the respect and love between them.

Really looking forward to getting stuck in to the third book in the series - Gelignite.

[Manny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nail-bitingly tense. If Se7en was in Hong Kong.

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secondo volume della serie "Yellowthread Street", vede i poliziotti della più malfamata stazione di polizia di Hong Kong alle prese con un misterioso assassino, che uccide in modo del tutto casuale, nel buio di una sala cinematografica. Non ci sono testimoni, non ci sono indizi, finché, quasi per caso, il cerchio comincia a stringersi ed emerge il ritratto di un uomo che passa talmente inosservato da sfuggire persino a se stesso, così inosservato da essere lui stesso una vittima.
Il romanzo inizia in modo un po' confuso, un po' sottotono, poi ingrana e torna ai consueti livello di pirotecnica assurdità linguistica.
Ringrazio Prelude Books e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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/

[Bridget Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great series.
I was delighted to find them in the stacks, way back when.
Not sure what reminded me of these books. I'm guessing I read them about 25 years ago.