Inches

By William Marshall

Book Overview

In an air-conditioned bank in a Hong Kong shopping mall nine figures lay sprawled - untouched, seemingly uninjured, and very dead. A Rapid Response Team commander, fearing that his unit's forced entry into the building is responsible for the deaths, has gone into shock. And Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer is soon to learn that he is up against the perfect crime. While Feiffer begins his investigation into an inscrutable case of mass murder - or was it mass suicide? - Detective Senior Inspector O'Yee is disguised as an Average Street Lunatic, wandering the streets of Hong Kong Bay in rags. His assignment, as given to him by the shadowy mastermind RTG-68, is to scrawl the word Eternity on the sidewalks of Tiger Street Road in ancient and finely wrought calligraphy, and, armed with yellow chalk and a coat hanger, not to take any action whatsoever. O'Yee is sure that RTG-68 has assigned him this miserable, existential task - one without a purpose, suspect, or clue - as a form of punishment. But is it the case? Across town, Detective Inspectors Auden and Spencer enter the Institute of the Inner Yu, to find out why enlightenment-seeking clients have been hurling themselves out of the 18th-floor windows. What the detectives encounter are a variety of fantasy-role-playing scenarios gone berserk, the hideous terror of modern dentistry, and an epic duel with dive-bombing seagulls. A great mystery, a manic comedy and a thought-provoking social commentary, Inches is a William Marshall classic - and the most breathtaking and ambitious Yellowthread Street novel to date.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446404551
• ISBN13: 9780446404556
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.1" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

A bank, a bum, and a baseball bat

This is William Marshall at the top of his form, writing once again about the police officers of Yellowthread Street in British Hong Kong. Chief Inspector Pfeiffer, Inspector O'Yee, and Auden and Spencer are challenged this time by a locked room mystery, a mysterious assignment for O'Yee "from Headquarters", and by a congenial set of brothers who are into fantasy fulfillment as psychotherapy. Marshall skilfully weaves the three stories together; all 3 denouements are superbly done. I can regularly be seen on the D.C. Metro, when reading a Marshall book, with my eyebrows way up my forehead, as Marshall either turns the tension up yet another notch, or describes some of the most bizarre scenes in crime fiction. This time, my facial muscles hurt from the scene with Spencer and the seagulls. Not to be missed!Marshall is one part Ed McBain's 87th Street police procedurals, one part Janwillem van de Wetering's Gripstra/De Gijr existential police procedures in Holland and elsewhere, and one part Frederick Forsyth, in terms of the suspense involved. With ingredients like that, how can you miss?

Terrific Off-Beat Humor and Whodunnit

If you have not read any of Marshall's Hong Kong Police stories you have missed a real treat. Hard to find, but worth the effort. Makes you want to put Hong Kong back in the hand of the Brits today just to ensure the continuation of these characters. Wow!