Once again, I've picked one of my favorite titles from a series, this time William Marshall's Yellowthread Street police procedurals. Imagine the 87th Precinct taken over by the Groucho, Harpo, and Chico and moved to Hong Kong. That'll give you some idea what this series is like.In Sci-Fi, the officers of the Yellowthread Street station are faced with a science fiction convention, something like a WorldCon, slightly exaggerated. Things, of course, go very, very wrong. And there are, as usual, other cases to be solved, all of them bizarre, like the guy who's incinerating people. Not that a problem like incinerated citizens is all that unusual in Marshall's novels. If you want bizarre cases, just pick up any book in the series. Marshall will knock your socks off.
The cast of characters in the books includes Inspectors Auden and Spencer, Harry Feiffer, and Christopher O'Yee, all of them fun to know. Their adventures are equally hilarious and suspenseful.
William Marshall is an Australian writer from whom I haven't seen anything lately. He did other series, but if you haven't read anything about the gang at Yellowthread Street, you've missed a real treat.
8 comments:
I really enjoy mash-ups like this book seems to be: pulp, SF, crime, humor. The Harris County library has this book. Time to go put it on hold.
Bill, I give you credit each week for finding the most forgotten of the forgotten. I feel like I've been on another planet when I read your entries.
I actually had one of his books on my shelf, didn't know a thing about it so passed it to a booksale. I could kick myself.
Taking next Friday off but be back on the 2nd. Thanks more than I can say.
For a while I kept up with the new Marshalls but somewhere along the line (around War Machine I believe) I just got tired of them and never went back, though I always meant to.
The one you reviewed was definitely one of the more memorable ones.
My advice: space them out rather than reading too many in succession.
Jeff
Got this from my library this afternoon.
Tried it and couldn't maintain any interest. Maybe I ought to try again.
You gotta be in the right mood. It's sure not a standard procedural.
Like the "New York Detective" series that Marshall had. I think there were only two books. Always wanted to read more of those.
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