Thin Air

Yellowthread Street #4

by William Marshall

As Hong Kong's Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer works to unmask a brilliant mass killer he learns that someone is trying to send the detective himself to the gallows

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Dale Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was introduced to William Marshall's Yellowthread Street novels ages ago by one of my wife's colleagues at the Poplar Creek Library in Streamwood, IL. (Thank you, Joyce!) Marshall has a gift for wild plots and a unique style that has always captivated me. It's been years since I read anything by him--his books are rather hard to find, for reasons I don't understand--so it was fun to reacquaint myself with his work. That said, from what I remember, I probably liked most of his other novels more than this one. It's a good read, just not quite as outlandish as many of his other novels. And let's face it, the outlandishness is a big part of the appeal.

By the by, I've noticed a few reviews stating that this is Marshall's version of The Philadelphia Experiment. It's not. The reviewers must have confused it with something else.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marshall's fourth Yellowthread Street book, which I own in paperback and also in Kobo ebook. And a very complex book, with two mysteries: who shot the six men in the sewer, and why?; and who is killing passengers and crew on planes flying out of Hong Kong? One of Marshall's themes is race, and here it's complex and well developed. A really good read.

[Paul Raymer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing plot and loosely defined characters. It gets from the beginning to the end.

[Cliff Baechle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A confusing mass murder mystery in Hong Kong. I found it difficult to follow.

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems so very long ago that Hong Kong was a crown colony of Great Britain, but this book brings that period to life through the cases handled by policemen assigned to the Hong Bay District of the city, handled out of their headquarters in Yellowthread Street. In this entry in the popular series, a madman is killing passengers and destroying airliners, a double disaster for a city like Hong Kong, so dependent upon tourism. As the investigation winds its way to a startling ending, the reader is given plenty to marvel and laugh at. It’s not written as a comedy, but life is often comedic, so there you are. Modern readers will also be given much to assimilate in terms of attitudes and mores. For those who can, a wonderful adventure awaits.

[Annie12 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a suspense novel "inspired" by the legend of the "Philadelphia Experiment". The novel has taken up the idea and built an intriguing suspense talearound it. Story starts with Harold Fletcher having dreams of people and ships vanishing and is confused as he belives them to be a recollection rather than simple dreams. When Nicholas Hammond of Naval Intelligence gets a call for help from an old friend he gets entrapped in solving a mystery and conspiracy deeper and darker than he or Harold Fletcher could imagine.

All in all an interesting read.

[Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books regarding the Philadelphia Experiment. It's a fictional account of the Naval myth-The Philadelphia Experiment. This book came out years before the movie, The Philadelphia Experiment came out. I believe the movie was based on this book.
The story flashes back and forth from the present to the past (World War 2). A scientist is experimenting on making a naval ship, and it's crew, vanish in order to sneak into enemy terroritory. The horrendous results when the ship comes back and the trauma it's left with the surviving crew will have you turnng the pages.

[Kathryn McCary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fourth of the Yellowthread Street mysteries. It is impossible to comment on these books without risking spoilers--but this one involves airplanes and sabotage in the kindler gentler era two decades before the twin towers were destroyed. It is engrossing and amusing, but the refrigerator moment kicks in very shortly after you close the book.

[Matthew Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit a bias when it comes to Yellowthread Street. Rereading these every other year or so, I'm struck each time by Marshall's empathy and his skill at drawing believable characters. Even the weakest of the books (I number this among them) include vivid characters, a genius for syntax, and generous amounts of humor.

[Inna]

note: A dramatic fictional account, clearly inspired by the Philadelphia Experiment accounts, of a conspiracy to cover up a horrific experiment gone wrong on board the Eldridge in 1943.

[Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

You take the Yellowthread Street mysteries for what they are... police procedural immersively set in a volatile culture of the past. The characters pop, the dialogue is realistic, and the stories are heart-rending. The mysteries are sometimes a little "too" clever, but they don't detract much from the story.
Thin Air really hits to the heart of the British/Chinese tensions found in Hong Kong during its colony days. Marshall unapologetically spreads the love all the way around without getting preachy.

[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.
Unfortunately my library does not have e-version.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Hong Kong's CI Feiffer works to unmask a brilliant mass killer but learns that someone is trying to send him to the gallows!