What do you think?
Rate this book
Inspector Samuel Tay #1
The Ambassador's Wife
The first body is in Singapore, on a bed in an empty suite in the Marriott Hotel. The second in Bangkok, in a seedy apartment close to the American embassy.
Both women. Both Americans. Both beaten viciously and shot in the head. Both stripped naked and lewdly displayed.
The FBI says it’s terrorism, but the whispers on the street tell a different story. A serial killer may be stalking American women all across Asia.
Inspector Samuel Tay of Singapore CID is something of a reluctant policeman. He’s a little overweight, a little lonely, a little cranky, and he smokes way too much. Thinking back, he can’t even remember why he became a police detective in the first place. He talks about quitting all the time, but he hasn’t. Because the thing is, he’s very, very good at what he does.
When bodies of American women start turning up, Singapore CID calls in Inspector Tay. It’s a high profile case, and he’s the best they have.
Then why is it, Tay soon begins to wonder, that nobody seems to want him to find the women’s killer? Not the FBI, not the American ambassador, not even his bosses at CID.
When international politics takes over a murder case, the truth is the next victim.
Both women. Both Americans. Both beaten viciously and shot in the head. Both stripped naked and lewdly displayed.
The FBI says it’s terrorism, but the whispers on the street tell a different story. A serial killer may be stalking American women all across Asia.
Inspector Samuel Tay of Singapore CID is something of a reluctant policeman. He’s a little overweight, a little lonely, a little cranky, and he smokes way too much. Thinking back, he can’t even remember why he became a police detective in the first place. He talks about quitting all the time, but he hasn’t. Because the thing is, he’s very, very good at what he does.
When bodies of American women start turning up, Singapore CID calls in Inspector Tay. It’s a high profile case, and he’s the best they have.
Then why is it, Tay soon begins to wonder, that nobody seems to want him to find the women’s killer? Not the FBI, not the American ambassador, not even his bosses at CID.
When international politics takes over a murder case, the truth is the next victim.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
1893 people are currently reading
2118 people want to read
About the author
Jake Needham
48 books393 followersJAKE NEEDHAM received the Barry Award at Bouchercon 2024, the world's largest convention of mystery readers, for BEST PAPERBACK MYSTERY OF 2024. He is a three-time Barry Award nominee, as well as a nominee for the International Thriller Writers' award for BEST PAPERBACK THRILLER OF THE YEAR.
Needham is an American screen and television writer who has lived in Thailand for over thirty years. He started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published fifteen popular mysteries and thrillers in two different series — The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels, and the Jack Shepherd Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.
"Jake Needham is Asia's most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction," says the Singapore Straits Times. "Jake Needham is Michael Connelly with steamed rice," says the Bangkok Post.
Needham is an American screen and television writer who has lived in Thailand for over thirty years. He started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published fifteen popular mysteries and thrillers in two different series — The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels, and the Jack Shepherd Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.
"Jake Needham is Asia's most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction," says the Singapore Straits Times. "Jake Needham is Michael Connelly with steamed rice," says the Bangkok Post.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 204 reviews
August 5, 2013
This book was okay at first. I love solving mystery and at the same time learning about different culture backgrounds. I have to admit that I learned quite a few new things about the Singaporean's culture. Yet I did not like the mystery aspect of this book. I did not have to read even half of the book to figure out the murderer correctly. After that it gets boring because there was really no other purposes for me to read the book once I found out who the murderer was.
Secondly, I feel like the author dragged on and on and it gets boring also because of that reason. I usually finish a book in one or two days. This book took me more than a week. It did not keep me "on edge" like other thrillers/ mysteries.
Thirdly, the writing style of the author makes me kind of dislike Tay, the main character of the book. For example, many of the sentences were written in this structure, "... so..." or ".. ok". I felt like I was reading a friend's text and not a book. Maybe it is just me who hates reading cut-off sentences as those should only be applied to certain circumstances.
Overall, aside from learning a bit about Singapore, I would not recommend this book. For me, it is just not really that interesting.
Secondly, I feel like the author dragged on and on and it gets boring also because of that reason. I usually finish a book in one or two days. This book took me more than a week. It did not keep me "on edge" like other thrillers/ mysteries.
Thirdly, the writing style of the author makes me kind of dislike Tay, the main character of the book. For example, many of the sentences were written in this structure, "... so..." or ".. ok". I felt like I was reading a friend's text and not a book. Maybe it is just me who hates reading cut-off sentences as those should only be applied to certain circumstances.
Overall, aside from learning a bit about Singapore, I would not recommend this book. For me, it is just not really that interesting.
April 26, 2013
Purists and editors will first note the few minor editing errors - ignore them and enjoy the well written story.
It is easy to like the well described and far from heroic, Sam Tay. He is extraordinarily ordinary with some obvious weaknesses. It is very comfortable to follow his simple life as he tries to weave his way through a complicated situation he is tossed into.
A couple of the chapters stray from the Sam Tay point-of-view and they are a bit distracting, but perhaps necessary to keep the plot moving.
No spoilers here - but I found the ending very satisfying - and a bit surprising. It appeared to be hading for a similar ending to a previous Needham novel that I quite enjoyed, but it took a different turn.
I will keep Needham's novels on my "want to read" list.
Well worth the price of admission.
It is easy to like the well described and far from heroic, Sam Tay. He is extraordinarily ordinary with some obvious weaknesses. It is very comfortable to follow his simple life as he tries to weave his way through a complicated situation he is tossed into.
A couple of the chapters stray from the Sam Tay point-of-view and they are a bit distracting, but perhaps necessary to keep the plot moving.
No spoilers here - but I found the ending very satisfying - and a bit surprising. It appeared to be hading for a similar ending to a previous Needham novel that I quite enjoyed, but it took a different turn.
I will keep Needham's novels on my "want to read" list.
Well worth the price of admission.
March 30, 2020
From page 316 of the Kindle edition, "The night was almost unnaturally calm. There was no wind at all. Moisture hung in the air like globs of powdered sugar." If this tortured metaphor doesn't bother you, you may like this book. It, and many others equally bad, bothered me, but despite this I did finish the book so I figured it should get 2 stars instead of 1. It's a wonder to me that so many people seem to like this book, so apparently I'm the odd one. But I can't in good conscience recommend this book to anybody. Read it at your own risk.
July 2, 2017
Rather long winded, with too much unnecessary detail
December 7, 2018
Inspector Samuel Tay is with the Singapore Police. He is middle aged, slightly dumpy and very smart. A woman is found brutally murdered in a Singapore hotel room and Tay leads the investigation. He soon learns she was the wife of the American Ambassador and also with the CIA. The investigation takes him to Bangkok where the American Ambassador is found murdered in similar circumstances. Tay’s investigations are mainly mental and his thought processes are fascinating to follow. This was the first novel in a series featuring him and was an excellent introduction. The ending shows his interest is in his own version of justice. Thanks to the Author and Publisher for an e-Galley for an honest review.
July 21, 2017
I can't decide if I want to read more of this series or not. Set in Singapore with a detective who sees himself as unlucky in love, but his problems seem to be self-inflicted by not knowing what he wants. Interesting and involved mystery. Kept me reading.
May 23, 2012
The Ambassador's Wife is a great mystery thriller by Jake Needham. His mystery that features Police Detective Sam Tay is great read. Say Tay investigates the brutal murder of an Ambassador'e wife in the Marriot Hotel in Singapore. Another murder occurs in Pattaya just outside of Bangkok that is exactly like the first murder. Or is it?
More, yes - more... Because the same thing happens to a woman in Pattaya, a very notourious locality near Bangkok.
Same cause of death, but much more important to the Americans, who yet wanted to cover up the Singapore killing as a Terroristic act.
The Pattaya woman was politically obviously much more important than the first, murdered in Singapore. So the CIA, FBI and what other abbreviations You want, are all sniffing around.
A culprit - a Thai-muslim terrorist, fitting the profile perfectly, is soon found and - justifiably "stopped" when he wants to get away. But there is a very sad "collateral victim", too.
But Sam Tay has yet made the acquaintance of one John August.
And he will see, that sometimes the law protects the real culprit.
And sometimes there is the need of someone who is very, but very very good in bending the law to make justice.
More, yes - more... Because the same thing happens to a woman in Pattaya, a very notourious locality near Bangkok.
Same cause of death, but much more important to the Americans, who yet wanted to cover up the Singapore killing as a Terroristic act.
The Pattaya woman was politically obviously much more important than the first, murdered in Singapore. So the CIA, FBI and what other abbreviations You want, are all sniffing around.
A culprit - a Thai-muslim terrorist, fitting the profile perfectly, is soon found and - justifiably "stopped" when he wants to get away. But there is a very sad "collateral victim", too.
But Sam Tay has yet made the acquaintance of one John August.
And he will see, that sometimes the law protects the real culprit.
And sometimes there is the need of someone who is very, but very very good in bending the law to make justice.
July 14, 2017
Take a Singapore police inspector, a high-profile murder case, the involvement of the American ambassador and what do you have? A mess.
Add in a feisty American security guard who whisks our inspector off to Bangkok for a few days, a dubious FBI agent, a retired CIA person who still knows more about what is going on than anyone on the books and the plot gets murkier.
I enjoy these nice thoughtful slightly introspective detective stories. Good descriptions of Singapore and Bangkok – and their climates – and credible characters. An easy read too.
Would I read more of these Inspector Tay books? Yes.
Add in a feisty American security guard who whisks our inspector off to Bangkok for a few days, a dubious FBI agent, a retired CIA person who still knows more about what is going on than anyone on the books and the plot gets murkier.
I enjoy these nice thoughtful slightly introspective detective stories. Good descriptions of Singapore and Bangkok – and their climates – and credible characters. An easy read too.
Would I read more of these Inspector Tay books? Yes.
December 31, 2020
Who is the traditional culprit
The intriguing and exciting plot leaves you guessing for some time but it wasn’t The obvious but rather trite suggestion of who did it was of course a red herring.
The intriguing and exciting plot leaves you guessing for some time but it wasn’t The obvious but rather trite suggestion of who did it was of course a red herring.
April 17, 2017
This was an ok murder mystery especially as I have been to Singapore many times.
January 6, 2020
Really enjoyed this detective novel
Really enjoyed this story of s sort of everyman police detective who downplays his abilities and attractiveness. His search for answers and justice was fun to read. I read book 3 first and enjoyed it so much I came back for the first. Reading about Singapore was very interesting, especially after seeing Crazy, Rich Asians. Excellent descriptions of the climate, architecture and culture of both Singapore and Thailand.
Really enjoyed this story of s sort of everyman police detective who downplays his abilities and attractiveness. His search for answers and justice was fun to read. I read book 3 first and enjoyed it so much I came back for the first. Reading about Singapore was very interesting, especially after seeing Crazy, Rich Asians. Excellent descriptions of the climate, architecture and culture of both Singapore and Thailand.
January 31, 2025
I chose this book as a precursor to a forthcoming trip to Asia taking I both Singapore and Bangkok where the book is set. Initially I enjoyed the book, which has a 1930s noir style of narrative but I just didn’t find the ending very satisfying.
January 25, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed The Ambassador's Wife as "police procedural" with the added extra of shenanigans at the American embassy. Samuel Tay, police inspector and quintessential loner, is called to the Marriott hotel to investigate the murder of an unidentified Caucasian woman. When he is identified as the American ambassador's wife all hell breaks loose on the diplomatic front.
The plot is excellent with plenty of twists and turns as Tay plods his way through a morass of conflicting evidence to get to the truth. I called it a police procedural earlier but there seems to be little adherence to procedure as Tay strives for the truth and is hindered at every turn by most embassy staff. I really liked Mr Needham's vignettes of life in the embassy and can only assume they are close to the truth because they are so outlandish.
Tay is an outsider, almost a must in crime fiction nowadays. He lives alone, has never been married and prefers reading to socialising. He is dogged in pursuit of the truth which does not endear him to his superiors but does engender a certain loyalty from the lower levels. I like his low key approach and his ability to make suspects underestimate him as it's a very effective tactic.
Lastly I should mention Singapore as the city is almost a character in its own right with its oppressive heat, over regulation and teeming bars.
If you like a good crime novel set in an exotic location I have no hesitation in recommending The Ambassador's Wife.
The plot is excellent with plenty of twists and turns as Tay plods his way through a morass of conflicting evidence to get to the truth. I called it a police procedural earlier but there seems to be little adherence to procedure as Tay strives for the truth and is hindered at every turn by most embassy staff. I really liked Mr Needham's vignettes of life in the embassy and can only assume they are close to the truth because they are so outlandish.
Tay is an outsider, almost a must in crime fiction nowadays. He lives alone, has never been married and prefers reading to socialising. He is dogged in pursuit of the truth which does not endear him to his superiors but does engender a certain loyalty from the lower levels. I like his low key approach and his ability to make suspects underestimate him as it's a very effective tactic.
Lastly I should mention Singapore as the city is almost a character in its own right with its oppressive heat, over regulation and teeming bars.
If you like a good crime novel set in an exotic location I have no hesitation in recommending The Ambassador's Wife.
May 24, 2012
Very good detective/police procedural with an unusual main character and unique setting. Never having been to the Far East I can only assume that the details are accurate but the author's deft touch with language comes through in both the descriptions of location and in the characterizations as well.
Very politically involved plot and an older, low-key detective with interesting thought patterns, no major traumatic events causing issues in his life, which is refreshing. Not sure I followed all of the introspection but it did make for a character outside the usual detective/mystery pattern.
The pacing is leisurely, the mood quite introspective and despite two rather graphic murders ... definitely not hard edged. I found myself slowly drawn into this book and would definitely like to read more if it turns into a series.
Very politically involved plot and an older, low-key detective with interesting thought patterns, no major traumatic events causing issues in his life, which is refreshing. Not sure I followed all of the introspection but it did make for a character outside the usual detective/mystery pattern.
The pacing is leisurely, the mood quite introspective and despite two rather graphic murders ... definitely not hard edged. I found myself slowly drawn into this book and would definitely like to read more if it turns into a series.
November 3, 2017
This is a very big book, but it is worth every second! I love Detective Samuel Tey. Absolutely adore his attitude, his back bone, and his loyalty. I was a bit confused at the reveal, but then I figured it out. I love when books treat people like they are smart and give all the nitty gritty while leaving us to actually piece things together, not be paraded by the nose like a bull to the obvious conclusion. No, this has some lovely twists, turns, unexpected happenings, and a deliciously appropriate end. I truly look forward to more Samuel Tey adventures in the near future... once I'm allowed to buy books again. Darn book allowance!
If you like an international man of mystery, this isn't the book for you. But if you like hard-working cops with a need for the truth and justice, then you will love Samuel Tey as much as I do.
If you like an international man of mystery, this isn't the book for you. But if you like hard-working cops with a need for the truth and justice, then you will love Samuel Tey as much as I do.
January 10, 2018
I discovered this book when it was picked by our local library’s book club. I will be very honest and say right off that the constant swearing was a turnoff for me. This are some quite graphic descriptions of the murder victims. But the story line was so gripping, the mystery so baffling, the protagonist so intriguing, I couldn’t put it down. I have visited Singapore, but as far as I can remember this is the first book I’ve read that takes place there –and from the point of view of a native Singaporean. That alone sparked my interest. Inspector Sam Tay is a fascinating character who works under the premise that it is never a bad thing to be underestimated. Something of a Chinese Columbo, only more morose. I’m glad to know there are more books in this series and I look forward to spending time with Sam Tay.
January 24, 2012
This was my first detective/crime/mystery novel. I can't say the genre ever really appealed to me- until now. Wow, Jake Needham can write!
There wasn't a dull sentence in the book. The story of unusual murders never slowed down. Sometimes the suspense was so great I had to stop my eyes from skipping down the page to find out what was going to happen!
The main character, Samuel Tay, was great because he wasn't a real hero. He was very ordinary, flawed just like we all are. I think that's why I found it very easy to connect to him.
There were many great details regarding the settings of the novel (Singapore and Thailand) that were especially interesting for someone like me who lives in the region, but won't make your eyes glaze over if you're not.
There wasn't a dull sentence in the book. The story of unusual murders never slowed down. Sometimes the suspense was so great I had to stop my eyes from skipping down the page to find out what was going to happen!
The main character, Samuel Tay, was great because he wasn't a real hero. He was very ordinary, flawed just like we all are. I think that's why I found it very easy to connect to him.
There were many great details regarding the settings of the novel (Singapore and Thailand) that were especially interesting for someone like me who lives in the region, but won't make your eyes glaze over if you're not.
April 17, 2018
A Surprisingly Good Murder Mystery with A Singapore Twist
The author does an excellent job of detailing scenery, geography, characters, and local politics. This explains the slow build up to a faster moving story by half way through the book. He held my attention by giving all the minor details that added up to the killer's identity. A fascinating study of Singapore. It sure has changed since the Singapore I saw in 1992. A Great Read!
The author does an excellent job of detailing scenery, geography, characters, and local politics. This explains the slow build up to a faster moving story by half way through the book. He held my attention by giving all the minor details that added up to the killer's identity. A fascinating study of Singapore. It sure has changed since the Singapore I saw in 1992. A Great Read!
August 12, 2019
Another entertaining bank holiday read. It was a bit of a mixture. Slow in places. I found the rather jaundiced, ‘Eeyore’ tone of the detective’s thoughts made me laugh out loud often. The storyline and setting were engaging, but there was a bit of a leap at the end which needed better connecting, I felt. I think I would read another book in this series, as it is quite nice reading stories set in the city where I live.
July 7, 2017
I have to say that I really did enjoy this book a lot, and it grew on me as time went by as well. It was a bit obvious, but I'm more into the journey than the goal. I enjoyed the writing a lot, and the characters were likable and relatable. I did like the setting quite a lot as well, as it wasn't the normal set in the West thing :)
June 17, 2018
First the wife of the Ambassador to Singapore is found murdered and mutilated in the Singapore Marriott. Soon after, the Ambassador to Thailand is found murdered. Both are posed exactly the same. It looks like the same person killed them both....or does it? Sam Tay, Singapore PD investigates the case.
August 31, 2019
2.5 really. I was torn between thinking the writing was terrible and laughing in occasional funny one liners.
It was a reasonable plot with a couple of unexpected turns but not sure I want to read any more of the series. This one was on kindle unlimited so might try the 2nd one to see if it is any better!
It was a reasonable plot with a couple of unexpected turns but not sure I want to read any more of the series. This one was on kindle unlimited so might try the 2nd one to see if it is any better!
January 23, 2024
THIS GRIPPING MURDER MYSTERY SPANS SINGAPORE AND BANGKOK
Inspector Samuel Tay has been with the Singapore police for nearly twenty years, much of that time as a homicide detective in the elite Special Investigations Section of CID. But he is squeamish and can’t stand the sight of mangled flesh and blood. So, when the body of a woman turns up displayed on a bed in a five-star hotel, he insists that his assistant view the remains in his stead. And a gruesome sight it is. Whoever killed the unidentified woman clearly hated her beyond the bounds of all reason. And now Sam and his assistant, Sergeant Robbie Kang, face the unwelcome task of identifying the victim and apprehending her murderer in the absence of any clues whatsoever apart from the body itself. Thus begins the gripping first entry in the Jake Needham detective series, The Ambassador’s Wife.
MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER SAD AND SORDID EVENT
From the start, then, this case stands out. As Sam muses, “Murders in Singapore weren’t the romanticized duels between clever killers and plodding investigators that ended up as Michael Douglas movies. They were mostly sad and sordid events perpetrated by people who had lost money, lost a job, lost a spouse, lost hope.” But the savagery of this woman’s murder is unprecedented, in Sam’s experience. And the mystery deepens when, after days of dogged investigation, it develops that she was the wife of the American Ambassador to Singapore.
THE MOST CHALLENGING CASE IN THE DETECTIVE’S CAREER
Once the victim’s identity is known, the US Embassy enters the picture. Tony DeSouza, the FBI agent who is the legal attaché at the American embassy, moves to seize control of the case. He’s convinced the murder was a terrorist act and will point his investigation in that direction. But Sam continues chipping away at the case on his own. And when the ambassador names the embassy’s security coordinator, a young woman named Cally Parks, as Sam’s liaison, it soon develops that she will join him in pursuing the investigation independently. Because she knows that the ambassador has instructed DeSouza to find a terrorist and cook up the evidence to frame him. The ambassador, it seems, is determined to keep the facts of the case out of the press and wrap it up as quickly as possible. Which may be politically understandable but is suspicious nonetheless.
But no sooner than Sam and Cally begin digging into the few meager facts they’re able to uncover about the case than a second, similar murder turns up more than a thousand miles away in Bangkok. And the investigation then takes on even wider international implications. It will prove to be the most challenging—and most dangerous—assignment in Sam Tay’s career.
WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT SINGAPORE
Singapore is an island city-state of some six million people. It’s located off the tip of the Malay Peninsula, in one of the most geo-strategic spots in the world. The country’s 63 islands lie along the major shipping route of the Strait of Malacca just north of Indonesia.
Singapore is the second most densely-populated city in the world. Virtually all but the wealthiest people live crammed into high-rise apartment buildings. But they all enjoy the benefits of a highly developed market economy, as Singapore boasts the highest per-capita income of the Four Asian Tigers, which include Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Unsurprisingly, then, Singapore has the second-highest cost of living of any city in the world. But only some ten percent of Singapore’s people live in poverty.
The population of Singapore is multiethnic. About three-quarters of its people are of Chinese descent, 13 percent Malayan, and nine percent Indian. Although the country has four official languages, English is the main language used in business, government, law, and education.
Historically, as a consequence of its strategic location, Singapore has been a major trading port and a battleground of empires. The British seized it in 1819, and it remained a British crown colony until the Japanese conquered the island in 1942. It was one of the British Empire’s most humiliating defeats in its history. Singapore became independent in 1965 under its first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee guided the island’s development until 1990, exercising dictatorial control in the interest of building its economy. Singapore is notorious for the severity of its laws against drug use and defacing public property.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As Hong Kong Magazine once noted, “Jake Needham is probably the best known American writer almost no one in America has ever heard of.”
Jake Needham writes on his author website that “Once upon a time, I was a screen and television writer, but then I started writing crime novels when I realized I really didn’t like movies and television all that much. Since then, I’ve published thirteen books. [The actual total to date is fifteen.] I may be an American novelist, but my books are far better known outside the United States than they are in it.”
Wikipedia explains that Needham “has lived and worked in Asia since 1981.” He is married to a Thai woman with whom he has two sons. She is a graduate of Oxford University and one of Thailand’s leading magazine editors and newspaper columnists. They live in Thailand.
Inspector Samuel Tay has been with the Singapore police for nearly twenty years, much of that time as a homicide detective in the elite Special Investigations Section of CID. But he is squeamish and can’t stand the sight of mangled flesh and blood. So, when the body of a woman turns up displayed on a bed in a five-star hotel, he insists that his assistant view the remains in his stead. And a gruesome sight it is. Whoever killed the unidentified woman clearly hated her beyond the bounds of all reason. And now Sam and his assistant, Sergeant Robbie Kang, face the unwelcome task of identifying the victim and apprehending her murderer in the absence of any clues whatsoever apart from the body itself. Thus begins the gripping first entry in the Jake Needham detective series, The Ambassador’s Wife.
MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER SAD AND SORDID EVENT
From the start, then, this case stands out. As Sam muses, “Murders in Singapore weren’t the romanticized duels between clever killers and plodding investigators that ended up as Michael Douglas movies. They were mostly sad and sordid events perpetrated by people who had lost money, lost a job, lost a spouse, lost hope.” But the savagery of this woman’s murder is unprecedented, in Sam’s experience. And the mystery deepens when, after days of dogged investigation, it develops that she was the wife of the American Ambassador to Singapore.
THE MOST CHALLENGING CASE IN THE DETECTIVE’S CAREER
Once the victim’s identity is known, the US Embassy enters the picture. Tony DeSouza, the FBI agent who is the legal attaché at the American embassy, moves to seize control of the case. He’s convinced the murder was a terrorist act and will point his investigation in that direction. But Sam continues chipping away at the case on his own. And when the ambassador names the embassy’s security coordinator, a young woman named Cally Parks, as Sam’s liaison, it soon develops that she will join him in pursuing the investigation independently. Because she knows that the ambassador has instructed DeSouza to find a terrorist and cook up the evidence to frame him. The ambassador, it seems, is determined to keep the facts of the case out of the press and wrap it up as quickly as possible. Which may be politically understandable but is suspicious nonetheless.
But no sooner than Sam and Cally begin digging into the few meager facts they’re able to uncover about the case than a second, similar murder turns up more than a thousand miles away in Bangkok. And the investigation then takes on even wider international implications. It will prove to be the most challenging—and most dangerous—assignment in Sam Tay’s career.
WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT SINGAPORE
Singapore is an island city-state of some six million people. It’s located off the tip of the Malay Peninsula, in one of the most geo-strategic spots in the world. The country’s 63 islands lie along the major shipping route of the Strait of Malacca just north of Indonesia.
Singapore is the second most densely-populated city in the world. Virtually all but the wealthiest people live crammed into high-rise apartment buildings. But they all enjoy the benefits of a highly developed market economy, as Singapore boasts the highest per-capita income of the Four Asian Tigers, which include Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Unsurprisingly, then, Singapore has the second-highest cost of living of any city in the world. But only some ten percent of Singapore’s people live in poverty.
The population of Singapore is multiethnic. About three-quarters of its people are of Chinese descent, 13 percent Malayan, and nine percent Indian. Although the country has four official languages, English is the main language used in business, government, law, and education.
Historically, as a consequence of its strategic location, Singapore has been a major trading port and a battleground of empires. The British seized it in 1819, and it remained a British crown colony until the Japanese conquered the island in 1942. It was one of the British Empire’s most humiliating defeats in its history. Singapore became independent in 1965 under its first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee guided the island’s development until 1990, exercising dictatorial control in the interest of building its economy. Singapore is notorious for the severity of its laws against drug use and defacing public property.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As Hong Kong Magazine once noted, “Jake Needham is probably the best known American writer almost no one in America has ever heard of.”
Jake Needham writes on his author website that “Once upon a time, I was a screen and television writer, but then I started writing crime novels when I realized I really didn’t like movies and television all that much. Since then, I’ve published thirteen books. [The actual total to date is fifteen.] I may be an American novelist, but my books are far better known outside the United States than they are in it.”
Wikipedia explains that Needham “has lived and worked in Asia since 1981.” He is married to a Thai woman with whom he has two sons. She is a graduate of Oxford University and one of Thailand’s leading magazine editors and newspaper columnists. They live in Thailand.
May 31, 2012
This is a terrific book, loved Sam Tay, a really different detective, and an original setting in Singapore. It's nicely plotted and well-written, can't ask for more, really - I'll be back for more....
February 26, 2025
I came across this book in a second hand bookstore. I was in the mood for an Asian thriller and although I noted that the author was not Asian, I did not mind it.
The story is mostly told from Inspector Samuel Tay’s perspective. He is the head of Special Investigations Section of the CID (CID-SIS) in Singapore. A woman is found dead in a room at the Marriott’s hotel. The investigation soon reveals the identity of the victim to be the wife of the American ambassador. As Tay and his team struggle to piece together the motive and the identity of the killer, he receives news of a similar killing in Bangkok. Do they have an Asian serial killer on hand?
The story is largely atmospheric. The author vividly describes the streets of Singapore and the temperamental weather so well that the reader cannot avoid feel as if they are breathing in the humid air. The pace is slow and almost lethargic, done perhaps in order to evoke the mental image (in readers) of everything slowing down due to the heat. The story only picks up it’s pace in Chapter 18 onwards. (There are twenty-five chapters in total).
I had mixed feelings about the main protagonist Inspector Samuel Tay. I identified with his weight struggles and laughed at his self deprecating humour. I enjoyed his chemistry with his right hand man Robbie Kang and the unitentionally humourous interactions Tay has with his OC.
However I was not convinced of his Asianness. He is ‘The only child of an American born Chinese man and a Singaporean woman.’ To me, he appeared more American than Singaporean (he is born and raised in Singapore). Despite his occassional and pehaps cursory ventures into Asian food such as Hainanese chicken rice and Char Siew Paus, there were more occassions of him dining at cafes, drinking lattes, cappucinos and eating salads and yogurts. Where are the drinking kopis, Nescafes or Teh tariks scenes? Why not dine at kopitiams and mamak restaurants? How about eating Roti Canais, Tosai or Nasi Lemaks? Cuisine does weigh significantly as a cultural identity and since the author undertook to describe Tay’s day to day life in great detail, I would expect him (the author) to have incorporated these elements as well.
A secondary but pivotal character named Cally Parks who was the Regional Security Officer at the American embassy exhibited an Asian characteristic in a particular scene. In this scene, Tay, in a casual setting asked her a series of questions and she responded to each question with a shrug. This is a culturally acceptable norm if the character was Asian but she is supposed to be American. These odd mismatch of the two characters’ mannerisms were jarring for me.
My view of the book changed drastically when I came to these lines :-
1- ‘Tay didn’t like anywhere in Thailand very much. Beneath its veneer of exotic temples and saintly monks lay the dark heart of a country that lived off greed and sex. No matter how you tried to dress the place up, Tay thought, Thailand would always have the soul of a whore.’
2- ‘Just past Chonburi, forty or fifty kilometres from Bangkok, they finally broke out of the yellow haze. In the hard white light of the swampy coastal plain, the city lay before them like a spread-eagled tart on a rumpled breadspread.’
Firstly, I felt outraged that Thailand is being equated to a whore, I am Malaysian with Thailand as my neighbour in the North. Yes, I admit that there is a flourishing night life and a more liberal acceptance to prostitution which draws in a big chunk of foreign tourists. But I have travelled countless times to Thailand and I have always been in awe of the beauty of the country and the warmth of her people. I wish these attributes could have been highlighted as well.
The knocking down of Thailand did not only target the sex industry. In another part of the book :-
‘He watched the Bangkok sidewalks…A group of uniformed schoolgirls were massed on a corner and Tay glanced at his watch, wondering if children in Thailand actually went to school or whether perhaps just wearing uniforms and standing around somewhere all day was good enough to satisfy the local culture.’
Such utter contempt and disdain the author has for everything that is Thai!
I struggled to find the words to describe how I felt about this book and I flipped the pages back and forth after completing it. I found the first line in the following review by Singapore Airlines SilverKris Magazine for Killing Plato by the same author ironically funny:-
‘What you will not get is pseudo-intellectual new-wave Asian literature, sappy relationship writing, or Bangkok bargirl sensationalism. This is top class fiction that happens to be set in an Asian context.’
Irony because some of the words used in the review above inadvertantly had captured what I was struggling to say. I am rating this a 2 star and I will not be continuing with this series nor picking up any other book by this author. This is my view on it. Google says this is an award winning, famous author who has lived in Singapore and married to a Thai woman. Oh, the irony….
The story is mostly told from Inspector Samuel Tay’s perspective. He is the head of Special Investigations Section of the CID (CID-SIS) in Singapore. A woman is found dead in a room at the Marriott’s hotel. The investigation soon reveals the identity of the victim to be the wife of the American ambassador. As Tay and his team struggle to piece together the motive and the identity of the killer, he receives news of a similar killing in Bangkok. Do they have an Asian serial killer on hand?
The story is largely atmospheric. The author vividly describes the streets of Singapore and the temperamental weather so well that the reader cannot avoid feel as if they are breathing in the humid air. The pace is slow and almost lethargic, done perhaps in order to evoke the mental image (in readers) of everything slowing down due to the heat. The story only picks up it’s pace in Chapter 18 onwards. (There are twenty-five chapters in total).
I had mixed feelings about the main protagonist Inspector Samuel Tay. I identified with his weight struggles and laughed at his self deprecating humour. I enjoyed his chemistry with his right hand man Robbie Kang and the unitentionally humourous interactions Tay has with his OC.
However I was not convinced of his Asianness. He is ‘The only child of an American born Chinese man and a Singaporean woman.’ To me, he appeared more American than Singaporean (he is born and raised in Singapore). Despite his occassional and pehaps cursory ventures into Asian food such as Hainanese chicken rice and Char Siew Paus, there were more occassions of him dining at cafes, drinking lattes, cappucinos and eating salads and yogurts. Where are the drinking kopis, Nescafes or Teh tariks scenes? Why not dine at kopitiams and mamak restaurants? How about eating Roti Canais, Tosai or Nasi Lemaks? Cuisine does weigh significantly as a cultural identity and since the author undertook to describe Tay’s day to day life in great detail, I would expect him (the author) to have incorporated these elements as well.
A secondary but pivotal character named Cally Parks who was the Regional Security Officer at the American embassy exhibited an Asian characteristic in a particular scene. In this scene, Tay, in a casual setting asked her a series of questions and she responded to each question with a shrug. This is a culturally acceptable norm if the character was Asian but she is supposed to be American. These odd mismatch of the two characters’ mannerisms were jarring for me.
My view of the book changed drastically when I came to these lines :-
1- ‘Tay didn’t like anywhere in Thailand very much. Beneath its veneer of exotic temples and saintly monks lay the dark heart of a country that lived off greed and sex. No matter how you tried to dress the place up, Tay thought, Thailand would always have the soul of a whore.’
2- ‘Just past Chonburi, forty or fifty kilometres from Bangkok, they finally broke out of the yellow haze. In the hard white light of the swampy coastal plain, the city lay before them like a spread-eagled tart on a rumpled breadspread.’
Firstly, I felt outraged that Thailand is being equated to a whore, I am Malaysian with Thailand as my neighbour in the North. Yes, I admit that there is a flourishing night life and a more liberal acceptance to prostitution which draws in a big chunk of foreign tourists. But I have travelled countless times to Thailand and I have always been in awe of the beauty of the country and the warmth of her people. I wish these attributes could have been highlighted as well.
The knocking down of Thailand did not only target the sex industry. In another part of the book :-
‘He watched the Bangkok sidewalks…A group of uniformed schoolgirls were massed on a corner and Tay glanced at his watch, wondering if children in Thailand actually went to school or whether perhaps just wearing uniforms and standing around somewhere all day was good enough to satisfy the local culture.’
Such utter contempt and disdain the author has for everything that is Thai!
I struggled to find the words to describe how I felt about this book and I flipped the pages back and forth after completing it. I found the first line in the following review by Singapore Airlines SilverKris Magazine for Killing Plato by the same author ironically funny:-
‘What you will not get is pseudo-intellectual new-wave Asian literature, sappy relationship writing, or Bangkok bargirl sensationalism. This is top class fiction that happens to be set in an Asian context.’
Irony because some of the words used in the review above inadvertantly had captured what I was struggling to say. I am rating this a 2 star and I will not be continuing with this series nor picking up any other book by this author. This is my view on it. Google says this is an award winning, famous author who has lived in Singapore and married to a Thai woman. Oh, the irony….
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2020
This is a 2006 book by the American expatriate author Jack Needham and is the first book in the Inspector Samuel Tay series. The setting is in early 2000 in Singapore and Thailand with a heavy US embassy and expatriate life as backdrop. It is partly a police procedural detective mystery and partly a political and spy thriller. Inspector Samuel Tay is with the elite Special Investigations Section of the Singapore CID. Tay is a middle-aged cop in his late 40s and is a chain smoker of Marlboro Red. While the setting has a lot of potential and Needham did a great job giving us the local color and U.S. diplomatic expat life, I find Tay to be less than the ideal hero and is often quite infuriating. Tay is not a very likeable guy, socially inept and hesitant and is constantly angry and irritated. He is not that competent a cop either, except he does have an occasional inspirational moment. Tay is kind of like a Nero Wolfe without Wolfe’s brilliance and without Archie Goodwin to moderate and to provide the cynical comic relief. Overall, I find Tay’s detective skill and process mediocre. I feel like Needham created Tay as he thinks an Asian detective should be like, but it is really built from an American’s standpoint. While the book is a good read for the expat atmosphere, it is quite inadequate as a detective novel. Some of the premises in the book are also quite far-fetched. The most glaring one is two high profile killings (the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore as well as the US Ambassador to Thailand) within a short period of time and Singapore and Thailand police top brass, politicians and the press would not know about it or show any interest in it and are content to leave everything in the hands of Inspector Tay and the American FBI in Singapore and Thailand.
The story is about the brutal murder of the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore, Elizabeth Munson. She was found shot and her face mutilated and posed nude in an unoccupied room in the Singapore Marriott Hotel. A week later, the US Ambassador to Thailand, Susan Rooney, was also found dead in an empty apartment in Bangkok with the same M.O. Tay’s investigation, however, was stonewalled by the US embassy in Singapore, who claims this was a terrorist attack and therefore US has jurisdiction and the FBI, led by Special Agent Tony DeSouza, would investigate. Nevertheless, Tay continued to pursue the case and was assisted by the Singapore US embassy’s Regional Security Officer Cally Parks as well as her ex-lover, John August, who is a senior CIA operative in Southeast Asia. Later, Parks was killed in a takedown while she and DeSouza were trying to arrest a suspect that DeSouza has developed.
It turns out what really happened was the first victim, Elizabeth Munson, was murdered by her husband Ambassador Arthur Elliott Munson III because she wanted to divorce him. In order to detract Arthur Munson from being the prime suspect, Tony DeSouza, who is a loyal follower of Arthur Munson, went to Bangkok and set up a copycat murder of Ambassador Susan Rooney, with the same modus operandi. Unfortunately for DeSouza, he made one mistake in staging the second crime scene which led both John August and Tay to realize they are dealing with two murderers. When Cally Parks came too close to finding out the truth, DeSouza setup a fake takedown and murdered her as well. Ultimately, Tay realized he did not have solid proof to arrest DeSouza and Arthur Munson, not to mention the fact they both have diplomatic immunity. John August, a senior CIA operative in Southeast Asia and ex-lover of Parks, then stepped in and cooperated with Tay and killed both DeSouza and Arthur Munson and made them look it suicides.
The story is about the brutal murder of the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore, Elizabeth Munson. She was found shot and her face mutilated and posed nude in an unoccupied room in the Singapore Marriott Hotel. A week later, the US Ambassador to Thailand, Susan Rooney, was also found dead in an empty apartment in Bangkok with the same M.O. Tay’s investigation, however, was stonewalled by the US embassy in Singapore, who claims this was a terrorist attack and therefore US has jurisdiction and the FBI, led by Special Agent Tony DeSouza, would investigate. Nevertheless, Tay continued to pursue the case and was assisted by the Singapore US embassy’s Regional Security Officer Cally Parks as well as her ex-lover, John August, who is a senior CIA operative in Southeast Asia. Later, Parks was killed in a takedown while she and DeSouza were trying to arrest a suspect that DeSouza has developed.
It turns out what really happened was the first victim, Elizabeth Munson, was murdered by her husband Ambassador Arthur Elliott Munson III because she wanted to divorce him. In order to detract Arthur Munson from being the prime suspect, Tony DeSouza, who is a loyal follower of Arthur Munson, went to Bangkok and set up a copycat murder of Ambassador Susan Rooney, with the same modus operandi. Unfortunately for DeSouza, he made one mistake in staging the second crime scene which led both John August and Tay to realize they are dealing with two murderers. When Cally Parks came too close to finding out the truth, DeSouza setup a fake takedown and murdered her as well. Ultimately, Tay realized he did not have solid proof to arrest DeSouza and Arthur Munson, not to mention the fact they both have diplomatic immunity. John August, a senior CIA operative in Southeast Asia and ex-lover of Parks, then stepped in and cooperated with Tay and killed both DeSouza and Arthur Munson and made them look it suicides.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2018
The Ambassador’s Wife, by Jake Needham is a mystery/crime drama/thriller set in Singapore and Thailand and featuring as its protagonist a local Singapore homicide detective, Sam Tay. The concept of featuring this local cop is an interesting device, for Inspector Tay often comments on his views about Americans and he sees the world through a different lens than the average cop or private detective. The descriptions of Singapore and Thailand are lush and interesting, particularly the inventive similes the author conjures up to describe the heat and humidity of the region. As a descriptive travelogue about Singapore, it’s an interesting read.
As a mystery/thriller about the murder of the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore, and the political intrigue of the CIA and FBI and the foreign embassy world, the story sets an ambitious course. The story begins with the discovery of the brutal beating and murder of an unidentified woman (not really a spoiler to say that she was the Ambassador’s wife). Inspector Tay is assigned to the case and there are irregularities that intrigue him. When the Americans want to chalk the whole thing up to terrorists, Sam Tay is not convinced and he wants to keep digging. Eventually, the plot winds into some nefarious intrigue, a corrupt American agent, two more murders, and an attempt at a surprise ending. The plot is complex, which is always good, but the execution on the story was not optimal here.
This is the first in a series of Sam Tay stories, and perhaps setting up Sam’s back story is more of a distraction here than it needs to be. We learn that Sam’s mother, with whom he has not spoken for several years, has suffered as stroke in New York. Later, Sam learns that his mother has died. This is not a spoiler because the death of Sam’s mother is entirely irrelevant to the plot and plays no role whatsoever in the story other than to establish that Sam had no relationship with his mother. Is this important for the reader to understand in book #1 of this series? Not really. Maybe it will become important in some later book, but for this one it’s just filler and distracts from the telling of this story. There are also three women who are seemingly interested in Sam, which is surprising because all the descriptions of Sam make him out to be a less than desirable boyfriend. Two of the three love interests are also entirely irrelevant to this story, although perhaps they will come back and play important roles in later books.
And there are some pretty large plot gaps and leaps of faith here that make the reader wonder. There does not seem to be any logical reason why the head of Security for the US Embassy in Singapore would violate her instructions and invite Sam along with her while she goes to Thailand to investigate another murder, nor why and ex-CIA agent would help Sam in his investigation. The tie-up of all the loose ends of the original murder at the end of the book is a little too easy and sudden, while the big reveal, while interesting, leaves the reader wondering whether there was really enough clues earlier in the book for the reader to have figured it out
As the introduction of the Sam Tay series, the book has some promise for the future, and the read was pleasant, if at times frustrating. It’s a good effort and hopefully future installments here will be tighter and the sub-plots will be meshed into the main story better.
As a mystery/thriller about the murder of the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore, and the political intrigue of the CIA and FBI and the foreign embassy world, the story sets an ambitious course. The story begins with the discovery of the brutal beating and murder of an unidentified woman (not really a spoiler to say that she was the Ambassador’s wife). Inspector Tay is assigned to the case and there are irregularities that intrigue him. When the Americans want to chalk the whole thing up to terrorists, Sam Tay is not convinced and he wants to keep digging. Eventually, the plot winds into some nefarious intrigue, a corrupt American agent, two more murders, and an attempt at a surprise ending. The plot is complex, which is always good, but the execution on the story was not optimal here.
This is the first in a series of Sam Tay stories, and perhaps setting up Sam’s back story is more of a distraction here than it needs to be. We learn that Sam’s mother, with whom he has not spoken for several years, has suffered as stroke in New York. Later, Sam learns that his mother has died. This is not a spoiler because the death of Sam’s mother is entirely irrelevant to the plot and plays no role whatsoever in the story other than to establish that Sam had no relationship with his mother. Is this important for the reader to understand in book #1 of this series? Not really. Maybe it will become important in some later book, but for this one it’s just filler and distracts from the telling of this story. There are also three women who are seemingly interested in Sam, which is surprising because all the descriptions of Sam make him out to be a less than desirable boyfriend. Two of the three love interests are also entirely irrelevant to this story, although perhaps they will come back and play important roles in later books.
And there are some pretty large plot gaps and leaps of faith here that make the reader wonder. There does not seem to be any logical reason why the head of Security for the US Embassy in Singapore would violate her instructions and invite Sam along with her while she goes to Thailand to investigate another murder, nor why and ex-CIA agent would help Sam in his investigation. The tie-up of all the loose ends of the original murder at the end of the book is a little too easy and sudden, while the big reveal, while interesting, leaves the reader wondering whether there was really enough clues earlier in the book for the reader to have figured it out
As the introduction of the Sam Tay series, the book has some promise for the future, and the read was pleasant, if at times frustrating. It’s a good effort and hopefully future installments here will be tighter and the sub-plots will be meshed into the main story better.
November 18, 2022
A FANTASTIC READ!
I simply loved the AMBASSOR’S WIFE by Jake Needham. Compelling plot, intriguing characters, detailed and intelligent narrative, this first in the INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS had it all … including a ‘niftily’ complex intricacy that left lots of dark spaces for secrets to hide. Talk about immersive! I really felt I was there witnessing the events and not reading words on my trusty kindle. As for the storyline:
Two American women are found dead. Brutally beaten and posed in a lewd fashion, it’s discovered that one of the victims has ties to politics. The connection complicates matters, but then so does the possibility of a serial killer running loose in Singapore. Businesses don’t relish tourism tanking because of grisly murders committed on unaccompanied young women traveling alone. The urgency to take control of the situation before it becomes fodder for ugly headlines falls to the police. And it’s under these unique circumstances, that the top brass hands the case over to Inspector Samuel Tay. However, the assignment has its own set of problems … namely, a leash and collar in the form of pressure for Tay to find a culprit … any culprit and not necessarily the one who committed the slayings. However, making someone a scapegoat and calling it a day is not an option for Tay … but then neither is losing his job. So it’s with trepidation the veteran detective begins the difficult and thankless job of weeding out a killer without anyone noticing.
Needham does what he does best in crafting this unputdownable mystery. The words flow and before you know it, you’re again staying up way past your bedtime and dragging yourself into the office in the next morning. Not that I’m complaining … not when the use of language is impeccable with just the right ratio of action to descriptive passages. In case you’re wondering, it’s the same ratio of whipped cream to pie filling used in baking. And the magic formula ensures that every bite …. every nuance … is there. I believe that if Mr. Needham were a pianist, he’d be playing the notes found by striking the keys, but also those found in-between the keys.
And a word about pacing … while some novels tout “fast-paced” as a selling point, this mystery takes a different approach in allowing the pacing to take as much time as is needed. This is achieved by conforming the speed to the character of Inspector Samuel Tay, the man at the center of all the action. As we soon learn, Tay is a pragmatic man … a humble man … a logical man … an orderly man that doesn’t rush about and is in no hurry to do anything other than his job. Therefore, he doesn’t rush, he stalks. Stalks the problem … the offender … while methodically piecing together clues until he finds the solution through analysis. It’s this relentless pursuit that sets the pacing that mirrors the rhythm of the protagonist’s heart. It creates a seamless process that is utterly compelling and really does make you believe you are in Singapore cheering him on.
I highly recommend this book, and any of Mr. Needham’s books. He really is a gifted author so take full advantage and try this one out for size. I have no doubt you’ll enjoy and why I’m giving this five solid stars.
I simply loved the AMBASSOR’S WIFE by Jake Needham. Compelling plot, intriguing characters, detailed and intelligent narrative, this first in the INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS had it all … including a ‘niftily’ complex intricacy that left lots of dark spaces for secrets to hide. Talk about immersive! I really felt I was there witnessing the events and not reading words on my trusty kindle. As for the storyline:
Two American women are found dead. Brutally beaten and posed in a lewd fashion, it’s discovered that one of the victims has ties to politics. The connection complicates matters, but then so does the possibility of a serial killer running loose in Singapore. Businesses don’t relish tourism tanking because of grisly murders committed on unaccompanied young women traveling alone. The urgency to take control of the situation before it becomes fodder for ugly headlines falls to the police. And it’s under these unique circumstances, that the top brass hands the case over to Inspector Samuel Tay. However, the assignment has its own set of problems … namely, a leash and collar in the form of pressure for Tay to find a culprit … any culprit and not necessarily the one who committed the slayings. However, making someone a scapegoat and calling it a day is not an option for Tay … but then neither is losing his job. So it’s with trepidation the veteran detective begins the difficult and thankless job of weeding out a killer without anyone noticing.
Needham does what he does best in crafting this unputdownable mystery. The words flow and before you know it, you’re again staying up way past your bedtime and dragging yourself into the office in the next morning. Not that I’m complaining … not when the use of language is impeccable with just the right ratio of action to descriptive passages. In case you’re wondering, it’s the same ratio of whipped cream to pie filling used in baking. And the magic formula ensures that every bite …. every nuance … is there. I believe that if Mr. Needham were a pianist, he’d be playing the notes found by striking the keys, but also those found in-between the keys.
And a word about pacing … while some novels tout “fast-paced” as a selling point, this mystery takes a different approach in allowing the pacing to take as much time as is needed. This is achieved by conforming the speed to the character of Inspector Samuel Tay, the man at the center of all the action. As we soon learn, Tay is a pragmatic man … a humble man … a logical man … an orderly man that doesn’t rush about and is in no hurry to do anything other than his job. Therefore, he doesn’t rush, he stalks. Stalks the problem … the offender … while methodically piecing together clues until he finds the solution through analysis. It’s this relentless pursuit that sets the pacing that mirrors the rhythm of the protagonist’s heart. It creates a seamless process that is utterly compelling and really does make you believe you are in Singapore cheering him on.
I highly recommend this book, and any of Mr. Needham’s books. He really is a gifted author so take full advantage and try this one out for size. I have no doubt you’ll enjoy and why I’m giving this five solid stars.
November 6, 2025
There are nine novels in Jake Needham's Inspector Tay mystery series, and "The Ambassador's Wife" is the first. I acquired and read this #1 Tay story in a roundabout way. I had very recently read Needham's "Who the Hell is Harry Black," which is the #7 story, and I was impressed enough that I wanted to learn how and why Inspector Samuel Tay came to be who and where he was in Harry Black. The best way to do that was to go back to the beginning with #1, and I'm genuinely glad I did.
Inspector Samuel Tay is a detective in a special section of the Singapore Police's Criminal Investigation Division. Tay's CID unit is tasked with the more heinous and or important cases. When the body of a nude woman is found in one of Singapore's luxury hotels frequented by "foreigners," Tay and his team are quickly assigned to solve the case.
The crime is of particular note for several reasons. Nobody was registered for that room, and it hadn't been occupied for several weeks. In addition to being nude, the victim was posed spread-eagled on the bed, and her face was savagely beaten beyond recognition. Further, the room had been entirely stripped of anything that might have yielded clues to who she was, why she was there, or why she was killed so brutally.
What follows is a plot with many twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing as much as Inspector Tay. Needham is masterful in character development and bringing us into the environment we share with our characters. There is an excellent balance of plot movement and character motivation, just as there is an excellent balance of description and dialogue. In fact, Needham uses dialogue effectively to help define and color his characters. The author definitely holds our attention and interest until the denouement, which is something other than what we might expect, but certainly satisfying.
Along the road to discovery, Tay is confronted with two more murders that are clearly connected to the first. One is staged to look identical--almost--to the first. Another is of a young American Embassy security officer, of whom Tay has grown fond. There's no shortage of suspects and possibilities facing Tay, but his superior officer just wants the problem to go away. Tay has to go off the books to learn the truth.
I won't spoil your fun by telling you what the truth is, but it's going to surprise you. At least it surprised me, but maybe you're smarter than I am. Whether you are or are not, you'll enjoy the story and meeting Inspector Samel Tay of Singapore CID.
Happy reading.
Inspector Samuel Tay is a detective in a special section of the Singapore Police's Criminal Investigation Division. Tay's CID unit is tasked with the more heinous and or important cases. When the body of a nude woman is found in one of Singapore's luxury hotels frequented by "foreigners," Tay and his team are quickly assigned to solve the case.
The crime is of particular note for several reasons. Nobody was registered for that room, and it hadn't been occupied for several weeks. In addition to being nude, the victim was posed spread-eagled on the bed, and her face was savagely beaten beyond recognition. Further, the room had been entirely stripped of anything that might have yielded clues to who she was, why she was there, or why she was killed so brutally.
What follows is a plot with many twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing as much as Inspector Tay. Needham is masterful in character development and bringing us into the environment we share with our characters. There is an excellent balance of plot movement and character motivation, just as there is an excellent balance of description and dialogue. In fact, Needham uses dialogue effectively to help define and color his characters. The author definitely holds our attention and interest until the denouement, which is something other than what we might expect, but certainly satisfying.
Along the road to discovery, Tay is confronted with two more murders that are clearly connected to the first. One is staged to look identical--almost--to the first. Another is of a young American Embassy security officer, of whom Tay has grown fond. There's no shortage of suspects and possibilities facing Tay, but his superior officer just wants the problem to go away. Tay has to go off the books to learn the truth.
I won't spoil your fun by telling you what the truth is, but it's going to surprise you. At least it surprised me, but maybe you're smarter than I am. Whether you are or are not, you'll enjoy the story and meeting Inspector Samel Tay of Singapore CID.
Happy reading.
March 12, 2021
There are flickers of promise in this book, but the overall execution left me underwhelmed.
The first entry in a series of books featuring Samuel Tay, a Singaporean police inspector, attempts to throw the reader into the world of international intrigue too early. I would have preferred the first book int eh series to spend more time establishing Inspector Tay in his own environment, Singapore, and deal with more local issues than this book did. Rather, Needham throws his Inspector immediately into a clash of cultures before he takes the time to establish the particulars of Singapore itself. By the end of the book, Inspector Tay has spent almost as much time in Thailand as he did in Singapore, and has dealt with far more Americans than he has locals. Much time is spent on the intricacies of American bureaucracies, which felt like a distraction in a book about a Singaporean inspector. Finally, Needham seems far better at bringing Bangkok to life than Singapore, which makes me wish that he had saved this book for the second or third entry in the series.
This book will probably satisfy travelers passing through Singapore or Bangkok who are looking for a book to read while sitting around the pool, but I would probably sooner direct them to the Neil Humphreys books (Marina Bay Sins), or the Bangkok 8 series, as both of those books do a much more focused job at bringing to life their respective cities. Hopefully the next books in the series see Tay take a deeper dive into life in his own city.
The first entry in a series of books featuring Samuel Tay, a Singaporean police inspector, attempts to throw the reader into the world of international intrigue too early. I would have preferred the first book int eh series to spend more time establishing Inspector Tay in his own environment, Singapore, and deal with more local issues than this book did. Rather, Needham throws his Inspector immediately into a clash of cultures before he takes the time to establish the particulars of Singapore itself. By the end of the book, Inspector Tay has spent almost as much time in Thailand as he did in Singapore, and has dealt with far more Americans than he has locals. Much time is spent on the intricacies of American bureaucracies, which felt like a distraction in a book about a Singaporean inspector. Finally, Needham seems far better at bringing Bangkok to life than Singapore, which makes me wish that he had saved this book for the second or third entry in the series.
This book will probably satisfy travelers passing through Singapore or Bangkok who are looking for a book to read while sitting around the pool, but I would probably sooner direct them to the Neil Humphreys books (Marina Bay Sins), or the Bangkok 8 series, as both of those books do a much more focused job at bringing to life their respective cities. Hopefully the next books in the series see Tay take a deeper dive into life in his own city.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 204 reviews