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This page lists novels by William Marshall.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first edition (usually UK) and a more recent paperback or digital edition.

The Fire Circle

William Marshall

1969

"When Ash arrived in a remote Australian desert area, found he was not alone in carrying a heavy burden of guilt. With him it was the memory of killing slowly in cold blood a German concentration camp guard, and there were other workers to, suffering from a shattering heat and from the devastating effects of their own memories."

The Age of Death

William Marshall

1970

"The Age Of Death is a novel of great imaginative power, conceived and executed on a large scale. Its subject is man in the first half of the twentieth century. It is concerned with the forces at his disposal which are too often used for his destruction. It is also a gripping and intensely moving story."

Yellowthread Street

William Marshall

1975

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Yellowthread Street is the sort of place that breeds more crime than any cops can handle. Among the gangsters and the goldsmiths of Hong Bay, Chief Inspector Feiffer and his police department had their hands full . . . tourist troubles, a US sailor turned stick-up artist, and the jealous Chinese who solved his marital difficulties with an axe. Then the Mongolian with a kukri brought an extra touch of terror to the district . . . Yellowthread Street brings to vivid life a seamy world where people called Osaka Oniki the Disemboweller, Shotgun Sen and The Chopper feel at home, a world of surreal possibility recorded with unique humour and a poignant sense of humanity."

The Hatchet Man

William Marshall

1976

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"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. "

Gelignite

William Marshall

1976

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"In the seamy Hong Bay district of Hong Kong, crimes of every shape and size were commonplace. But not letter bombs. Not till Mr Leung and Mr Ramaswamy were successively spread bloodily over the office walls. When Detective Inspector Spencer narrowly escaped becoming victim number 3, the Yellowthread Street police were grimly determined to track down the culprit – before the Special Branch got to him. But unless they could find the link between the neatly timed warning letters, the ghosts in the Chinese graveyard and the strange mission of Mr Conway Kan the millionaire, the killer would go free . . .."

Thin Air

William Marshall

1977

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"A planeful of passengers dead from cyanide poisoning. Twelve bodies riddled with bullets in the sewers of Hong Kong. And one evil genius who outwits the cops at every turn . . . The voice on the phone is cool – and vicious. His threat: a continued escalation of terrorism until his blackmailing demands are met. For Chief Harry Feiffer and his crew at the Yellowthread Street Police Station in the most notorious section of Hong Kong, that is only the beginning of the nightmare. As the city is paralyzed with fear, and tempers within the police department reach breaking point, Feiffer is thrust into the spotlight – as the prime suspect!"

Skulduggery

William Marshall

1979

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Out of the mist-enshrouded sea a wooden raft drifts slowly into shore on Hong Bay beach. It carries no sail or rudder, just a selection of miscellaneous objects: a man’s skeleton with its ankles roped together, a dead fish, a mound of sweet potatoes, a set of false teeth and a ten-inch length of blue galvanised iron drainpipe. The morgue give their verdict: murder, committed twenty years before. Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer of the Yellowthread Street police station is called in to investigate. The false teeth quickly identify the victim. But who killed him, buried him, and then dug him up again twenty years later only to set him adrift on a raft?"

Sci Fi

William Marshall

1981

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Batman is throwing up in one cell, while the Green Slime keeps escaping from another. Constable Yan is locked in combat with the Incredible Hulk – or is it Wonder Woman? Yes, the Sci Fi and Horror Movie convention has come to Hong Kong and an awful lot (literally) of the aliens have landed in the Hong Bay nick. It’s the usual chaos, with added Martians. But then a Spaceman with a terrifying flame gun appears – there’s something in the Empress of India hotel he wants, and DCI Feiffer and team had better not stand in his way. Not unless they want to end up toast."

Perfect End

William Marshall

1981

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"What killed every policeman in Fade Street Station? Their six mutilated bodies were found in the basement, lined up like wine bottles, and there are giant claw marks on the walls. Every object and surface in the station has been wiped clean…and the only witness, a vagrant, claims the murderer was a giant cat who walked like a man. Detectives Christopher O’Yee and Harry Feiffer are used to investigating bizarre cases, but when they discover that the killer is the master of an ancient weapon, and that four more policemen have gone missing from Fade Street, even they cannot imagine what to expect next. Just to make matters worse, Typhoon Pandora, the storm of the century, is about to make land."

War Machine

William Marshall

1982

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"A terrorist has declared war on Hong Kong. It starts with mysterious gunfire in the harbour. Then come the atrocities: bombs, snipers and an ominous telephone warning. A Japanese man with an antiquated accent proclaims a 'divine mission to eradicate all the uniformed forces of colonial depression'. The enemy is hidden deep, and nobody knows where to start looking. Time for detectives Christopher O’Yee and Harry Feiffer to get to work. The crime fighting duo have solved some of the most bizarre cases imaginable. This one will test them like never before."

The Far Away Man

William Marshall

1984

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"The Far Away Man kills with an antique; an 1891 single-shot target pistol. A single shot is all that he needs. His first victim is a shoe-shine man of no fixed abode. His second, an aristocratic naval officer. His third, a Chinese fortune teller. The only thing that ties the crimes together: a bundle of faded cholera vaccination certificates. And the killing is far from over. A case this bizarre calls for the colourful detectives of Yellowthread Street. This time things are going to get personal. Join them on an investigation that will send Christopher O’Yee digging deep in Hong Kong’s dark underbelly, and Harry Feiffer into his own forgotten past."

Roadshow

William Marshall

1985

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Isandula Street is flooded when a bomb destroys a water mains. On General Gordon Street, hidden explosives decapitate a row of parking meters. Detectives Christopher O’Yee and Harry Feiffer suspect a dangerous practical joker at play. The third bomb leaves seventeen charred corpses strewn across Sepoy Street. The joke isn’t funny anymore. The very fabric of Hong Kong is under attack, and nobody knows why. It’s time to get to work. The crime fighting duo have solved some of the most bizarre cases imaginable. This time they have no evidence, no suspects and no obvious motive. For the colourful cops of Yellowthread Street, that’s no problem."

Head First

William Marshall

1986

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"A Chinese coffin surfaces in Hong Bay. Wrapped in a shroud, a headless body drifts out from under its lacquered lid. Forensics reports that the neck was coated with animal glue. Whatever was stolen from the casket, it was not a human head. Then the grave robbing begins. There are few crimes the citizens of Hong Bay fear more than the desecration of the dead. Murder only lasts a moment, death is for eternity."

Manilla Bay

William Marshall

1986

"Lieutenant Felix Elizalde, of Manila's Western District Detective Bureau, watches a random murder become the first in a diabolical series and knows that the Philippines' champion fighting cock is the key to it all."

Frogmouth

William Marshall

1987

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Every animal in Yat’s children’s zoo has been killed with a machete and a crowbar. Not even the toothless old dog which sat beside the wishing chair has been spared. The act is cruel and unfathomable. More shocking than any ordinary murder. The only clue is a strange, tawny feather, accidentally discarded at the scene of the crime. In one of the darkest and finest in the series, Detective Harry Feiffer hunts an unlikely killer in a case that makes him question the distinction between man and beast. Meanwhile Christopher O’Yee is forced to consider the possibility that Yellowthread Street Station is haunted, and Spencer and Auden provide their unmissable comic relief as they attempt to apprehend a bank-robbing Sherpa."

Out of Nowhere

William Marshall

1988

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"A horrific accident takes a mysterious turn when a bullet is found lodged in the base of the van driver’s skull. Suicide pact or something more sinister? A case this bizarre calls for the skills of Harry Feiffer, Hong Bay’s finest detective. Meanwhile Christopher O’Yee is manning the psychopath hotline at Yellowstreet police station, and things turn canine for Spencer and Auden as they attempt to use an untrained Alsatian to catch a dog which has been terrorising the city’s apothecaries."

Whisper

William Marshall

1988

"Manila police Lieutenant Felix Elizalde is up to his ears in trouble. He has to figure out who's murdering Manila's poor, while his sergeants deal with bomb threats. Felix soon discovers that the two investigations might be connected."

New York Detective

William Marshall

1989

A Virgil Tillman novel.

"New York Police detective Virgil Tillman is hot on the heels of a stick-up man in Manhattan's poshest playhouse when he witnesses a cold-blooded murder, and he ends up tracking the killer through the seamier locales of old New York."

Faces In The Crowd

William Marshall

1991

A Virgil Tillman novel.

"The death of a prostitute propels New York City detective Virgil Tillman into a murder investigation that will carry him from the lofty mansions of Brooklyn Heights to the abandoned subway tunnels in the bowels of the city."

Inches

William Marshall

1994

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"They stormed the bank by the book: used shaped explosives to blow open the doors, entered with guns at the ready. Inside, they found the entire staff lying dead by their desks. There were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. No money had been taken. There were just bodies. Nine ordinary people, killed in cold blood. A case this extraordinary calls for Harry Feiffer, Hong Bay’s finest detective. The problem is, he has no motive, no suspects and no clues. Has someone finally committed the perfect crime? Detective Christopher O’Yee is wandering the streets of Hong Kong impersonating a homeless person. His orders from intelligence are to scrawl the word ETERNITY onto sidewalks with a piece of yellow chalk, and to carry a coat hanger at all times. He has no idea why. PCs Spencer and Auden have been ordered to investigate a series of attempted suicides at the futuristic psychiatric Institute of Yu. Before long they will be battling Mongolian hordes and a flock of warrior seagulls."

Nightmare Syndrome

William Marshall

1997

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"The victims were old, rich and powerful. Men who had experienced everything life has to offer. Yet whatever they saw killed them with fear alone. Stopped their hearts dead. Made them tear their eyeballs out of their sockets. In the final few weeks before the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese, detective Harry Feiffer faces a battle with evil incarnate: a demonic witch doctor who has been sowing discord and reaping lives across Asia for more than a century. A monster which might even have killed his father. Or so he is starting to believe. Detective Christopher O’Yee is packing up Yellowthread police station when a sleepwalking man enters his office, hands him a coded message, and plants an axe in his desk. The unexpected visitor has sharpened teeth, and he‘s bringing some friends. Far below their feet, in the sewers beneath the station, PCs Spencer and Auden uncover a long forgotten menace - the mother of all unexploded bombs. Twenty foot of blue steel filled with anti-tamper devices and high explosives. For Spencer, this is a dream come true."

To the End

William Marshall

1998

A Yellowthread Street novel featuring Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer.

"Charlie Porter, the head of Hong Kong’s anti-triad unit, has been murdered. He was DCI Harry Feiffer’s lifelong friend. But Hong Kong is returning to Chinese rule. The chains of command have been broken. Yellowthread police station stands empty. With no authority, nobody to help, and just days to go until he returns his badge, has time finally run out for Hong Kong’s finest detective? PCs Spencer and Auden have been summoned to Tiger Dragon Square by the mysterious Duke of Extended Holiness. Black-robed warriors, cannon fire and the cursed dungeons of the Geomancer’s castle await them. Meanwhile Detective Christopher O’Yee has nothing left to do but pay off his informants. Not the best day for a visit by Colonel Claude Kong of the Chinese People’s Police."