Review: A Good Story To Star T With
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2014
Short Stories are more difficult to write than novels. Locked room short stories are especially demanding. Steven Leather has developed a character round which he can create almost any type of mystery to solve. This story is a murder that occurs in a first class cabin on an airplane headed to Bangkok from Singapore.Our hero, Inspector Zhang, of the Singapore Police is accompanied by his pretty young assistant, Sgt. Lee. The story begins with a conversation about the book the Inspector was reading. The inspector insists that Agatha Christie's Character Hercule Poirot, "was the greatest of all detectives".while Sgt. Lee thought that title belonged to Sherlock Holmes.This is the clue that the author has provided for readers to understand how his character, Inspector Zhang, solves his mysteries. The Inspector opines."I would say that Sherlock Holmes  relied more on physical evidence whereas Hercule Poirot, more often than not, reached his conclusions with astute questions"The action begins as the plane lands in Bangkok. Zhang receives a call from his boss informing him that he is to take over a murder case that has occurred on the airplane and to prevent any passengers from departing until he has determined the who, what, when, why, and how the murder happened.The murdered man was a Thai sitting in seat 11K of the first class cabin along with seven other passengers, one of which was his Israeli bodyguard. An inspection of the mans body revealed a small hole in his shirt just above the breast bone.Their was some gunshot residue on the shirt but no one heard a gunshot.  Zhang conducts interviews with the flight attendants and learned that no one from the economy class section had entered th first class cabin.. They could be dismissed. He interviews the remaining passengers and then leaves the plane only to return with two Thai police officers.He announces that he has solved the case and directs the Thai Police officers to arrest the perpetrator.If you enjoyed this Inspector Zhang story there are more. And when you finish those, if you are are like me, you will hunt down Stephen Leather's."Spider" Shepherd short stories and novels.Reviewed by Roger ( no relation to Spider) Shepherd