Review: An OK Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2012
For a free short story, this was an okay read.  The story was a bit predictable from the outset, and it was a bit difficult to get a true sense of the characters.  As others have commented, there wasn't much that seemed to connect the story to Singapore (or the Far East in general) -- that is, I think you could substitute "Los Angeles" for "Singapore" in the text and the character names could have been substituted with traditional Western surnames and little would seem out of place in the reading.  Also, the primary character didn't seem terribly likable.  His dialog often seemed like advertisement copy for other novels (such as those involving Sherlock Holmes or Poirot), making him, as others have alluded, come off as a "wannabe." But overall, it was a decent story.For me, the best thing was the preview at the end of the story of one of the the author's full novels (Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon).  This was far more interesting and entertaining than the short story.  While I'm likely to buy that novel to finish it, I'm not really inclined to consider purchasing any of the other short stories focused on Inspector Zhang.