Review: Suicide? Inspector Zhang Doesn't Fall For That !
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2014
Inspector Zhang and his wife are celebrating their 30th anniversary enjoying a sumptuous lobster dinner. Walking back to their car they hear a woman screaming from the 12th floor of an apartment building. She is on the ledge of the roof screaming that she will jump. Zhang tries to talk to her but she falls to her death.Inspector calls his assistant Sgt. Lee and begins the investigation. The deceased is identified from cards in her purse found in the lobby. She was Celia Wong, age 27. They notice that her dress, underwear are expensive, but her shoes and handbag are of poor quality.We learn from Inspector Zhang that their are over 400 suicides a year in Singapore but more than 4 times that many in Lithuania and Russia. The Inspector is a 30 year veteran of the Singapore Police Department. He is age 54 and wears eyeglasses.. He loves to read mystery novels.Together, the Inspector and Sgt. Lee visit the deceased's husband who lives in the poor section of the city. It is late and the husband is grief stricken and is crying when he gets the news. The inspector notices a band aid in his right hand whichThe husband says happened as he was preparing his dinner.He claims to have been home all night. He adds a detail that at about ten Pm he went to his neighbor and complained that his TV was too loud.. (Inspector Zhang checked and found this was true but the neighbor denied the loud volume)Inspector Zhang remarked to Sgt. Lee that as a rule he never trusts a man wearing a goatee "because their is something inherently deceitful about a man who spends an inordinate amount of time shaping his facial hair."So readers, we learn a lot reading these Inspector Zhang stories. We now know that the best detective stories are written by Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Dickinson Carr. And that Lithuania and Russia have the highest suicide rates in the world.  And last but not least....Don't trust men who wear goatees.Inspector Zhang solves every mystery and this one is no exception. But in this case he solves it with more than just his usual "astute conversation" but you will have to read the story to find out what really solved this case for him.Reviewed by Roger Shepherd