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Stephen Leather

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Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish: A short story (Inspector Zhang Mystery Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Stephen Leather (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.6 959 ratings

Book 1 of 8: Inspector Zhang Mystery

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Inspector Zhang loves mysteries, but as a Detective Inspector with the Singapore Police Force he knows that mysteries are few and far between. There are relatively few crimes in the city state and those that are committed are usually solved quickly. But that all changes when Inspector Zhang is called to a top Singapore hotel where a guest has been found murdered in a locked room. The guest made a phone call to room service shortly before he was killed - but CCTV footage shows that nobody entered or left the room. So finally Inspector Zhang has his wish - a mystery to solve. But will it be too much for him?

This is a short story, just under 9000 words, equivalent to about 30 pages. A perfect read if you have an hour to kill.

It has received a four star review from Amazon Top 500 Reviewer Shaun Horrigan. He wrote - "Impeccably dressed and well spoken, Inspector Zhang is a Detective Inspector in the Singapore Police. He loves reading, especially traditional detective fiction, even going as far as teaching himself Japanese in order to read a series of books that were never published in English.

"For his entire career he has longed for a murder mystery to test his deductive powers, but murders hardly ever happen in Singapore. Summoned late one night to a five star hotel, it seems he has finally got his wish when the body of a wealthy American businessman is discovered in what seems to be a 'locked room mystery'.

"I certainly haven't read all of Stephen Leather's works, but I have read a few, and those that I have read have a few things in common. They are all extremely well written in a very contemporary style and they have all been hard hitting and rather graphic. This little story is also well written, but it is the total opposite in terms of style. This story reads very much like an Agatha Christie "whodunnit". It is very gentle in style, has no gore, is not in any way graphic in nature, and has no strong language at all. All in all it is a very easy going read. Personally I found this a refreshing change.

"Stephen Leather has very much taken the Kindle to heart and as I would expect the Kindle presentation is first class. I only picked up one minor typo in the entire story. This little story took me just over half an hour to read and is 465 locations on the Kindle/roughly 30 pages, about the perfect length for something to read between novels.

I have also included the first few chapters of another detective story set in Asia - Bangkok Bob and The Missing Mormon.

Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers. He was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992, he has sold more than three million copies and his books are published in more than ten languages.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0056HQSW6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Three Elephants (June 16, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 16, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 336 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 70 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #27,787 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #61 in Serial Killers
- #160 in Two-Hour Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Short Reads
- #568 in Two-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads

Customer Reviews:
3.6 959 ratings

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Stephen Leather

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Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

He is one of the country’s most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. In 2011 alone he sold more than 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. Born in Manchester, he began writing full time in 1992.

His novel The Chinaman was filmed as The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.

His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London’s Burning, The Knock and the BBC’s Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com

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3.6 out of 5

959 global ratings

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TG

That’s the way I like my murder mysteries

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2016

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Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish

Straight to the point!.... which is a murder mystery. That’s the way I like my murder mysteries! That is how this book is!

This locked room mystery happens in a 5 star hotel in Singapore. Inspector Zhang is likable. He is practically shaking with excitement (and I’m shaking along with him) when he finds out that he is facing a real life locked room mystery. He has been waiting all his career life for this. But “….. In Singapore we are lucky if have one murder a year.”

He is very keen on reading old fashion mysteries and very excited to have an opportunity to apply all his accumulated knowledge to this murder case.

The whole book is a lot of fun and very funny. One of many funny things is when inspector Zhang is giving seven explanations that lead to a locked room murder. One of them is an ice made of ice.

The manager explains how that can’t happen. The inspector sighed “Madam, I am not suggesting for one moment that Mr. Wilkinson was killed by a weapon made from ice.”

The manager is quite upset about that. “Well you are the one who keeps mentioning it,” said the manager, flashing him a withering look.

At this point I laugh out loud.

The inspector keeps bringing up different scenarios how the murder can happen. He keeps quoting from the work of John Dickson Carr and keeps getting real life logical arguments from his sergeant and the manager and the hotel staff.

His sergeant keeps telling him to call the station but he wants to use “ze little grey cells” to solve this locked room mystery himself without the help of scientific work.

Everything in this short book is hilarious! I wish it was longer.

At the end of this book, there is a teaser from another book: Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon by the same author. I like the whole 3 chapters and want to read the whole book.
https://www.amazon.com/Bangkok-Missing-Mormon-Stephen-Leather-ebook/dp/B004AM5MV6/ref=sr_1_50?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1475772027&sr=1-50&keywords=stephen+leather

The opening of this book is when Bangkok Bob is in a traffic jam because a hi-so (high society) woman stops her Mercedes to buy some mangoes. He owns an antique shop. A Mormon couple from the US are waiting for him with their problem. Their angelic virgin son is missing. They need Bob’s help.

Leather knows a lot of Thai ways that I’m quite sure the writer must have very intimate experience with Thailand.

It’s another good, well written book to read!

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BookReader1

A Locked Room Mystery in Singapore

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2012

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Inspector Zhang, Singapore's Sherlock Holmes, is faced with a tantalizing locked room mystery which he has hoped for many years to get a chance to solve. His partner, Sergeant Lee, is a by-the-book, follow protocol kind of officer. But Zhang helps her see the wonderful opportunity before them.

The story is set in a 5-star hotel in Singapore. Crime is low, murder is rare and a locked room mystery is even more rare. We follow Zhang and Lee as they solve this caper.

Stephen Leather's writing is solid. The story beckons you in and keeps the pages turning. If you enjoy mysteries, you will like Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish. For me, it was a nice departure from my usual reading material. I don't often read mysteries but I liked this one.

One person found this helpful

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zagain

An OK Story

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2012

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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.

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Wreditor

No competition for John Dickson Carr et al.

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2012

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The fictional Inspector Zhang liberally acknowledges the work of the master of the impossible crime tale, John Dickson Carr, but unfortunately his creator can't compare with Carr or other masters like Edward D. Hoch, Hake Talbot, Clayton Rawson, Joseph Commings, and Paul Halter, all of whom I recommend.

Understand, Stephen Leather's story is a decent quick read; it's just not in the same league as the aforementioned authors' works, whether for plot, atmosphere, or mystification. (I've left out characterization because most of the others are only adequate at best in that department. Leather is no better--in this story, at least.)

One thing this story would benefit from is a good proofreader. It's loaded with punctuation errors.

3 people found this helpful

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Richard Latham

A book for crime lovers from 8 to 88. A pure joy to read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2020

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A perfect short read for anyone who likes crime fiction. Inspector Zhang works in Singapore where murders are rare. He is a devoted fan of fictional detectives and uses the case law of Sherlock Holmes to influence his own investigatory approach.
When he hears of a body found in a luxury 5-star hotel he rushes to the crime scene to employ his little grey cells.
He quickly discerns this case had all the elements of a locked room mystery and his questioning takes on the form of a literary homage to the work of John Dickson Carr.
I found the character of Zhang quite infuriating but completely adorable. He has a childlike determination to follow his passion for all things crime related. He sees this as a chance to exercise under appreciated and used skills, the old arts of detective work. His DS is a lovely foil to all this and has no idea that he wants her to be Lewis to his Morse. He even learned Japanese to read some of the best closed room mysteries that remained untranslated.
A simple tale of fun and true homage to a former golden age. Zhang will be impossible to work with if he cracks this case; more short stories to follow.

One person found this helpful

Cipriani.I

Captivating reading

Reviewed in Italy on August 15, 2013

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Plot that keep the reader on the book until the solution of the criminal case. Short story to read in few days.

Maddy

Quick, clever 'locked room murder mystery'

Reviewed in India on July 2, 2015

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In a posh Singapore hotel, a wealthy American named Wilkinson - a regular guest at the hotel - is found murdered in his room. Inspector Zhang and his earnest young assistant, Sergeant Lee, arrive to investigate the murder, and Zhang, after looking at the CCTV feed and questioning some of the hotel staff, realizes that Wilkinson could only possibly have been killed in a period of less than 15 minutes. 15 minutes when he was all alone in a hotel room with sealed windows, the corridor empty, and nobody around...

I have to admit I'd never heard of Stephen Leather before, but this highly engrossing short story got me eager to read more of his work. Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish is smart, a clever example of the classic 'locked room murder mystery' (the sort of murder it has always been Zhang's fervent desire to solve, especially since murders are so few and far between in Singapore!) It's also witty in a dry, subtle sort of way: in Lee's earnestness, and in Zhang's obvious appreciation of classic detective fiction (besides the very marked homage to John Dickson Carr, there are tributes to Holmes and Poirot). A quick, breezy, intriguing story, and one I enjoyed immensely.

I need to read more of Leather.

Franco

Short story

Reviewed in Italy on November 18, 2014

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Non mi ci è voluto molto a finire questa "short story " ( 1 ora ) ma non credo che ne leggerò altre.

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XOGM

For fans of crime novels

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2013

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Its a quick, short read. You can make up your own mind how you feel about that.

Its a book for fans of crime novels. It takes the classic scenario of the body in the locked room and, whilst being written as a novella, provides an almost scholarly analysis of the genre. It then delivers the resolution within that framework. It is a pity it didn't offer a new variation, now that would have been something. There are also enough nods to other crime writers to keep the fan amused with their own knowledge.

It is well done, nice characters, nice interplay between the Inspector and side kick. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, and yes, if you read the story and exercise your own little grey cells, you too can play along and work out the solution.

I thought I read that the Inspector also appears in other "locked room" mysteries. If you like this, then you might want to read more. Personally, I can imagine them to be formulaic, simply using each of the conventional plot devices.