Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder - Hardcover

Flint, Shamini

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312596979 ISBN 13: 9780312596972

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010

Synopsis

Meet Inspector Singh: a fat, slightly bumbling, but truly lovable detective sure to charm readers of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

 

Inspector Singh is in a bad mood. He’s been sent from his home in Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to solve a murder that has him stumped. Chelsea Liew—the famous Singaporean model—is on death row for the murder of her ex-husband. She swears she didn’t do it, he thinks she didn’t do it, but no matter how hard he tries to get to the bottom of things, he still arrives back at the same place—that Chelsea’s husband was shot at point blank range, and that Chelsea had the best motivation to pull the trigger: he was taking her kids away from her. Now Inspector Singh must pull out all the stops to crack a crime that could potentially free a beautiful and innocent woman and reunite a mother with her children. There’s just one problem—the Malaysian police refuse to play ball.

About this title

About the Author

SHAMINI FLINT is a Cambridge graduate and former lawyer. In addition to the Inspector Singh series, she is the author of several highly regarded children’s books.

Reviews

Flint's promising first in a new series introduces portly Inspector Singh of the Singapore police. Singh's bosses send him to Kuala Lumpur to see that former model Chelsea Liew, a Singaporean accused of murdering her abusive Malaysian husband, timber tycoon Alan Lee, gets justice rather than summary execution. Singh has few leads, and an annoyingly fit, young, and handsome Sergeant Shukor of the Malaysian police hounds his steps, ostensibly to help--but really to spy on him. It is, on the face of it, an open and shut case. Chelsea had been suing for divorce and the custody of her children when Alan's lawyer announced that his client had converted to Islam and had declared his minor sons Muslim as well so that only the religious courts had jurisdiction over the custody hearing. At this point Chelsea threatened to kill Alan, who was found fatally shot soon after. Flint (Three Stars and other children's books) keeps the reader hooked right up to the unexpected resolution.
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Flint’s adult debut is the first investigation by Inspector Singh of Singapore, and it’s a charming and solid mystery with an enticing international atmosphere. Notoriously difficult Inspector Singh is sent to Malaysia when a Singaporean citizen, former model Chelsea Leiw, is accused of her husband’s murder. Since his superiors are glad to be rid of him, Singh is pretty much on his own in Malaysia, a country he considers to be dirty, foreign, and altogether too hot—it’s impossible for him to keep his trademark white sneakers spotless, something that is never a problem in his ultraclean and rule-bound home country. Singh is so determined to find the real killer (and thereby free Chelsea, Singh’s teenage crush) that after he’s officially off the investigation, he stays on to pursue his own inquiries. Flint effectively builds the plot around contemporary political issues—the logging industry and the efforts of environmentalists to regulate it—but the real appeal of her novel is Singh himself, whose timeless, idiosyncratic personality will draw all types of mystery readers. Try suggesting this to fans of H. R. F. Keating’s Inspector Ghote novels. --Jessica Moyer

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312596979
• ISBN 13: 9780312596972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304