Book Name : The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook
What is it about : Our Feng Shui master C.F.Wong, hailed from Singapore and his crack international squad of two : one nail-polish-yet-to-dry secretary - Winnie Lim and one cocky teenager assistant - Joyce McQuinnie, stormed Asia and solved the mysterious, illogical and mind-boggling cases of : murder by an explosive can of beef, car theft through architectural brilliance, kidnapping of fame-hungry Thai movie stars and tropical fish turned into deadly hobbies. Through his geomancer expertise of Yin-Yang, chi and numerous Chinese ancient methodology and techniques of force fields, wind directions, placements of meaningful objects, the color of the door mat and the positioning of the dining table etc., our man-about-town, C.F. Wong and his team solved the most difficult cases and helped out the local Asian police forces; all these crime-busting were done whilst not forgetting to bargain for a suitable Feng Shui consultancy fee before he casually passed judgement and gave answers on the murder cases.
Some thoughts after having read the book : Extremely witty and unique in that the stories combined Oriental and Western attitudes and viewpoints towards "real-life" incidents. Also, the characterisation of the main actors was clear and definitive : our Feng Shui master who had a "business" to run, was obviously concerned first and foremost with the budget, daily rate and prompt payment and to keep his biggest client Mr Pun happy; Wong's favourite past-time would be the daily review of the company's invoice and payment records which always brought a gratifying smile to the start of his day. Our teenage Joyce was the spoiler and mischief maker who was more concerned with making flirty eye contacts and lunch conversation topics with those muscular gym trainers and suspects or the smug exotic local detectives than in solving the cases for her boss. The final touch of the comical situation would be the occasional appearance of the trio of Miss Lim, who's nominal contribution to the stories would be her finishing off Wong's curry fish balls breakfast.
Would I recommend this book to you : Definitely a book for the beach and holiday when one would not want to be bogged down with heavy philosophies, brain-draining efforts and picky words and cumbersome plots - just a cold beer, the sun and the readiness for an all-out laugh !
