View source for Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

{{infobox1 
|title= Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder
|author= Shamini Flint
|reviewer= Sue Magee
|genre=Crime 
|summary= A well-worked whodunnit set in Kuala Lumpur - good characters, clever use of location and local customs and laws - and a plot with good twists.  Definitely recommended.
|rating=4 
|buy= Yes
|borrow= Yes
|pages=304 
|publisher= Piatkus
|date= May 2009
|isbn=978-0749929756 
|cover=0749929758
|aznuk=0749929758
|aznus=0749929758
}}

Inspector Singh wouldn't have chosen to leave his home in Singapore and fly to Kuala Lumpur to investigate the murder of Alan Lee and the Kuala Lumpur police wouldn't have chosen to have him there either.  But they had no choice.  Alan Lee was Malaysian, but his wife, Chelsea Liew, was a famous Singaporean model and it was she who was accused of shooting her husband in the street at point blank range.  If convicted she faces the death penalty.  Chelsea says that she didn't do it and Singh believes her but it's difficult to move beyond the fact that she had the best motive of all – Alan Lee had been trying to take her children away from her. 

I did enjoy this book.  It took me back to a time when I read one Ellery Queen after another before moving on to John Dickson Carr and then working my way through the 'Golden Age' crime writers.  There's the touch of glamour in Chelsea Liew.  It might be quite a while since she was a model – she's been a wife and mother in the intervening years – but even in prison she touches Inspector Singh's heart and occasionally he wonders if his heart is running his brain.

Mind you – it's easy to sympathise with Chelsea Liew.  There's even a guilty feeling that really you wouldn't be too worried if she had shot her husband.  Fidelity had never been his thing and he wasn't too fussy about who got hurt in the process.  His latest infatuation might have been a little more serious as he was planning on changing his religion and taking his three children away from their mother.

The Lee fortune came from the family timber business.  Alan was the titular head of the business but the reality was that it was run by the youngest brother, Kian Min Lee.  Alan was little more than a playboy, but Kian Min completely lacked scruples of any sort.  His approach to the forests where the company cut timber was more than dubious but his dealings with the peoples of the forest were criminal.  The third brother, Jason was as different again – concerned for people and the environment.

Shamini Flint brings Kuala Lumpur to life – the rather grubby city in contrast to Singapore where you could eat your food off the streets, the mix of religions and peoples and the peculiarities of the Court systems.  The people all come off the page fully formed and the plot is clever with a twist which I never expected.  This is the first in a new series by Shamini Flint and I'm much looking forward to Inspector Singh's cases in Bali and Singapore.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.  We also have a review of [[Inspector Singh Investigates: A Frightfully English Execution by Shamini Flint]].

If this book appeals to you then we think that you might also enjoy [[Bleed a River Deep (Inspector Devlin Mystery) by Brian McGilloway|Bleed a River Deep]] by Brian McGilloway or [[The Slaughter Pavilion by Catherine Sampson]].  For more fiction set in Malaysia we can recommend [[Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan]].

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