The Feng Shui Detective

From Publishers Weekly
A bestselling English-language author based in Hong Kong, Vittachi stands to become a lot better known in the U.S. with this soft-boiled mystery peopled by quirky, engaging characters, the first in a new crime series. Set in Singapore and featuring C.F. Wong, a "geomancer" or feng shui master, this lighthearted novel blends, blurs and contrasts the three main ethnic groups of the Asian city-state-Chinese, Malays and Indians. Along with his cohorts, Madame Xu and Dilip Kenneth Sinha (both psychics), the gifted, if often reluctant, detective gets drawn into a plot to save a young girl who has an extraordinarily bleak future, psychically speaking. Wong is dragged to Australia to solve the case by his intern, Joyce McQuinnie, a British-Australian teenager forced on him by a valued client. McQuinnie makes a great foil for his crankiness and obsession with order. The author, unfortunately, sometimes vies for the big laugh with groan-worthy broad humor, usually revolving around someone's accent or lack of understanding of English. Overall, however, his love for Singapore and its distinctive internationalism shines through. Vittachi's unique worldview infuses his writing with vitality and gives his characters a charming believability. American readers should enjoy the virtual vacation this book provides. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
This first entry in a series featuring Singapore feng shui master C. F. Wong draws most of its energy from Wong's interaction with his various clients as well as his encounters with brash Australian intern Joyce and his bossy, overly made-up office manager, Winnie. Wong's specialty is applying the principles of feng shui to crime scenes. Nothing pleases the diminutive Asian more than sniffing out clues based on how the room feels, smells, or looks. Stopping only to work on his book, Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom, Wong investigates a kidnapping and a mysterious fire some believe was started by a dead man. Liberally quoting bits of wisdom from his book and trying vainly to understand the more modern aspects of Singaporean society (such as coffee shops and night clubs), Wong emerges as a thoroughly appealing mystery hero. Vittachi also populates the story with an assortment of hilarious New Age characters, such as psychic Madame Xu and bomoh (or mystic) Amran Ismail. Reading this charming, funny, feel-good story is bound to result in a huge boost of good karma. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


,Sydney Morning Herald,
"Clever and comic."


,Weekend Australian,
"Mr. Wong prowls around like an Asian Sherlock Holmes."


,Newcastle Herald,
"I hope Vittachi has more of this delightful pair of detectives in the pipeline.."


,Japan Times,
"Intelligent and funny."


,HK Magazine,
"Vittachi's characters are packed full of delightful quirks, and the novel zips along at a fun, fast and furious pace."


,The Hong Kong Correspondent,
"Move over, Sherlock."


Review
"His ear for dialogue is almost perfect ... I really enjoyed this book."


Book Description
Mr. Wong is a feng shui consultant, but his cases tend to involve a lot more than just interior decoration. You see, Wong specializes in a certain type of problem premises: crime scenes. He and his brash teenage Aussie-American ex-pat intern (think an Asian Sherlock Holmes paired up with Kelly Osbourne) travel around Singapore solving crimes while trying to decipher each other's language and behavior. His latest case involves a mysterious young woman who, according to a psychic reading, is doomed to die. Wong's desperate efforts to save her eventually lead him and his sidekick to Sydney where the story climaxes at the Opera House, a building known for its appalling feng shui. A delightful combination of crafty plotting, quirky humor, and Asian philosophy, the Feng Shui Detective is an investigator like no other!



About the Author
Hailed by the CNN as "the best reporter of the offbeat" and by the BBC as "Hong Kong's funniest commentator", Nury Vittachi is one of Hong Kong's bestselling English language authors.

Vittachi is well known for not pulling his punches - he wrote the famous daily "Lai See" gossip column in the South China Morning Post until 1997 when Hong Kong was handed over to Chinese sovereignty and his column was deemed too dangerous to publish. He is the author of over a dozen fiction and non-fiction books and currently writes the popular "Travellers' Tales" page for the Far Eastern Economic Review.



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A Singapore feng shui master is well along in his magnum opus, Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom, when he realizes he may have to glean some Occidental wisdom from his unasked-for teenaged intern. While C.F. Wong is in the middle of a consultation for the Tsai-Leibler family, someone sets fire to their flat. Even though Mr. Wong puts out the fire, his client points out that almost dying is very bad feng shui. Worse, the problem is apparently there to stay: Just ask the vocal ghost of a tormented patient that haunts Dr. Leibler's new dental office. When a Malaysian witch doctor hires two of Mr. Wong's friends, Dilip Kenneth Sinha and Madame Xu Chong Li, to help a client-doomed according to Indian and Chinese astrology, palmistry, and every other occult science known to the Singapore Union of Industrial Mystics-they enlist Mr. Wong's help. But first he must find still another client's kidnapped daughter, assisted by Joyce McQuinnie, the intern who escorts him through Dan T.'s Inferno. Meanwhile, Dr. Leibler's hygienist dies suddenly, leaving Police Superintendent Gilbert Tan in need of Mr. Wong's advice. It all ends when Wong and Joyce travel to Australia's Sydney Opera House, a building with catastrophically bad feng shui, to sort out vengeful gangsters, life insurance policies, and psychic doom in a dramatic conclusion. An entertaining debut, with a zany but affectionate multicultural mix.


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