The Girl in the Window (THE INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS) Paperback – August 13, 2016

Again, Tay hunts a man that the higher ups don’t want him to hunt. Again, there are paragraphs from previous books inserted here. It’s a good story full of surprises, shocking surprises.

Tay is the most anxiety ridden detective in mysteries I have read. And yet he always does the right thing (except for smoking). These stories are definitely page turners.

I’m a big fan of good detective / PI novels and I have a list of favorite authors in this genre (like Connelly, Crais, Grafton, etc.) where I patiently wait and watch for anything new - and Jake Needham is on this list. His character, “Inspector Samuel Tay” has become a favorite of mine. He’s a likeable and quirky character, and a loner, with a mind that never stops musing - whether about the cost of something at the grocery store or his never ending thoughts on giving up his cigarette habit. Even in sleep he is beset with musing and drama in the form of visits from his dearly departed mother. His obsessing mind along with a stubborn streak serve him well when it turns to work matters and, like all good detectives, the smallest of details never go unnoticed by Tay. Somehow he manages to find his way through the most impossible, even seemingly hopeless, of situations, in solving very high crimes in the highest of places. These novels are set in Singapore which is an added bonus, because Jake Needham has the ability to make the locale interesting to the reader. Tay’s mother was Singaporean but his father was American and I am hoping that a future novel might find Tay embroiled in a situation in the USA that needs his good detecting skills- maybe Washington, DC. Other reviewers have provided lots of detail about the plot of this novel so I won’t go there - except to say I was delighted to see a return of a character from a previous novel - Detective Linda Lee. She’s good a good detective, of course – but we also share the same name. :) This is a good detective novel and will hold your interest from start to finish - good enough that it has apparently just been nominated for a Barry Award this year! I was sorry when it ended and I’m looking forward to the next!

Singapore, sometimes called "Singabore", may be boring, but the action set in Singapore in Jake Needham's latest Inspector Tay thriller is definitely not. Singapore, once a place of dynamic entrepreneurship, it has over time become a heavily regulated place managed by a faceless bureaucracy who seems to control every aspect of its citizens' life and whose main objective seems to be to protect its own interests above those of its citizens. An authoritarian pseudo democracy, Singapore is hardly a hot tourist destination - except for the weather - where there is nothing interesting to see or to do and where heat and humidity keeps everybody inside air-conditioned hotels, casinos, restaurants and shopping arcades.Enter the action set in this sanitized city state which is fast paced with the main character being as compelling as he is in the three previous Inspector Tay books. Perhaps he is now even more convincing in this new suspense thriller that has the reader guessing to the end. Tay is chasing a notorious terrorist who has sneaked into Singapore with the tacit support of the government, the news of it the bureaucrats do not want to get out into the open. An upsetting event causes Tay, true to himself, the outsider who does not play by the rules and is notorious for being politically incorrect, to take action which perhaps reveals more about his character than what we have seen previously. I had read the earlier books in the series and had each time been eagerly looking forward for the next one. And I am looking very much forward to yet the next Inspector Tay adventure that may tie up some endings that are left open in this one for the reader to guess.Highly recommended.

I look forward to starting a new series because, if I like the main character, I know I'll have more great books to read. And I just found a good one. The Girl In The Window was nominated for a Barry Award and though it didn't win, it's well worth a read.The protagonist, Inspector Samuel Tay works for the Singapore police investigating crimes of murder. A fascinating character, he's been solving murders longer than any normal human being should. Fortunately, he not quite normal...by Singapore's standards, anyway. He's a bit cynical, but does his job well in a country that has become more and more determined to sanitize it's streets, its image and even the way people think. But these are minor problems when Inspector Tay is asked to work with Singapore's Internal Security Division and join the hunt for an international terrorist. Tay's boss warns him that ISD may simply want to set up the police for the blame in case things go wrong. And wrong they do go.Tay's longtime partner is killed during an undercover operation. Tay must not only handle his grief but hunt down the very terrorist they were seeking, a man who appears to getting protection from some very powerful people. To prevent himself from being drummed out of a job and catch the killer, Tay must draw on some longtime contacts with shady backgrounds. What he doesn't yet know is how a mysterious witness fits in. The girl in the window, whom he sees for a moment just before his partner is gunned down, may be key to solving the crime...if he can find her.Singapore makes for an interesting setting for a crime novel, even if the people who run it make it hard to enjoy a good smoke and a cup of coffee. Sam Tay refuses to give up the two things (caffeine and nicotine) that fuel him through the day (and the Irish whiskey that soothes him as he sits in his garden in the evening). As an ex-smoker and still coffee drinker, I can relate. Tay doesn't fit in with the changes that have swept over modern Singapore. He longs for a better time, when the character of the place he calls home hadn't been demolished, scrubbed, and covered over with modern architecture that lacks humanity. His humorous thoughts on food, women and government planning are not only funny, but pretty accurate. I wouldn't mind joining him in his garden with a tumbler after a tough day. For now, I'll just have to seek out the rest of this series.

I have now read all four Sam Tay books and as someone who has over 500 books on my Kindle an say that this series is as good as any I have read. Would be very disappointed if this was the last book. Added bonus is that you learn quite a bit about Singapore.

This is a great read and you can tell why it was nominated for an award. Needham always places the reader on the streets or alleys of South East Asia by use of descriptive writing.

Hallo Jake,thanks a lot for another good novel with our man Samuel Tay!As I am not such a friend of electronic reading-devices, I had to wait until all the books were published in hard-copy.I bought them all in one lot, with the confidence, that I would not be disappointed."The Girl in the Window" was the first of those that I started reading and I had finished it in a very short time!Already I am asking myself: How Samuel Tay will continue: Will he stay with Singapore CID or will he start his own agency, conducting private investigations?Tay is just slightly younger than I am, so I really think, it is way too early to let him be put out to pasture....Thanks for this book and when I've read the others, I am going to comment on them as well.Take care,ADHamburg

If you are a regular Detective Sam Tay follower, then I think that you will agree that is the best tale so far. If you are coming across Sam for the first time, you will enjoy this book more if you can follow the Sam Tay series (this is book #4) from the start to meet up with the team and learn about the places and events that are part of this story.The Girl in the Window is by far the best book in the series in my mind, a page turner, gripping in parts and offering an insight into Singapore life that is not often explained. The author has mentioned previously that his books are not easily accessible in Singapore, with his descriptions of the politics and the apparent way of life away from the tourist trail on this tropical island then I can see why.The Girl in the Window story tells of plausible terrorism acts and Detective Sam’s attempts to bring the culprits to justice which are hampered by various organisations, all of whom appear to have different agendas.This has been a thoroughly enjoyable and believable read and I hope that this is not the last that we hear of Sam Tay.

Read through 4 of these stories and they’re good. Very atmospheric and spot on in describing Singapore with a jaundiced eye. Good plots and mysteries. But starting to really jar that our lead character is more upset about not being able to smoke everywhere than the multiple body count in each novel. A bit too blasé and offhand, even for the most hardened and cynical reader.