{{Short description|Australian writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2010}} {{Infobox writer | name = William Leonard Marshall | image = | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1944 | birth_place = Sydney, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2003|1944}} | death_place = | resting_place = | nationality = Australian | occupation = Author | years_active = | genre = Mystery fiction | notableworks = ''Yellowthread Street'' series | spouse = | children = }} '''William Marshall''' (or '''William Leonard Marshall''') (1944–2003) was an Australian author, best known for his Hong Kong–based "Yellowthread Street" mystery novels, some of which were used as the basis for a British TV series.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/YTV--Celebrating-40-years.4315179.jp|title=YTV – Celebrating 40 years of hits|accessdate=21 April 2016}}</ref>
==Career== William Marshall worked as a playwright, journalist, proofreader, and morgue attendant and was a teacher in an Irish prison. He was also the author of several series of police novels set across the globe and in various centuries. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1944, he lived in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Wales, Ireland, and USA, before returning to Australia in 1983 with his wife and daughter. He died in 2003.<ref>from his bio in the ebook reprintings of the Yellowthread Street books by Farrago, an imprint of Prelude Books Ltd 13 Carrington Road, Richmond, TW10 5AA, United Kingdom</ref>
In the Yellowthread Street series, the detectives of the Yellowthread Street police station in fictitious Hong Bay, Hong Kong – '''DCI Harry Feiffer''', a European born and raised in Hong Kong; '''Senior Inspector Christopher O'Yee''', half-Chinese, half-Irish American, and all neurotic; and the ever-bickering team of '''Inspectors Auden''' and '''Spencer''' – attempt to find the rational basis for inexplicable and seemingly bizarre crimes.<ref>[http://www.charlaineharris.com/bb/bb60.html Charlaine Harris Blog], [http://matterscriminous.com/mystery-crime-detection/yellowthread-street.php Matters Criminous]</ref> The Yellowthread novels show the influence of Ed McBain in their overlapping plot-lines, snappy dialogue, world-weary detectives and often difficult civilians.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bishsbeat.blogspot.com/2010/08/forgotten-books-yellowthread-street_05.html|title=PAUL BISHOP ~ WRITER: FORGOTTEN BOOKS: YELLOWTHREAD STREET!|author=Paul Bishop|accessdate=21 April 2016}}</ref>
Marshall's novels manage to juggle violence, suspense, and slapstick humor in his twist on the police procedural form. He has also written two mystery series based in Manila and late-19th-century New York City, the latter featuring '''City Detective Virgil Tillman''' – New York City's "first thinking detective" – and his partner, '''patrolman Ned Muldoon''' of the Strong Arm Squad.
==Bibliography== ===Yellowthread Street series=== * ''Yellowthread Street'' (1975) * ''The Hatchet Man'' (1976) * ''Gelignite'' (1976) * ''Thin Air'' (1977) * ''Skulduggery'' (1979) * ''Sci Fi'' (1981) * ''Perfect End'' (1981) * ''War Machine'' (1982) * ''The Far Away Man'' (1984), London, Secker and Warburg, {{ISBN|0-436-27323-3}} * ''Roadshow'' (1985) * ''Head First'' (1986) * ''Frogmouth'' (1987) * ''Out of Nowhere'' (1988) * ''Inches'' (1994) * ''Nightmare Syndrome'' (1997) * ''To the End'' (1998)
===Manila Bay series=== *''Manilla Bay'' New York, Penguin {{ISBN|0-14-008921-7}} (1986) * ''Whisper: a Manila Bay Mystery'' New York, Viking Press {{ISBN|0-670-81959-X}} (1988)
===Tillman and Muldoon series=== *''New York Detective'' New York, Mysterious Press {{ISBN|0-445-40921-5}} (1989) * ''Faces in the Crowd'' New York, Mysterious Press edition {{ISBN|0-446-40162-5}} (1991)
===Other works=== * ''The Fire Circle'' Melbourne, Macmillan (1969) * ''The Age of Death'' New York, Viking Press {{ISBN|0-670-10961-4}} (1971) * ''Shanghai'' Hamish Hamilton / Pan Books {{ISBN|0-330-26251-3}} {1979}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author:%22Marshall,%20William,%201944-2003%22&iknowwhatimean=1 Bibliography] at the National Library of Australia
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, William Leonard}} Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:Australian male novelists Category:Australian crime fiction writers Category:Australian mystery writers Category:1944 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century Australian male writers