Frogmouth

Marshall's popular stories about the fictional Yellowthread Police, Hong Kong, usually mix serious cases with wild comedy, but his latest has few laughs. The fun provided by conniving bank employees fades in the face of wrenching tragedies. Chief inspector Feiffer, called to the children's zoo, finds every animal mutilated and killed. Fighting rage and horror, he begins at once to investigate the case with only one flimsy clue: a feather from a ""frogmouth,'' a bird smuggled out of Australia. At headquarters, detectives O'Yee and Lim try to solve another fearful phenomenon. Voices bellow from the walls, which shake and drip with slime. The link between the two mysteries becomes clear when Feiffer, O'Yee and the other officers arrive at another scene of carnage, the hideout of a crazed person more pitiful than her victims. (June)