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THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE (THE INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Jake Needham (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 2,813 ratings

Book 1 of 7: THE INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS

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Inspector Samuel Tay is the best homicide detective Singapore CID ever had, but Tay's bosses don't like him and he doesn't like them. The maverick streak he inherited from his American father makes people uneasy in well-ordered little Singapore where go-along-to-get-along is practically the national religion.

The wife of the American ambassador has been murdered and her body posed in a hotel room in a grotesque sexual display.

The FBI says terrorists are responsible, but the whispers on the street tell a different story. The whispers say that a serial killer is stalking prominent American women in Asia, and that the ambassador's wife won't be the only victim.

Tay's bosses don't like the idea of putting such a high-profile case in his hands, but botching the investigation would mean an international black eye for Singapore and Tay is the best they've got.

The Americans don't want Tay involved either. They want him to leave the case to them, but he's not going to do that. It's a Singapore murder, and finding killers in Singapore is what he does. Besides, the Americans don't appear to him to be all that interested in solving anything.

Don't they want me to find the woman's killer? Tay wonders.

Or am I the only one here who doesn't already know who it is?

"IF THERE IS A LIVING WRITER WHOSE WORK MAKES ME THINK OF THE GREAT RAYMOND CHANDLER, IT'S JAKE NEEDHAM"– James David Audlin

From the Publisher

The wife of the American Ambassador is brutally murdered.

And the FBI is stomping all over Inspector Tay's murder case.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mr. Needham seems to know rather more than one ought about these things."- The Wall Street Journal

"Jake Needham is Michael Connelly with steamed rice."- The Bangkok Post

"Needham certainly knows where a few bodies are buried."- Asia Inc

"Jake Needham is Asia's most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction." - The Singapore Straits Times

"Jake Needham has a knack for bringing intricate plots to life. His stories blur the line between fact and fiction and have a ripped from the headlines feel." - CNN

"Needham writes so you can smell the spicy street food mingling with the traffic jams, the sweat, and the garbage." - Libris Reviews

"Tight and atmospheric, Needham's novels are thrillers of the highest caliber, a perfect combination of suspense and wit." - The Malaysia Star

"No clichés. No BS. Thrillers written with a wry sense of irony in the mean-streets, fast-car, tough-talk tradition of Elmore Leonard." - The Edge Singapore

About the Author

JAKE NEEDHAM has three times been a finalist for the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback Mystery of the Year and and has also been a finalist for the International Thriller Writers' award for Best Ebook Thriller of the Year.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B006E8ZYPI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Half Penny Ltd (Hong Kong) (January 16, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 16, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2059 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 380 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #58,843 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #235 in Noir Crime
- #265 in Mystery Series
- #1,200 in Murder

Customer Reviews:
4.2 2,813 ratings

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Jake Needham

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JAKE NEEDHAM is a three-time nominee for the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback Mystery of the Year and has also been a nominee for the International Thriller Writers' award for Best Ebook Thriller of the Year.

He is an American screen and television writer who started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published fifteen popular thrillers in two different series — The Jack Shepherd Novels and The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.

"Jake Needham's the real deal," says Brendan DuBois, New York Times #1 bestselling author. "His characters are moral men and women struggling in an increasingly immoral world, his suspense and plotting are top-notch, and his writing is exquisitely fine. Highly, highly recommended."

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4.2 out of 5

2,813 global ratings

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Michael van Vuuren

It is worth reading, I would recommend it to anyone who likes international mystery/intrigue/thrillers

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2017

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This is my first Jake Needham book, I confess, I had started another but got distracted and never quite got back to it until now.
After reading several duds and mediocre books, "The Ambassador's Wife" is a refreshing return to good writing.
First things first. There will be spoilers in the second paragraph. That, being said, let's get to it.
What I really like about this book was that it was well-paced. I did not feel that it slowed down too much, nor did it jump around. Rather, once I got into the pace of the story, everything moved along comfortably. I like when mystery books are smooth in pacing. I get so tired of writers who use jarring plot reveals instead of crafting a finely written story. I also like the characterizations of each character. I never felt like any of them were stereotypical or flat, I really enjoyed Tay's Point of view, and I even liked the FBI Guy who proves to be a lot more complex than I originally thought. The book takes some interesting twists and turns and the reveal is pleasing with a satisfactory ending that presents a different view of justice.
Spoilers from here on.
My favorite character was Cally Parks. I really enjoyed getting to know her. I can appreciate her overall role in the book but I hated what happened to her, for me it was the weakest point in the book. I realize that I had a vision of her having a recurring role in future books and that it is probably my own failure rather than Jake's. Still, it just grated me that she dies in such a predictable scenario. Part of this is I just saw her as being too smart a character to fall into the trap that she did. I get that it was necessary but at the same time I found it pointless to the story. More of a "one too many nails in the coffin" scenario than a useful plot twist/point. I still feel that Tay would have done what he did in the end regardless of her death.

Is the book worth reading?
Absolutely.
Will I read it again?
Eventually.
I probably get mad at what happened to Cally all over again.

37 people found this helpful

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Kevin G. Chapman, Author

Crime Drama in Singapore has some flaws but makes an interesting intro to series

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2018

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The Ambassador’s Wife, by Jake Needham is a mystery/crime drama/thriller set in Singapore and Thailand and featuring as its protagonist a local Singapore homicide detective, Sam Tay. The concept of featuring this local cop is an interesting device, for Inspector Tay often comments on his views about Americans and he sees the world through a different lens than the average cop or private detective. The descriptions of Singapore and Thailand are lush and interesting, particularly the inventive similes the author conjures up to describe the heat and humidity of the region. As a descriptive travelogue about Singapore, it’s an interesting read.

As a mystery/thriller about the murder of the wife of the US Ambassador to Singapore, and the political intrigue of the CIA and FBI and the foreign embassy world, the story sets an ambitious course. The story begins with the discovery of the brutal beating and murder of an unidentified woman (not really a spoiler to say that she was the Ambassador’s wife). Inspector Tay is assigned to the case and there are irregularities that intrigue him. When the Americans want to chalk the whole thing up to terrorists, Sam Tay is not convinced and he wants to keep digging. Eventually, the plot winds into some nefarious intrigue, a corrupt American agent, two more murders, and an attempt at a surprise ending. The plot is complex, which is always good, but the execution on the story was not optimal here.

This is the first in a series of Sam Tay stories, and perhaps setting up Sam’s back story is more of a distraction here than it needs to be. We learn that Sam’s mother, with whom he has not spoken for several years, has suffered as stroke in New York. Later, Sam learns that his mother has died. This is not a spoiler because the death of Sam’s mother is entirely irrelevant to the plot and plays no role whatsoever in the story other than to establish that Sam had no relationship with his mother. Is this important for the reader to understand in book #1 of this series? Not really. Maybe it will become important in some later book, but for this one it’s just filler and distracts from the telling of this story. There are also three women who are seemingly interested in Sam, which is surprising because all the descriptions of Sam make him out to be a less than desirable boyfriend. Two of the three love interests are also entirely irrelevant to this story, although perhaps they will come back and play important roles in later books.

And there are some pretty large plot gaps and leaps of faith here that make the reader wonder. There does not seem to be any logical reason why the head of Security for the US Embassy in Singapore would violate her instructions and invite Sam along with her while she goes to Thailand to investigate another murder, nor why and ex-CIA agent would help Sam in his investigation. The tie-up of all the loose ends of the original murder at the end of the book is a little too easy and sudden, while the big reveal, while interesting, leaves the reader wondering whether there was really enough clues earlier in the book for the reader to have figured it out

As the introduction of the Sam Tay series, the book has some promise for the future, and the read was pleasant, if at times frustrating. It’s a good effort and hopefully future installments here will be tighter and the sub-plots will be meshed into the main story better.

14 people found this helpful

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Linda A Beeler

Couldn't put it down!

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024

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Great characters, spectacular look at both Singapore and Bangkok,
The plot kept me entranced till the very end. I can’t wait to read the rest of the Tay books!
Linda, Lincolnville Maine

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Nori Lamphere

Great promise, not great result

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024

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This book was really disappointing. Lots of wasted content . . . unnecessarily long descriptions, boorish and unrealistically naïve MC, unrealistic relationships, predictable plot. I skipped most of the second half of the book (I got bored) and didn't feel like I missed much. This would have been good if it had been edited down to 1/3 to 1/2 the length and the MC was consistently likeable.

2 people found this helpful

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Gary Goodnow

Great start to a new series with plenty of suspense

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2020

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A solid 4 star and perhaps a bit more. Really enjoyed the book start to finish. At times it was hard to put it down. Very solid character development and there were at least 8 important characters. You can read the description for the plot, but it is set in Singapore and I can almost feel like now I've been to Singapore. Lots of street scenes and accounts of life in Singapore and of course of the legal system and police procedures there, which are the primary reasons I like international crime books. The author has a good background of the city/nation and actually lives there.

The book has everything I like in this type of book - believable characters, lots of suspense, difficulty in guessing outcomes and real "who dune it" twists and yet ample time for plenty of character developments without becoming boring. I've already downloaded book two and after a short break, will get started on it.

2 people found this helpful

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Deborah Wall McGraw

Tay is interesting detective

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024

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A good story with well developed characters and good local details, my favorite kind of story. I am looking forward to reading more.

One person found this helpful

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Bill in Arizona

Great detective story.

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

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I am looking forward to the next one of this series.

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Top reviews from other countries

BSV

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2024

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I’m some way through binging on Jake Needham's books and thought it was time I left a review. I’m alternating between the Samuel Tay series and the Jack Shepherd series, and I will leave the same review for the first book in the other series - I can’t imagine anyone reading one of Jake's books and not wanting to read the rest. It’s all been said already by other more eloquent and professional reviewers (I particularly like the quote from the WSJ), but for me it’s all about the combination of a good story well told, truly wonderful descriptions that put me in the middle of exotic (to me at least) locations, the cultures, the seeding of little ideas like: wouldn’t it be nice to do what some of these people have done, and go and live somewhere amazing for a while? Something I will probably never do, but the little fantasy it generates is another pleasant part of the reading experience. These books do a wonderful job of giving me what I look for in reading – an escape to a believable, exciting and interesting place in the capable hands of a knowledgeable guide, just for a little while. Wry, serious, funny, well-written, clever and hugely entertaining.

Kindle Customer

It will envelop you!

Reviewed in Canada on May 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

The character development, pace and quality of writing, as well as the realistic creative plot, enveloped me. I enjoyed every page, every description, every twist and turn. Excellent!

K.Visweswaran.

OK ,a very slow moving ,Fiction ,with an Equally slow Detective.

Reviewed in India on June 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Some what enjoyed reading ,with some difficulty.
Bad mouthing both USA and Singapore as well as Thailand may look attractive to the readers ,But what They want is a Pragmatic ,action oriented Fiction .

GeeBee

Brilliant read!

Reviewed in Australia on August 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

What a great first book in the Inspector Samuel Tay series! I love the way Jake Needham weaves the story and the characters together.
Sam Tay is not perfect, and neither should he be. None of us are. So I identified with Sam and his stubbornness and his idiosyncrasies and his unique and often cynical outlook on life. He's a frustrating character. Sam can be difficult to work with and has very few friends - all by his choice. At times I felt for the slightly overweight, middle aged, and lonely man but he made me laugh out loud when I least expected it too. And he is a brilliant detective with his own take on justice.

One person found this helpful

Penny

Interesting plot, great pacing

Reviewed in France on April 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ambassador's Wife and strongly recommend it if you are looking for a slightly unusual thriller. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to read more Tay novels.

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THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE (THE INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS Book 1) Kindle Edition

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Jake Needham

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