Bloody Foreigners

Detective Low from the Singaporean Police is in the UK to give a lecture, but soon finds himself in a murder investigation. It took me a while to warm up to Low, he's a little odd, erratic and reminded me of someone and it took a while to work out who. If you ve watched Homeland you ll hopefully know who I'm talking about. Carrie; Great at her job, suffers from mental health problems which can lead to some really bad decision making, but equally provides a clarity on the case that noone else could see.

The storyline feels really topical right now, I started the book after I'd finished a stand up for race equality seminar at work and there were so many little snippets that stood out in this book it would be hard to identify 1, 2 or even a handful. There are some hard parts too which depict human behaviour well but at the same time can be sobering to imagine as a reader

As Low is brought into the investigation then kicked out of it we learn more about him and his past. His mistakes, and triumphs are a little overshadowed by the story leaving you wondering when they ll suddenly have more meaning then you realised at the time of reading.

There's alot of detailed information in this book to take in along with the use of some Singaporean language that makes it feel a little grittier. I did enjoy learning a new phase that I know I ll have to because whos around when I say it from the pub scene too!

London is angry, divided, and obsessed with foreigners. A murdered Asian and some racist graffiti in Chinatown threaten to trigger the race war that the white supremacists of Make England Great Again have been hoping for. They just need a tipping point.



He arrives in the shape of Detective Inspector Stanley Low. Brilliant and bipolar. He hates everyone almost as much as he hates himself. Singapore doesn’t want him, and he doesn’t want to be in London. There are too many bad memories.



Low is plunged into a polarised city, where xenophobia and intolerance feed screaming echo chambers. His desperate race to find a far-right serial killer will lead him to charismatic Neo-Nazi leaders, incendiary radio hosts and Met Police officers who don’t appreciate the foreigner’s interference.



As Low confronts the darkest corners of a racist soul, the Chinese detective is the wrong face in the wrong place. But he’s the right copper for the job. London is about to meet the bloody foreigner who won’t walk away.

I recommend this read. This author is now on my radar!

Bloody Foreigners is the third instalment in the Detective Inspector Low series in which a killer targeting people of Asian descent in a city fed by xenophobia and intolerance threatens a race war in this crime thriller set in London. We are introduced to DI Stanley Low in this first thriller by Humphrey’s to be released in the UK. He's cantankerous, miserable but still maintains a certain idiosyncratic charm about him and is as much a cynic as the beloved Diogenes. He is brutally honest to a fault, which often comes across as rude, and his constant simmering anger is liable to fulminate at any given moment. He also suffers from bipolar disorder further adding to the explosion of emotions he cycles through regularly. When a fellow Singaporean living in The Big Smoke is mercilessly slaughtered in a street situated behind Chinatown, an investigation focusing on the suspected hate crime begins. However, when Low joins the team working on the case, the situation begins to take a turn for the worse. Can they collar the culprit with a vicious, prejudicial ideology out to murder those he deems imposters in "his" country? This is a compulsive and enthralling murder mystery with plenty of thrills and is heavily character-driven.

It revolves around the irascible and roguish anti-hero Inspector Low who takes on the criminal underworld and sadistic serial killers alike all while battling his own personal demons. He's certainly a misanthropic protagonist and a polarising character, but unlike many police detectives, he has no vulnerability, no ego and no vanity and is quite the paradox with both his western and eastern sensibilities. Humphrey examines the clash of cultures in contemporary Britain and the novel is interspersed with social commentary on racism, classism, culture, sectarianism, prejudice, white supremacy, far-right ideology, immigration and how intolerance has risen exponentially since Brexit and the use of social media skyrocketed. It's gritty, dark and prescient and moves at a galloping pace as a sinister and perilous investigation ensues. I was engrossed from the first chapter and the timely nature of the storyline fuelled my desire to read it in one sitting. Low is a brilliantly contrary, yet charismatic character thrown into the middle of a divided Britain and dealing with both a racist serial killer who can't stop killing foreigners and an ex-girlfriend who wants to kill him.

In Bloody Foreigners Inspector Stanley Low is a Chinese Singaporean policeman sent to Britain to take part in a lecture tour , and the reader soon suspects because it's thousands of miles from Singapore which suits his bosses just fine. Low is not just a loose cannon,he's a full 21 gun salute., he's Bi Polar,angry , full of self-loathing.......and those are his good points

Coinciding with Low's visit is the murder of a young Asian man ,seemingly by a member of the Make England Great Again far right group. He finds himself causing havoc in a city riven with racial strife as he tramples his way through the Met's investigation uninvited and unwanted like the proverbial Bull in a China Shop.. Just to make things really interesting someone significant from Low's past is involved as well,.

The book treads a fine line between being very entertaining and ludicrous as Low leaves a trail of mayhem behind him wherever he goes, thankfully author Neil Humphreys just about reins his charter enough to make it good fun,albeit with a pinch of salt needed. The action is non-stop, very much in the style of Simon Kernick, with added social commentary. The underlying theme of the book is the racial situation in Britain, the extremist groups ,the differing situations of the various ethnic groups,and among those groups the experiences of different generations. There is quite a lot of politics,which some may not like but I found insightful and thought-provoking.
Low being Singaporean there's also a lot of insight into the City State that doesn't give quite the image of the place that visitors might come away with. I'm not sure quite how many crime fiction fans will find this of interest but as someone who loves Singapore and finds it fascinating I certainly did..

Low is not a character who inspires much sympathy,he's a train wreck seemingly beyond redemption who makes Jack Reacher seem warm and cuddly, but I loved my first meeting with him and look forward to reading more in the series.

A Singapore DI visiting England on a lecture tour gets involved when a Singapore government scholar is murdered. The investigation gets political as the murder victim was a Muslim; with indications it was racially motivated, it causes press and media interest and speculation on the involvement of right-wing extremists. When the victim’s Chinese girlfriend becomes the victim of a fire bomb attack things get even more complex which causes the Singaporean detective to become more intimately involved using all his understanding of the different cultures and psychologies of those under suspicion to enable him to bring matters to conclusion.

This started well and had an interesting premise; the apparently racist murder of an Indian Singaporean in the heart of London. Unfortunately, the novel didn't really develop its ideas. There was a particular problem with the main character, DI Stanley Low of the Singapore Police. He is irascible, impolite and impatient. We are continually told he is brilliant but we see little evidence for this. Indeed, his one claim to brilliance is a simmering anger that often spills over into violence. In any police force, and particular Singapore's. that would lead to instant pensioning off as unsuitable for office. I enjoyed the sections when he wasn't present far more than those where he graced the pages But even these often had too many characters fighting for space in the story and far too much head-hopping. The narrative inconsistencies weren't aided by unhelpful formatting by the publisher which often changed scene or character in the middle of a chapter without spacing or three asterisks.

On the positive side, the author can write and has a nice turn of phrase, with the descriptions of London being particularly well drawn

All in all, a bit of a shame as a was looking forward to reading this. A good idea with not a great execution.