Several years ago I read the first Feng Shui Detective mystery, and I was enchanted by the humor. I found Wong and his assistant hilarious, and when I saw that there were more books to come, I kept reminding myself that I had to get back to this series.

Evidently a lot of water went under the bridge during the intervening years because my reaction to this second book is much different than my reaction to the first. Yes, there is still plenty of good humor, especially when Wong is butchering the English language. However, I no longer find his work-resistant assistant as funny as I had originally, and the plot just kept losing my interest.

Now I'm left wondering what happened to change my opinion of this series so drastically from one book to the next! Sometimes authors change. Sometimes series change. This time, I think the reader changed. Your mileage may definitely vary. ( )

Mr. Wong has been expanding his Feng Shui practice by setting propitious meeting places up that will be helpful in smoothing business transactions. He is hired usually by the person who wants a certain deal to be resolved in their favor. When one such meeting goes awry Mr. Wong is left holding the bag and in debt to a big time local gangster belonging to the Chinese mafia in Singapore.

Mean while his young Australian assistant Joyce has accept a plum of a job for him which will take them both to Hong Kong. He has been asked by associate of the British Royal family to do Feng Shui on a big new air jet which will be used for business conferences while in flight. It is a unique craft with the setup of a small town with bed rooms, movie sections and even a small store as well as large conference rooms. When he is done he is supposed to go on it to England and work on Buckingham Palace to help control some of the misfortunes that have been happening to the royal family.

Before he can begin his work on the plane a murder takes place on board. As this intrepid duo of Wong and McQuinnie begins their work which now involves a murder investigation this begin to go awry. MR. Wong predicted there would be trouble and as a serious of events unfold which could lead to short lives for all on board and now the reader waits for Mr. Wong to pull salvation out of a hat!

Vittachi's books are always very well done and they include interesting plots unlike others and wonderful characters which all give the reader a smile. ( )

The world's biggest and most expensive aircraft is about to make its maiden flight, and CF Wong has been called in to ensure the plane's feng shui is up to scratch. When a man is murdered on board, Mr Wong is delighted he can charge a premium to alleviate the extra negative energy. He's also been appointed to figure out whether the miseries of the British Royal Family are simply a result of bad feng shui, so things are looking profitable. But Wong and his Australian work experience assistant, Joyce, soon become embroiled in solving the murder.

I’m afraid that this simply did not work for me - on any level.

There are a couple of scenes in which the absurdities of language are played around with, there are a few stretches of interesting writing, but in general there's a feeling of aimlessness about the thing. The characters are blurred rather than sharp; the murder mystery is solved, but without giving us any reason why it was committed in the first place; and the last 50 pages appear to have been tacked on to make an exciting ending. They have little to do with the rest of the story, and again, Vittachi fails to give us a reason why.

The best part about this is the extract from Wong's ongoing masterwork ‘Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom’ at the beginning of each chapter. The Zen-type writing here is both humorous and wise. But that’s not enough to make the read worth the effort. ( )