After writing stand-alone novels for the past several years, S.J. Rozan returns to her award-winning series featuring Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, a pair of private detectives working New York City's Chinatown. It is a welcome return for the duo, among the most popular in contemporary mystery fiction.
Although Chin and Smith are estranged, they end up working together when she is hired to locate a missing Chinese government official who's suspected of stealing a cache of jewelry. The plot is enhanced by a richly detailed backstory involving Jewish refugees living in Shanghai during World War II.
The historical overtones of The Shanghai Moon lend a depth to the story that make this rise above the level of an ordinary detective novel. It takes a gifted writer to create characters and stories this rich and touching, and Rozan has done it in spectacular fashion.
From the Chicago Sun-Times, February 8, 2009
Comments