A Bitter Feast: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel - Softcover

Rozan, S. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312970110 ISBN 13: 9780312970116

Publisher: St. Martin's Dead Letter, 1999

Synopsis

Joining the company of Sue Grafton, Jonathan Kellerman, and Patricia Cornwell, Shamus Award-winner S.J. Rozan now owns a coveted Anthony Award for Best Novel for her No Colder Place. The Washington Post has called her Bill Smith/Lydia Chin novels...a series to watch for....Booklist deemed Rozan....a major figure in contemporary mystery fiction...Now it's your turn--to discover one of fiction's major voices and to fall in love with a mystery of evocative atmosphere, engaging characters, and exquisite writing.

It's Lydia Chin's turn to go underground as the Chinese-American P.I. investigates a case that strikes at the heart of Chinatown's dangerously shifting power structure. Four restaurant workers, including a union organizer, have disappeared, and the union's lawyer hires Lydia to find them. But when a bomb shatters the Chinese Restaurant Workers' Union headquarters, killing one of the missing men and injuring the lawyer, Lydia is summoned by the prime suspect, one of Chinatown's most powerful men, to continue the search--on his payroll. With backup from her partner Bill Smith, Lydia goes undercover as a dim sum waitress, slinging steamed dumplings while dodging a lethal conflict between the old and the new orders, and searching for the missing waiters and their deadly secret--before someone serves them their last supper

About this title

Review:

There's lots of action, great food, and social insight into the attitudes of various generations of immigrants in S.J. Rozan's fifth book in her superlative Lydia Chin-Bill Smith series. There's also a remarkable moment when Lydia's mother actually admits that she approves of the way her daughter does her job. Mrs. Chin has always hated the fact that Lydia's work as a private detective puts her in danger and in the company of men, like Smith, who don't make suitable husbands. But when Lydia refuses to knuckle under to the demands of a venerable Chinatown patriarch, her mother astonishes her (and us) by praising her "professional manner"--and then goes on to give her a clue that helps her unravel a mystery involving the smuggling of people and drugs. With each novel, Rozan alternates the narrative focus between Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, and this time it's Lydia's turn to take center stage. She uses her ethnicity and acting talent to work undercover as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden (where four illegal aliens have disappeared) and her deep roots in New York's Chinatown to note and comment on subtle changes in the power structure as new Fukienese-speaking immigrants replace the old Cantonese. She and Smith also move their complicated personal relationship forward a notch and consume vast amounts of wonderful food--Chinese, Jewish, even a homemade meatloaf--in a story that manages to satisify all the senses. Previous Chin-Smith outings in paperback: China Trade, Concourse, Mandarin Plaid, and No Colder Place. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher:

"Smart, crisp writing...The rich sights, sounds and textures of daily life in Chinatown are a sumptuous feast for jaded palates." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"You couldn't ask for better company than Lydia." --Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer

"A marvelous series...One of the best P.I. duos in contemporary mystery fiction." --Booklist (starred review)

"Superlative...a story that manages to satisfy all the senses." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Engaging, energetic Lydia is good company." --Philadelphia Inquirer

"Rozan skillfully measures out the layers of double-dealing, keeping her plot just twisty enough to spin it out with consummate professionalism. If you still don't know Lydia and Bill, you'll never have a better chance to meet them." --Kirkus (starred review)

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Dead Letter
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312970110
• ISBN 13: 9780312970116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336