Mandarin Plaid

Lydia Chin, a Chinese-American P.I. who lives in New York City's Chinatown, is hired for a simple job. She's to deliver the ransom for a set of stolen sketches that comprise the inaugural collection of fashion designer Genna Jing and her new label, Mandarin Plaid. But everything on this simple job goes terribly wrong.
The ransom is stolen out from under Lydia, her sometimes partner, Bill Smith, is arrested, and just as she is trying to sort out exactly what is really going on, the client fires her. Lydia, however, isn't about to just let it go. Determined to find answers, and preserve her pride, Lydia and Bill follow a confusing trail that leads from the sweatshops of Chinatown to the drawing rooms of Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side and into a dark underworld of prostitution, drugs, and murder. All they need to uncover is: who stole the sketches, who hijacked the ransom payment, and, most important, who would kill to keep them from the truth.

It sounds like a simple job for Lydia Chin: deliver a $50,000 ransom for the stolen sketches of fledgling designer Genna Jing's initial collection. But when Lydia's only steps from the drop-off point, with her partner Bill Smith covering her back, somebody opens fire on her, and in the ensuing melee the envelope vanishes. Did the extortionist sabotage his own pickup, and why? Pressed to identify a likely perp, Genna can only think of runway show producer Wayne Lewis, but he's killed (same gun) before Lydia can get to her showdown with him, and Genna's left with no money, no clue, and no guarantee that the sketch thief won't renew his demands. It's only the latest bad break for Genna. Factory owner Roland Lum has pulled out of his deal to sew her line; the silver buttons she'd designed one of her premier dresses around have become unavailable; and Eleanor Talmadge Ryan, her boyfriend's imperious mother, has demanded she stop seeing John. So it's no wonder she fires Lydia, who's promptly hired by Roland to find a seamstress missing from his factory. Lydia, disguising herself as a novice model, a French advertising executive, and an American's idea of a stereotypical Chinese, eventually works out the links between Genna's problems, the missing Peng Hui Liang, and a local prostitution ring--but if this all sounds confusing, it is. Lydia's still an appealing heroine, but this vehicle is plotted within an inch of its life, without the controlling vision that made her first two novels (Concourse, 1995; China Trade, 1994) so provocative. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Private investigators Lydia Chin and Bill Smith enter the world of New York's high-fashion business, hired by aspiring designer Genna Jing when the sketches for her first solo show are stolen and held for a $50,000 ransom. Lydia makes the drop while Bill waits to follow whoever picks up the envelope--only neither one anticipated that Lydia would be shot at and that the money would disappear in the ensuing confusion. Thus begins an extremely convoluted and fast-paced plot that takes Lydia and Bill from Chinatown sweatshops to very "in" clubs frequented by models and drug dealers. Along the way, Lydia struggles with her brothers' habit of treating her as the "little sister" to be protected, her mother's repeated attempts at matchmaking, and her own feelings about Bill and where their relationship is headed. The first installment in this series was impressive; subsequent ones just keep getting better and better. Don't miss this one. Stuart Miller