It's a city within a city, of smells, sounds, dark shops, and close-knit families; it's a world all its own. And in all of New York's Chinatown, there is no one like P.I. Lydia Chin, who has a nose for trouble, a disapproving Chinese mother, and a partner named Bill Smith who's been living above a bar for sixteen years. Hired to find some precious stolen porcelain, Lydia follows a trail of clues from highbrow art dealers into a world of Chinese gangs. Suddenly, this case has become as complex as her community itself--and as deadly as a killer on the loose... ### From Publishers Weekly Rozan's debut novel, focusing both on china, the porcelain, and on the homeland of many inhabitants of New York City's Chinatown, introduces likable Asian-American PI, Lydia Chin. Lydia, hired by the Chinatown Pride museum to recover stolen antique porcelains, confronts the leaders of rival Chinatown gangs in hopes of flushing out the robbers. With information gleaned from a meek scholar who habitually steals tiny porcelains from prominent collections, Lydia discovers an antiquities-laundering business that crosses all socioeconomic strata. Her sidekick, full-time sleuth Bill Smith, provides an element of sexual tension; the resolution hinges on a silly scheme in which Lydia sets herself up to be attacked by a hit man and rescued by her cooperative NYPD pals. Rozan shows a knack for characterizing Chinatown's denizens, apothecaries, shops and food, but her story has more flavor than substance. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Booklist It's always exciting to read the first novel of a newcomer with a distinctive voice and the talent to put a new spin on an established genre. Such is the case with this page-turning mystery introducing Lydia Chin, a Chinese American private investigator living in New York City's Chinatown. When the Chinatown Museum is robbed of a set of rare porcelains, the chair of the board of directors calls in her friend Lydia, despite the opposition of Lydia's brother, Tim, a board member embarrassed by his sister's occupation (not suitable for a respectable Chinese woman) and afraid that her failure to solve the crime will make him lose face. Working with her sometime partner Bill Smith, Lydia finds a connection between the shadowy underworld of the tongs (Chinese gangs) and the black market in stolen art, which leads in turn to violence and danger--definitely unsuitable surroundings in the eyes of Lydia's family. Rozan's Chinatown setting has the ring of authenticity, and Lydia is a true original. A very promising start to what shapes up as a top-flight series. *Stuart Miller*

It is China, 1938. Eighteen-year-old Rosalie Gilder flees Nazi-occupied Austria with her younger brother. Hidden among their belongings are a few precious family heirlooms, their only protection against the hard times that await them as they join Shanghai 's growing population of Jewish refugees.

Most people believe Jimmy Antonelli is bad to the bone.....New York detective – and an old friend of the family – Bill Smith is one of the few people who has ever been willing to give Jimmy a second chance. Given his own brushes with the law, Bill has an unsurprising sympathy for the youngest Antonelli brother.But this time Jimmy has gone too far. There’s a corpse of a local gangster in the cellar of Antonelli’s bar and Jimmy has disappeared... But finding Jimmy is going to be a whole lot easier than proving his innocence...A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Crime Novel

'In twelve hours Lydia Chin will be dead...'The phone call comes in the early hours. A cold, electronic voice informs detective Bill Smith that his best friend is being held hostage. And the clock is ticking... If Bill wants his partner back he'll have to play the kidnapper's sadistic game to find her - and find her fast - before the psycho makes good his promise to kill her... Please note this novel is called ON THE LINE in the US.Review "Perfect plotting wrapped inside amazing mile-a-minute suspense...does it get any better?" Lee Child "Some neat twists keep the reader guessing to the surprise kick ending" Publishers Weekly "the action never stops ...A high-velocity entry in a reliable series" Booklist "If you long for heart-stopping action and the most original characters outside of P.J. Tracy's Monkeewrench Gang, look no further" Library Journal "All the twists you'd expect from Rozan, but speeded up within an inch of their lives, just like the summer movie this yarn ought to spawn" Kirkus About the Author S.J. ROZAN was born and raised in the Bronx and is a long-time Manhattan resident. An architect for many years, she is now a full-time writer. Her critically acclaimed, award-winning novels and stories have won most of crime fiction's greatest honours, including the Edgar, Anthony, Shamus, Macavity and the Nero Award. 

Bill Smith is going undercover again as a favor to an old friend who wants him to investigate thievery on the 40-story Manhattan site of Crowell Construction's latest project. His bricklaying is a little rusty, but passable as he checks out the foreman who's under suspicion. A crane operator has disappeared--along with some heavy machinery. But when a well-orchestrated riot causes the foreman's "accidental" death, Smith plunges into a morass of bribery, blackmail and blood looking for answers. With the help of his Chinese-American partner Lydia Chin, he follows a trail of twisted loyalties, old-fashioned greed and organized crime to its heart-stopping conclusion. Murder--with no end in sight. S.J. Rozan won the 1998 Anthony Award for *No Colder Place*. ### Amazon.com Review S. J. Rozan is a New York architect who knows how to design a fine mystery novel: by doing her homework, using the best quality materials, and keeping the surprises coming until the very end. In her fourth book about unlikely detective partners Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, Rozan plants Smith high up in the clouds, laying brick on a troubled building site while Chin gets a job as a secretary in the construction bosses' trailer. Both see plenty of action, as what at first appears to be a simple case of a few crooked construction workers becomes a much more complicated story of twisted family relationships. Previous Chin/Smith outings available in paperback include *Mandarin Plaid*, *China Trade*, and *Concourse*. ### From Kirkus Reviews It's a lucky thing for p.i. Bill Smith that he's got construction experience; it's a perfect cover for him to get close to masonry foreman Joe Romeo--who's suspected of bookmaking, mob connections, and a lot worse--at the same time that he's keeping an eye on the suspicious series of accidents at the new 40-story apartment building that's rising at Broadway and 99th. In no time at all Bill's succeeded in persuading his partner, Mike DiMaio, that he isn't much of a mason, and he's placed his first off-track bet with Romeo. But don't count on his collecting very soon, since Romeo promptly joins missing crane operator Lenny Pelligrini and mortar mixer Reg Phillips as the latest casualty of the Armstrong building. At the same time that Bill's turning up evidence linking the cycle of violence to Louie Falco (mobbed-up childhood friend of Chuck DeMattis, the colleague who hired Bill to go undercover), Bill's partner Lydia Chin, also undercover at the Armstrong site, overhears hints that implicate general contractors Dan Crowell Sr. and Dan Crowell Jr., and take-no-prisoners Denise Armstrong herself points the finger at employment-coalition agitator Chester Hamilton. Is there any builder or subcontractor or unaffiliated lowlife in New York who doesn't have a finger in the Armstrong pie? Despite the epidemic of corruption, Rozan's focus on the tragic Armstrong building makes this the sharpest, clearest, most purposefully focused of her four Smith/Chin mysteries (Mandarin Plaid, 1996, etc.). (Author tour) -- *Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.*