The Shanghai Moon (Lydia Chin and Bill Smith Series #9)

From the Publisher

"To read S.J. Rozan is to experience the kind of pure pleasure only a master can deliver."

—Dennis Lehane

"With Winter and Night, S. J. Rozan paints with the full pallette of the human heart, using depth, detail, and nuance of character I haven't seen since Raymond Chandler (Yes, I mean it.)"

— Robert Crais

"Featuring two of my favorite characters in crime fiction, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin, Winter and Night is a chilling and compelling look at the dark roots of violence among American teens. The most intense and topical works from one of America's finest crime writers today."

— Linda Fairstein

"engrossing storytelling ... As 'The Shanghai Moon' demonstrates, there's plenty of possibility lurking in the old missing-gems plot. It just takes a master like S.J. Rozan to restore the luster of a classic." —Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

Maureen Corrigan

Publishers Weekly

The hunt for a valuable brooch propels Edgar-winner Rozan's ninth Lydia Chin and Bill Smith nail-biter (after 2002's Winter and Night). In 1938, Rosalie Gilder, an 18-year-old Jewish refugee, left Nazi-annexed Austria for Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where she married the aristocratic Chen Kai-Rong. Chen had a jeweler create the Shanghai Moon, a brooch combining Rosalie's mother's diamonds with his ancestors' rare jade. Its disappearance during WWII interests treasure hunters in the present day. When Wong Pan, a corrupt Chinese official, steals Rosalie's jewelry box, recently unearthed in Shanghai, a Swiss asset-recovery specialist hires Joel Pilarsky, Lydia's friend and associate, to recover it in New York City, where Wong has fled in hopes of selling Rosalie's jewels on the black market. After Joel's murdered, Lydia and Bill follow a trail to Manhattan's Chinatown, where they encounter Rosalie's son and other relatives eager to recover the brooch. More surprises abound before Lydia and Bill can put the curse of the luminous Shanghai Moon to rest in Rozan's rich blend of historical mystery and contemporary suspense. Author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal

After a seven-year hiatus, PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith are back on the mean streets of New York City. A colleague hires Lydia to find a Chinese police officer who has absconded with jewelry belonging to a Jewish refugee family who had fled to Shanghai in 1938. The man is presumed to be in New York trying to sell it. Soon other complications ensue, as another Chinese cop is found dead. Using letters and journal entries from the 1930s and 1940s, Rozan sets the stage for the modern quest for the missing valuables stolen from Jews during the Holocaust. She also gives us a brilliant look into the culture of Chinese American families today and an exciting mystery. Readers who have waited patiently for this one will not be disappointed. Highly recommended. [Library marketing; see Prepub Mystery, LJ10/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews