A Bitter Feast [Paperback]

S. J. Rozan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1998

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

While lots of amazing events happen in Rozan's fifth book in her superlative Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, none surprises more than the moment when Lydia's mother actually admits that she approves of the way her daughter does her job. Mrs. Chin has always hated that her daughter's work as a PI puts her in danger and bad company, namely that of men, like Bill, who don't make suitable husbands. But when Lydia refuses to knuckle under to the demands of a Chinatown patriarch, her mother astonishes her by praising her "professional manner"?and then gives her a clue that helps her unravel a mystery involving the smuggling of people and drugs. Since Bill took center stage in the Shamus Award-winning Rozan's last book, No Colder Place (1997), this time it's Lydia's turn in the spotlight. Working undercover as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden, where four illegal aliens have disappeared, Lydia calls upon 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 Bill also move their 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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (August 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312291701
• ISBN-13: 978-0312291709
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,605,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SJ Rozan was born and raised in the Bronx and is proud of it. She spent over twenty years as an architect in New York City and is kind of proud of that, too. Now she writes and teaches. She's done 10 books in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series (the newest, ON THE LINE, comes out Sept. 28, 2010) and two standalones. She's also published three dozen short stories. A collection of her stories, A TALE ABOUT A TIGER, is available, and a second volume is coming.

SJ's work has won the Edgar, Anthony, Shamus, Nero and Macavity Awards, and she's a recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon. She's served on the National Boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She's a past President of the Private Eye Writers of America. She's been Guest of Honor at Left Coast Crime (El Paso, 2003), Toastmaster at Bouchercon (Indianapolis, 2009), an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (2003) and as if that weren't enough, she has the key to the city of Fort Worth, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sumptuously Hard-Boiled, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Bitter Feast (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

With this sumptuously hard-boiled fifth installment in her acclaimed Lydia Chin-Bill Smith series -- which gracefully alternates between the voice of Lydia, a gutsy PI born and raised in New York's Chinatown, and her off-again, on-again partner, Bill -- Shamus-winning Rozan will no doubt regale her fans.

Hired to find four waiters who've gone missing from the Dragon Garden, a busy dim sum establishment owned by a local Cantonese power player, Lydia gets herself a job as a waitress and goes to work on the joint, all the while offering insight into how the community power structure has been transformed as Fukienese-speaking immigrants have superseded the older Cantonese.

And soon enough Lydia and Bill uncover a mystery -- involving drug-smuggling, alien-smuggling and dissident-smuggling -- that brings that ethnic conflict into sharp focus. All in all, a beautiful and gripping novel, brimming with spice, complexity and suspense. (And food -- enormous, mouth-watering quantities of it.) --APBnews.com

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unable to pass up, unbearable to put down, November 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Bitter Feast (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Hardcover)

Ever since I began reading S.J. Rozan, I've been convinced that she is secretly Chinese. Being part Chinese myself, I've found that she more than any other author has conveyed to me what it's like to be a young Chinese American living with an exasperating traditional mother and fighting against racism and sexism to be a P.I. Lydia Chin is a wonderfully believable and likeable character, and in this novel she must resist the pressure to be a stereotypical good Chinese girl and give up her search to find four Chinese waiters who are involved the unionization of a Chinese restaurant. I've also been in love with Lydia's partner, Bill Smith, and throughout her five mysteries have rooted for the two of them to get together. Congratulations to Rozan for creating another enjoyable and exciting mystery.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Rozan's best novel to date., February 16, 2000

By 

Roger Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Bitter Feast (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read Rozan's first five novels and they are all very good but this is clearly her best yet. This book has it all: a complex, realistic plot that keeps you guessing until the end, interesting, well-developed characters, great dialogue and a very exciting conclusion. Bill and Lydia are more interesting and entertaining than ever. The thing that impresses me most about this book, however, is simply how well it is written. Rozan's writing is clean and precise and her discriptions of Chinatown are so good I almost felt like I was there. Rozan is now my favorite mystery writer and I hope she writes many, many more.