On the Line: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) [Hardcover]

S. J. Rozan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels | Publication Date: September 28, 2010

P.I. Bill Smith is sent on a high stakes chase when an electronically modified voice on his cell phone informs him that Lydia Chin, his occasional partner, has been kidnapped. Now if Bill wants to keep Lydia alive, he’ll have to play an elaborate game of the kidnapper’s devising. The first move sends him to an abandoned building where Bill finds the corpse of a small Chinese woman dressed like Lydia and the building being rapidly surrounded by police. Now Bill is on the run from the cops and in the worst trouble of his very troubled life. With the help of Lydia’s hacker cousin Linus, and Linus’s cohort Trella, Bill has to not only stay one step ahead of the cops, he has to uncover the secret behind the kidnapper’s identity and the reason he’s come after Bill, if he’s to reach Lydia before it’s too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Edgar-winner Rozan's exciting 10th novel featuring New York City PIs Bill Smith and Lydia Chin (after 2009's The Shanghai Moon), Bill receives a phone call from someone using Lydia's cell who claims to have kidnapped Lydia. Lydia gets on the line long enough for Bill to realize this is no joke. The fiend gives Bill a 12-hour deadline, doles out clues that lead to other victims, and changes the "rules" just to keep things interesting. Forced to improvise wildly, Bill finds himself at odds with the cops, who consider him a suspect in at least one murder, but he's fortunate to have such supporters as Lydia's cyber expert cousin, Linus Wong, and Lydia's best friend, NYPD detective Mary Kee. The tension rises as Bill tries to figure out who the villain is and how he can get ahead of someone who holds all the high cards. Some neat twists keep the reader guessing to the surprise kick ending.
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From Booklist

Expecting his partner Lydia Chin’s voice when he picks up his chirping cell phone, PI Bill Smith is shocked to hear an unidentified man on the line, telling him that Lydia is a hostage—and Smith has 12 hours to locate her before she will be killed. Clues to her whereabouts come by phone, delivered by the heckling voice of a man obviously out for vengeance. But for what? To help him track the kidnapper, Bill enlists the aid of Lydia’s nephew, a crackerjack young techie, who brings along his goth girlfriend, a force to be reckoned with all by herself. The trio, aided on the sly by Lydia’s cop-pal Mary, runs a race against the clock, finding little related to Lydia but a lot of kidnapped Chinese prostitutes who need saving, and a vicious pimp who thinks Bill is wrecking his business. With zilch to go on, Bill sees only one option: play along until the lunatic makes a mistake. Of course, that eventually happens, and the action never stops until the lost is found. A high-velocity entry in a reliable series. --Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (September 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312544499
• ISBN-13: 978-0312544492
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,383 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Game On, October 2, 2010

By 

M. Baugh "pulpreader" (Sedona, arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: On the Line: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Hardcover)

S.J. Rozan's new entry in her Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series. Rozan alternates which character narrates the novel and this time it's Bill's turn. In fact, this time Bill's the whole show, though Lydia's presence is felt throughout.

Lydia Chin has been kidnapped by someone from Bill's past, an unstable man obsessed with games. He wants to punish Bill for an old defeat and to crush him in the process. He leaves a series of clues, together with a string of dead or imperiled Chinese prostitutes across New York, and gives Bill 12 hours to solve his riddles or Lydia will die.

Rozan's novels never lack for excitement, but this is the fastest paced. It's more thriller than mystery, but an intelligent thriller with moments of deep insight. It's genuinely tense, but may also be Rozan's funniest book to date. Rozan loves thwarting stereotypes and the assortment of unlikely allies Bill picks up on his quest are amazing. There's Linus, a genius computer hacker and his ultra-competent goth girlfriend, Trella, Lu the Chinatown pimp and his two gorillas (one of whom can be friended on Facebook), Mary, the dead serious and perpetually pissed off cop who is Lydia's best friend, the enigmatic crazed kidnapper, and Woof, the hero-dog.

My descriptions may make them sound trite, but they're anything but. Each of them comes to life with the kind of unexpected depth of a living, breathing human being. The story is improbable, but Rozan moves it along in such a a way that I hardly noticed. My only real gripe is that Bill seemed a little too dense when it came to the mysteries of Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone.

This book is an interesting companion piece for Rozan's last story featuring Bill as narrator, WINTER AND NIGHT. Both are built (in different ways) around competitive sports and both explore the emotional side of the intellectual Bill Smith. I'd call W&N Rozan's darkest novel so far as it took us to some very disturbing places in Bill's psyche. This story pushes him just as far but with a very different result. I won't give away too much but, as a long time fan of the series, I really liked the way this ended and admire the long-term character growth Rozan is putting her characters through.

This continues to be my favorite mystery series and satisfies on every level!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tick-Tock, October 5, 2010

By 

B. G. Ritts "Old Beeg" (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Line: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Hardcover)

Ms. Rozan has written a thriller for this tenth installment of the Smith/Chin P.I. series. Do you remember the chase scene in Bullitt? This book has a similar feel to it.

Bill Smith's occasional partner, Lydia Chin, has been kidnapped and he is given a deadline to find her. The clues are delivered with a sports theme, and the rules seem to change like someone has paid off the ref.

Rozan grows with each book and has here again stretched her writing. She invariably delivers a story worth spending your money on and your time reading. This one is no exception. Enjoy the ride!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Action and humor combine, October 1, 2010

By 

Robin Agnew - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Line: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novels) (Hardcover)

S.J. Rozan's new book is a change up from her last book, THE SHANGHAI MOON. This one is Bill's book, and he's on the hunt for a kidnapped Lydia. Combining clever clues (random items disguised as garbage) and giving Bill only a 12 hour time frame to rescue Lydia, the suspense doesn't let up. What Rozan is so wonderful at is leavening her books with humor - much of it in this book is thanks to Lydia's slacker cousin, Linus, and his friend Trella. There's a bravura scene towards the end where Linus and Trella actually use facebook and twitter to track the killer, leaving Bill utterly astonished. Rozan is also wonderful at plot turns that aren't exactly twists, but they are very unexpected. She keeps you on your toes, supplying great new characters along the way. This book was a total blast to read; I couldn't put it down. The puzzles are as much fun as the suspense.