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Mandarin Plaid: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery
 
 
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Mandarin Plaid: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery [Hardcover]

S. J. Rozan (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 1996
While delivering the ransom payment for a clothing designer's purloined sketches, Lydia Chin has the ransom stolen from her, and she and Bill Smith must find out who stole the sketches, who stole the ransom, and who is now trying to kill them.


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lydia Chin, Rozan's sharp, funny and sexy detective who operates out of New York's Chinatown, is back in action in this lively story about the fashion industry -- from the glamorous designer studios to the sweatshops where illegal immigrants do the dirty work. Lydia knows the sweatshop scene well: her mother worked in one while she was growing up. Now she and her sometimes dangerous partner, Bill Smith, have to find out who will do anything -- including murder -- to keep a young designer from launching her new company. (Previous Lydia Chin books are China Trade and Concourse.)

From Booklist

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

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 275 pages
  • Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312146744
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312146740
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,249,393 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

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent Rozan mystery, November 29, 1999
By A Customer
This book loses a star for a plot that is not quite up to Rozan's usual high standard (but is still not bad). It would be a mistake to pass this one up, though, in spite of the plot flaws. The characters are terrific, as is the dialogue. The ending is very suspenseful. The best thing about this book, however, is the two detectives. After a somewhat shaky start in China Trade, Lydia Chin and Bill Smith have improved to become extremely entertaining. The chemistry between these two could burn a house down. (Rozan has wisely toned down Bill's fawning over Lydia). In sum, very worthwhile.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Best Rozan so far., April 2, 1999
By A Customer
Of the first four Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mysteries, this is the best. Rozan does better in the books narrated by Chin than in those narrated by Smith, and the plot, while not quite believable, is more involving and coherent than in China Trade. Rozan is at her best when describing the life of Chin, living both in the tradtional world of Chinatown and in the contemporary world of Manhattan. It's a good "trash" read for your next beach day or airline flight.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Lydia's back in the lead - Yea!, January 3, 2002
By 
Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
In my recent review of "Concourse," I bemoaned the lack of Lydia in the story. The great news is that Lydia is definately back in place as the protagonist in this book. Bill Smith is still around but only in a supporting role. Why is this important?

First, the mystery itself returns to having Lydia's Chinese ancestry and life in Chinatown play a major plot in the book. Concourse was just another Caucasian mystery in many ways. It also sees the return of the lots of insights on life as a Chinese-American daughter and younger sister. In sum, this book has much of the atmosphere and humor that I enjoyed so much in the first book, "China Trade."

The mystery itself is only so-so. Lydia's hired to deliever a blackmail payment for a clothes designer. The list of possible suspects is pretty short and it wasn't hard to guess the ending. Still, I enjoyed the characters and the setting so much that I didn't really mind.

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First Sentence:
It's not that I don't like spring in Madison Square Park-I'm a fan of the fat little buds on the trees and the sun sparkling off the puddles. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
water spinach, cropped top
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Roland Lum, Wayne Lewis, John Ryan, Lydia Chin, Andi Shechter, Genna Jing, New York, Mandarin Plaid, Ling Wan-ju, Peng Hui Liang, Canal Street, Miss Chin, Pearl Moon, Harry Krch, Miss Jing, Hong Kong, Tai Hong Lau, David Kim, Union Square, Eighth Avenue, Flu Shing, Marie Leclerq, Market Week, Mishika Yamamoto, Thirteenth Precinct
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