Customer Reviews

The Shanghai Moon: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Novel

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Lydia Chin is asked by her mentor, Joel Pilarsky, to help locate missing jewelry dating back to WWII. A cache of jewelry had been found in Shanghai and identified as belonging to European Jews attempting to escape Hitler's influence. A Chinese official is suspected of stealing the jewels. The jewels might be circulating in Chinatown and Lydia knows that area.

Soon after Lydia begins her search, Pilarsky is murdered. Then Lydia learns that one of the pieces she's looking for is the Shanghai Moon, a rare, valuable gem.

When Pilarsky is killed, Bill Smith, Lydia's former partner, and more, contacts her and they agree to work the case together. A usual part of the stories with these two characters is the interesting bi-play between them about their relationship but, sadly, there is little of that in this novel.

S. J. Rozan has provided her readers with a good mystery and a history lesson. Rosalie Gilder's letters to her mother, during the time of termoil around WWII brings out the fears and longing for a better world that the Jews must have felt at that time. I felt as if I was reading an updated "The Diary of Ann Frank" from the point of view of a young Jewish woman exposed to the terrible aspects of Hitler's hatred and persecution.

The setting of Chinatown in New York is well described. With Lydia's mother preparing special meals and giving her views on things, it's as if the reader is looking into the window of life in that part of the city. The plot is complex but the story is interesting and enlightening, worth the effort.

THE SHANGHAI MOON is the ninth installment in S.J. Rozan's award winning Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series. It's been seven years since we last had a look at our favorite New York City P.I.s.

This 'who done it/where is it' gives us a group of today's greedy types unfolding against the Shanghai of World War II. The 'Shanghai Moon' is a rumored heirloom of antique jade -- which may not exist -- and people are dying because of it. Chin and Smith once again do a professional job of unraveling what's afoot.

The author's two intervening standalone books, in which she experimented with and stretched her writing, resonate here with a lovely new patina surrounding Lydia and Bill. The prose is beautifully Rozan, and she has crafted a poignant history lesson in the letters chronicling the uncommon love story that backdrops the book. I can not overstate how much I enjoyed this book. Highly recommended!

First Sentence: "I'm back."

PI Lydia Chin is back from a case that took her to China, but she is estranged from her friend and partner, Bill Smith. Her former mentor, Joel Pilarsky, contacts her to work on a case with him as he needs a connection to the Chinese community.

During WWII, China accepted refugees fleeing Europe. Rosalie Gilder and her brother were sent to Shanghai ahead of their parents, along with the family jewelry. Rosalie meets and marries a Chinese gentleman and in celebration a piece of jewelry is created using hundreds-of-years-old jade and diamonds from Rosalie's mother's necklace. That piece, known as the Shanghai Moon, disappeared after the way and is much sought by collectors.

Now jewelry, identified as belonging to Rosalie, has been found during an excavation in Shanghai, but the Moon is not among them. A lawyer specializing in Holocaust assets recovery asks for Pilarsky and Lydia's help. After a murder, Bill rejoins with Lydia to find the necklace and the truth.

I have so missed this series. Those who have followed it know that the protagonist alternates with each book, and this was Lydia's turn. But part of what makes the books work is the uncertainty of the relationship between the two characters and where it might, or might never, lead.

Rozen does create great characters, brings them to life. She is masterful in blending the two cultures and educating us about both.

I love Rozan's use of dialogue and humor, particularly Lydia's mental conversations. They add just the right touch of lightness to the story.

And this story was particularly good. There was fascinating information about the recent history of China and their taking in refugees during the war. I learned things I had never known.

I loved Rozan's use of Rosalie's letters and found them fascinating. The plot was so well done. It twisted direction with nearly every chapter.

All I can say is that I hope we don't have to wait as long for the next Lydia Chin/Bill Smith book.

A friend pointed out that the four most important words in any relationship -- even more than "I love you," -- are, "I've got your back."

I've been a fan of S.J. Rozan's Lydia Chin & Bill Smith series of contemporary mysteries for quite some time, primarily because these two sometime partners truly embody the essence of "I've got your back" which, for me, is far sexier than 92% of the so-called "romance" novels lining the shelves of the average bookstore. I am delighted that a new book is finally available.

The plot of Rozan's latest book, "The Shanghai Moon," ostensibly revolves around a legendary piece of missing jewelry. However, the real story is about complex loyalties and human connections. What secrets do we hide to protect ourselves? What secrets do we hide to protect others? And what happens when these secrets collide?

Through letters, diaries, and government records, Bill and Lydia strive to untangle the path of the Shanghai Moon from its birth in the Jewish/European expatriate community of WWII Shanghai to a murder in modern day New York City. Rozan manages to seamlessly weave the various narratives to provide a depth of motivation, perspective, and humanity beyond a simple whodunnit.

I'll be honest: I love these books, and if you haven't read the others in the series, I highly recommend them. At the same time, other than the context of some of the ongoing relationships, The Shanghai Moon easily stands on its own. It's fascinating, heartbreaking, fun, and real. I hope it finds the audience it deserves.

Murder, theft, fraud, alienated family members, New York and Shanghai police, and the phony identity of one character are all present in this classy and complex mystery about a missing gem brought to Shanghai in the 1930s by a Jewish refugee. A not-so-truthful Swiss attorney who specializes in Holocaust reparations hires detective Joel Pilarsky to find the jewel. He in turn hires Lydia Chin to help. When Joel is brutally killed, Lydia turns to her longtime partner Bill Smith to solve the murder and track down the missing jewel. What follows is exciting, unnerving, and sometimes confusing, but in the end it's a helluva read. Rojan writes accurately and convincingly about the Jewish refugee experience in Shanghai and keeps the story moving ahead in unexpected ways. I'm off to obtain some more Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mysteries!

In 1938 eighteen years old Jew Rosalie Gilder, carrying her mom's diamonds, flees Nazi Austria for Shanghai in spite of the Japanese occupation. There she marries aristocrat Chen Kai-Rong. As a show of harmony between them Chen commissions a local jeweler to create the Shanghai Moon brooch that combines the gems of his wife's mom with his family rare jade heirloom. The Shanghai Moon vanished during WWII.

In the present in Shanghai, Rosalie's jewelry box is found, but disappears again almost immediately after surfacing when Chinese government official Wong Pan steals it before fleeing to New York. A Swiss asset-recovery specialist hires Joel Pilarsky to retrieve the box assumed to be with Wong in Manhattan before he sells it to unscrupulous collectors. When Joel is murdered, his friends Lydia Chin and Bill Smith follow clues that take them to Chinatown where they run into the son of Chen and Rosalie and other family members wanting to obtain the Shanghai Moon.

It has been a few years since Chin- Smith teamed up (see REFLECTIONS IN THE SKY and WINTER AND NIGHT), but the wait was worth it. Their latest contemporary urban thriller is a fast-paced and exciting tale that comes out of the gate filled with action even before the heroes join the fray. Adding to the fun is the historical subplot re THE SHANGHAI MOON brooch that in the present has several people avariciously lusting for it; with at least one willing to kill to obtain the jewelry piece. Fans will appreciate the return of the Manhattan duo as the East comes to the West in S.J. Rozan's tense mystery.

Harriet Klausner

After a hiatus of several years, S.J. Rozan has returned to her Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series, and the return is worth the wait.

If you're not familiar with this series, I can't recommend it highly enough. Rozan has created one of the greatest partnerships ever in detective fiction. Bill Smith is a big, rugged, smart-mouthed private eye with an intellectual bent and a troubled past. (If that sounds like a typical detective character, he's not. Rozan injects him with a complex and subtle personality that lifts him far out of crowd). Lydia is Bill's opposite in many ways, young, small, Chinese-American, and, though dazzlingly intelligent in her own right, much less intellectual in her interests. The two are best friends and partners with an undercurrent of sexual tension that the author has deftly kept going through eleven novels.

The novels alternate points of view, with each character acting as first person narrator in the novels centering on them. In other words, half the novels are Bill Smith mysteries with Lydia showing up in a supporting role, and the other half are Lydia mysteries. This time around it's Lydia as narrator in a story that has its roots in a love story that goes back to an obscure and remarkable bit of Chinese history.

It seems that, during the rise of the Nazis in Europe, there were very few nations willing to accept Jewish refugees. For many Jews fleeing Hitler's terror, the only safe port they could find was the city of Shanghai, and a large Jewish section formed in the city for a few years. Rozan uses this as the backdrop for the poignant love story between a refugee girl and a wealthy Chinese man and draws the history out gently and slowly as their story is told through letters and journals. She crowns this with the 'Shanghai Moon', a piece of jewelry the lovers commission that gives the novel its title.

This was a risky move because the jewel irresistible reminded me of the Maltese Falcon. Each was the heart and soul of its story. The quest for the Moon was reminiscent of the quest for the Falcon, and forms the central mystery of the novel. Ultimately both stories reveal that the story isn't about the titular item at all, it's about the people whose lives it touches.

But as much as I was struck by the similarities of the two stories, I was more deeply impressed by their differences. The final revelations about the Shanghai Moon set apart from the Falcon with an emotional reality that is very different from Hammett's, and even more powerful. His novel closes with a cynical kind of lonely integrity, hers with a hard-won sense of how precious the love of true friends and family can be. She's done something really audacious, inviting comparison with one of the great classics of the mystery genre and, amazingly, she has carried it off. It seems to me that there is a dialogue between the two novels that would worth a book in itself.

It's hard to find a weak point in Rozan's writing. Her characters have the kind of reality that few authors can accomplish, her mysteries tend to be both intellectually and emotionally satisfying, she has a real gift for creating a sense of place, and she is an amazing researcher.

All of this comes out in SHANGHAI MOON in wonderful ways. She has taken an obscure but fascinating bit of history, the little-known (certainly I hadn't ever heard of it) fact that Shanghai was for a time the only port welcoming the Jews who were fleeing the rise of Nazism in Europe.

That's just my own thought, and the reader doesn't need to be familiar with Hammett's story at all to appreciate THE SHANGHAI MOON. It's a wonderful story filled with the vivid characters Rozan is known for. You develop a real appreciation for all of them, from Lydia and Bill in the present, to Rosalie and Kai-Rong in the past, and so many more. We understand these characters and why they do the things they do, even down to the vain but noble Mei-Lin, the loyal, tough Mary Kee, Lydia's always wonderful but impossible mother, and cousin 'Armpit'. She makes us really care about these people and gives them a good ending--not a Hollywood feel-good ending but something that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying on a much deeper level.

In short, there are a lot of levels on which this novel will satisfy you. It's a clever mystery with a great conclusion. It is also, by turns, tragic, funny, clever, moving, and surprising. It is a great entry in what is, in my opinion, one of the very best mystery series being written.

Rozan starts the novel with the words, "I'm back." Which is probably the best way to get around the idea that we haven't heard from Lydia Chin Ling Wan-ju in seven years. She's mad at Bill for what happened with his nephew in "Winter and Night" which is the only flaw in the book. Not having read about them for seven years, makes all of the anger at what happened and then right back to working together and Mama Chin a little hard to take. Lydia would now be in her mid-thirties (and Bill close to 50), and Mama should be happy that any man would be interested in her (even a 'lo faan').

This is the same problem I have with the detectives of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct or Bill Pronzini's 'Nameless' detective. They don't age like the rest of us, but like comic strip characters, though the society the live in does seem to move along with us. I know that it's petty but that's just MHO.

OK, to the story, it's all related to the eponymous jewel that was created in wartime Shanghai as a wedding gift for an Austrian Jew who was marrying a Chinese. The brooch had taken on a mystical legend like the 'holy grail' and was considered one of the lost treasures from the war. When some jewelry that was dug up in Shanghai during construction that belonged to the original owner is stolen, everyone involved is sure that the "Moon" is part of the collection. The thief is a middle level official from China who has 'escaped' to the US.

Now, bear with me, Lydia gets a call from a orthodox Jew who is also a PI. He has been hired by an American lawyer who is living in Switzerland and tracks down 'holocaust' treasures for families. The lawyer has been hired to find the jewelry and the thief. Lydia is hired by the other PI because they think he'll try to sell it in Chinatown, and who's better equipped to look for it then Lydia. Of course she has to get Bill back into the situation, and since the original owners letters from Shanghai are written in German (which Bill speaks fluently), you get the picture.

Lots of people get involved, including the children of the original owner and his cousins and other assorted relatives, not to mentions friends of Lydia's family and their cousins and relatives (you could really use a scorecard to keep track of who's who). Needless to say everything works out in the end (surprise), and Bill and Lydia haven't done anything more intimate that drink tea together. (So what, their waiting for her mother to die, or till there to old to remember what they're supposed to do together?)

What is the saving grace of the book is Rozan's creation of wartime Shanghai, the problems of Jewish refugees from Europe finding someplace to emigrate to, the multiple civil and uncivil wars going on in China at the time, and how love finds you especially when your not looking for it. Oh, the mixed marriage in 1938 Shanghai, and the Eurasian children are a nice hint as to what could be the future for Lydia and Bill, but I doubt it. Hope this won't be the last effort for Rozan.

Zeb Kantrowitz
zbestblogaround.blogspot.com

While reading this latest book in the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series, it occurred to me that I had more than the usual cravings for Chinese take out. And I noticed that I had begun to drink tea more often. (I guess this means I was identifying more with Lydia than with Bill.) That's the kind of artful and subtle effect SJ Rozan's writing may have on you. This unintended but welcome consequence was stronger than with the previous books in the series, and so it must reflect the evolution and growth both of the characters in the book and of the author's writing.

"The Shanghai Moon" marks the return of private detectives Lydia Chin and Bill Smith (introduced in SJ Rozan's "China Trade" in 1994), continuing where "Winter and Night" left off seven years ago. "The Shanghai Moon" has all the familiar and wonderful characteristics of the previous books in the series. But particularly interesting in this latest installment is the fascinating backstory -- the story of the European Jewish refugees who emigrated to Shanghai during the rise of Nazism prior to World War II, one of the few places in the world that would accept them. The personal stories of the characters are touching and emotional, and the descriptions of life in Shanghai during this time are immersive and riveting.

The complex plot, the very real characters, the fascinating historical context and the great writing all add up to a solid five-star recommendation.

It's been a long time between books, but she's finally back! Edgar-winning novelist S.J. Rozan returns to her wonderful Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series for a superb look at how history informs all of our actions. Without giving the intricate plot away, let's just say it involves Jewish refugees in China during World War II, a stolen heirloom and skullduggery among rival factions in modern-day Chinatown.
As always, Rozan's dialogue crackles -- especially in the scenes between Lydia and her mother -- and her plotting is sure and surprising. But in "The Shanghai Moon" (a nod to the great Wilkie Collins novel, "The Moonstone"), Rozan also explores the ramifications of a lesser-known part of Jewish history. Within the framework of first-rate mystery, Rozan examines how one can never escape one's past and how the preconceptions a family has about its ancestors can inform, for better or worse, its life decisions.
The novel is set now, and in the turbulent years of World War II through letters, and these letters from the past give us a superb portrait of the effects of global events on individuals' lives. This book would not only be great for mystery fans, but for book groups as well, since it is such an intelligent and dynamic look at the making of the modern world. All that, and it's a wonderful read. Highly recommended.