S.J. Rozan's reputation grows with every new installment in her lively series starring the redoubtable Lydia Chin, a twentysomething New York PI and her partner Bill Smith. Here Lydia's venerable family friend Grandfather Gao dispatches the twosome to Hong Kong to deliver a jade amulet to the grandson of Wei Yao-Shi, whose American family knew nothing of the son and heir he left in Asia. A simple assignment quickly turns into a kidnapping, as Chin and Smith make their way through the complex world of triad politics, Asian intrigue, and the smuggling of Chinese antiquities. Along the way, Rozan treats us to an insider's view of Hong Kong; if someone you know is headed in that direction, this would be a great guidebook as well as a diverting plane read.

The relationship between the two protagonists has a nice subtext; there's sufficient sexual tension to spice up the narrative, but not enough to slow down the action. Rozan excels at pacing, and her characters are complex enough to linger in the reader's mind after the last page is turned. This is a standout performance from a writer who ought to break out in the bestseller ranks with this eighth in a series that keeps getting better. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
The seventh Bill Smith/Lydia Chin novel proves that Rozan's Shamus (for Concourse) and Anthony (for No Colder Place) awards were no fluke. This is a beautifully written book with a sophisticated plot, rich in both action and atmosphere. After 1999's Stone Quarry, told from Smith's point of view, this outing belongs to Chin. At 28, Lydia is a product of New York's Chinatown, where Grandfather Gao, a community elder, has watched over her family all her life. So it's a great honor when he asks her to travel--with professional partner Smith--to Hong Kong to deliver three precious items: the ashes of an old friend for burial, a note from that friend to his brother and a valuable jade to the friend's seven-year-old grandson. The job seems too easy to require two licensed PI's, but there are complications: the friend had two wives and two sons--one family in Hong Kong, one in the U.S. Neither son knew about the other until the will was read. Chin and Smith arrive at the Hong Kong son's apartment to find it ransacked and the grandson kidnapped. Lydia and Bill are both suspects and searchers, in a chase that pits them against a criminal triad and subjects them to the torrid heat and rushing crowds of Hong Kong. Rozan is an architect, and the structure of this book sets a high standard. Every twist of the plot rises from a foundation of truthful emotions and motives solidly rooted in the characters' cultures. Every bit of humor and evocative description serves the action; there's not a smidgen of clunky exposition as the Chin-Smith relationship continues to grow and fascinate. Agent, Steve Axelrod. (Feb. 6)Forecast: With an author tour and major promotion from the publisher, plus enthusiastic blurbs from some big mystery stars--Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos and Michael Connelly--this could well be Rozan's break-out book.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
New York PI Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith make a welcome return in the seventh installment of this outstanding series. Lydia is hired by her grandfather, Gao, a respected herbalist in the New York Chinese commmunity, to carry out what seems to be a very simple task: fly to Hong Kong with the ashes of an old friend of Gao's, deliver a family heirloom to the friend's young grandson, hand over a letter to the boy's aged uncle, and oversee the burial of the ashes. The straightforward assignment takes a crooked turn when the grandson is kidnapped and his frantic parents receive ransom demands from two different people. More or less shunted aside by the family, Lydia and Bill find themselves trying to figure out how to fulfill their obligations in a place where they don't know the rules and they have no contacts or allies. As usual, it's a fast-paced, rip-roaring ride. Great characters, intricate plotting, and a exotic locale, beautifully described--Who could ask for anything more? Well, perhaps Rozan could have included the recipes for all the fabulous noodle and seafood dishes that Bill and Lydia devour throughout their visit. This is definitely a don't-miss book in a don't-miss series. Stuart Miller
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Like S. J. Rozan's previous books, Reflecting the Sky features the disparate, oddly complementary pair of private investigators who first appeared in China Trade: middle-aged Caucasian Bill Smith and his petite, impulsive Chinese-American partner, Lydia Chin. But this time out, Rozan removes her characters from the familiar environs of Manhattan and drops them into the alien society of postcolonial Hong Kong. The result is a complex, satisfying suspense story and a compelling portrait of an exotic corner of the modern world.

An unusual feature of Rozan's novels is the fact that she alternates narrators from book to book. This time out, Lydia tells the story, which begins when she accepts a seemingly straightforward assignment from Grandfather Gao, resident eminence of New York's Chinatown. Gao, acting as executor for his recently deceased childhood friend, Wei Yao-shi, wants her to deliver two personal items to Wei's surviving family in Hong Kong. One is a letter intended for Wei's younger brother, Wei Ang-ran. The other is a piece of antique jade intended for seven-year-old Wei Hao-han (a.k.a. Harry), the dead man's grandson.

As the severely jet-lagged detectives arrive at the Wei apartment, trouble begins. The apartment itself appears to have been ransacked, and Harry and his Filipina nursemaid have disappeared. Moments later, an anonymous kidnapper calls, demanding the piece of antique jade in exchange for Harry's life. Shortly after that, a second, separate kidnapper calls, demanding 20 million Hong Kong dollars. Despite the ambiguity of the situation, and despite their status as strangers in a bewilderingly foreign land, Bill and Lydia join in the attempt to rescue the missing child.

As the investigation proceeds, they encounter a sympathetic American-born policeman, assorted members of the deeply eccentric Wei family, and several hostile members of a powerful Hong Kong triad. In the course of solving the mystery of Harry Wei's kidnapping, they also uncover the facts behind a lucrative, clandestine smuggling operation, an operation that provides the key to a number of interlocking puzzles.

Reflecting the Sky is the work of a gifted, ambitious writer who brings her own unique flavor to a traditional literary form. Rozan writes with wit, clarity, and precision. Her central narrative is complex and compelling, her characters sharply individualized, her evocation of a colorful, sometimes dangerous culture detailed and convincing. In Bill Smith and Lydia Chin, she has created two exemplary additions to the P.I. pantheon. I think -- and hope -- we'll be seeing a good deal more of them. (Bill Sheehan)

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

S. J. Rozan is widely regarded as one of the finest crime writers to emerge in the past decade. Praised by critics and colleagues alike, her works have been finalists for most of the major awards and have won both the Shamus and the Anthony Awards for Best Novel. Now, with Reflecting the Sky, she has written her finest, most broad-ranging novel to date.

Lydia Chin, a Chinese-American private investigator in her late twenties, is hired by Grandfather Gao, one of the most respected figures in New York City's Chinatown, for what appears to be a simple task. Lydia, along with her professional partner Bill Smith, is to fly to Hong Kong to deliver a family heirloom to the young grandson of a recently deceased colleague of Grandfather Gao. They arrive in Hong Kong safely but before they can deliver the heirloom, the grandson is kidnapped and two, separate ransom demands are made. While the family of the kidnapped boy tries to freeze them out, Lydia and Bill must quickly learn their way around a place where the rules are different, the stakes are high, and the cost of failure is too dire to imagine.

FROM THE CRITICS

Dick Adler - Chicago Tribune

The plot, like all of architect Rozan's literary structures, is strong and serviceable—all about greed and family loyalties and secrets from the past coming home to roost. But this time it's another man-made artifact, the amazing city of Hong Kong, that steals virtually every scene. In a public park where the city's thousands of Filipina amahs, the women who watch the children of the affluent, gather after church services every Sunday, Rozan tells us that the fences are 'decorated with shopping bags carrying the names of the most upscale shops in the world: Bijan, Hermes, Armani, Tiffany￯﾿ﾽcarrying spicy rice and Spanish music.' And that's only one of the arresting images on almost every page of this tremendously satisfying book.

New York Times Book Review

...handsomely tooled...tightly engineered...

The LA Times Book Review

A reader would be hard-pressed to find a more likable or more disparate duo than the middle-aged, rawboned, moody and sarcastic Smith and the 20-something, small, agile and quick-witted Chin.

Publishers Weekly