Review by Booklist Review
After an eight-year hiatus since Ghost Hero (2011), New York Chinatown PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith are back, and it appears not much time has elapsed for them. Lydia is still getting grief from her mother about her life, in general, and about her relationship with Bill, whom she refers to as the White Baboon, in particular. However, when her mother tells her a cousin Lydia never knew existed was just arrested in Mississippi for the murder of his father (yet another relative she was unaware of) and that she wants Lydia to rush down and get it all sorted out, she surprisingly insists that Bill go with her. Next thing you know the duo are in an Enterprise rental rolling along Delta Highway 61, which, for Lydia, might as well be Mars. A wild ride ensues in which they connect with still another cousin, Captain Pete Tam, and find out that the accused man, Jefferson Tam, has escaped from custody. Rozan's remote Coahoma County is as atmospheric as her New York City, and the Chinese-American traditions of ""paper sons"" (Chinese who immigrated to the U.S. with fraudulent papers) and their shopkeeping history in the South are craftily revealed in her trademark elegant prose. This new title in an award-winning and critically acclaimed series will be welcomed by fans. And what will they make of the big surprise in the final chapter?--Jane Murphy Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Last seen in 2011's Ghost Hero, Lydia Chin and Bill Smith venture into unfamiliar terrain-the Deep South-in Edgar winner Rozan's stellar 12th novel featuring the two New York City PIs. To Lydia's surprise, the detective's mother, who isn't a fan of either her daughter's profession or Bill, asks Lydia to travel with Bill to Clarksdale, Miss., where a cousin Lydia has never heard of, 23-year-old Jefferson Tam, has just been arrested for the murder of his grocer father, Leland. While the evidence against Jefferson appears strong-he was found next to his father's corpse and his prints were on the bloody knife that caused the fatal wound-Mrs. Chin refuses to accept that a relative of her late husband could possibly be guilty. Before Lydia and Bill can talk to Jefferson about what happened, he escapes from jail, an act that only makes him look guiltier. As usual, Rozan is adept at devising a plausible but intricate mystery for her leads. She also presents a nuanced look at the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. Her superior prose and characterizations will make even newcomers hope for a shorter wait for the next book in the series. Agent, Josh Getlzer, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This 12th series entry from Rozan (after Ghost Hero). Lydia is independent-minded but still lives at home in New York with her mother, who is domineering and intolerant of anyone not Chinese. When Jefferson Tam, Lydia's cousin four times removed, is arrested for murder in Mississippi, her mother issues orders. No relative of theirs could possibly be guilty of murder. Lydia must go to Mississippi at once and prove him innocent. Bill must go along to keep her from trouble. A century back, Jefferson's great-grandfather entered the country as a "paper son," a false adoption--thus Tam instead of Chin. But that's just one bit of weirdness in a case of escalating near-chaos. Mississippi is different from what Lydia expected. She meets new relatives but racism is rampant. Lydia and Bill run around following false leads but eventually solve the case, and in the process, discover new meaning for the phrase "paper son." VERDICT Rozan's detective stories have won every prize in the book, so expect mystery lovers to flock to this one.--David Keymer, Cleveland
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a hiatus in this series (Ghost Hero, 2011, etc.) that's felt like forever, Lydia Chin's formidable mother, who's never approved of her work as a private eye, packs her off to the Mississippi Delta for the best and worst reasons.The first time Lydia ever hears of her cousin Jefferson Tam is when her mother tells her that he's been arrested for stabbing his father, Leland, ne Lo-Liang, to death. He was found bending over the dead man, his fingerprints on the murder weapon, but he's obviously innocent, and Lydia and her partner, Bill Smith, have to exonerate him. Lydia's pleasure that her mother needs her professional skills, from which she's always recoiled in the past, is undercut by her own deep reservations about leaving Manhattan for the Deep South. Despite the hospitality of Jefferson's uncle, the gambler Capt. Peter Tam, Clarksdale feels impossibly foreign to her even though her great-grandfather's brother Chin Song-Zhao, aka Harry Tam, settled there long ago, masking his identity by the time-honored method of bribing naturalized Chinese-Americans to file false information identifying him as their son. Barely have Lydia and Bill arrived than Jefferson escapes from police custody, eliminating any lingering doubts deputy Bert Lucknell might have had about his guilt. The case immerses Lydia and her Kentucky-born partner in an exotic landscape stuffed with eminently recognizable local types and three generations of knotty family history, appropriately climaxed by an interview with a dotty old lady who has no idea that she holds the key to the riddle. But Rozan is far too conscientious a plotter to settle for detective tourism, and the solution manages to be both utterly predictable in its broad outlineseven the book's title is a broad winkand mind-bogglingly complicated in its details.This is Mississippi, the dazed heroine keeps reminding herself with every new twist. Maybe, maybe notbut it's a triumphant return of this sorely missed franchise either way. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
