The mayors of New York

Since the first book in the Lydia Chin and Bill Smith mystery series was released in 1994, the New York they inhabit has kept up with the times while the two PIs have remained craftily frozen in time, never to age. When Bill's former girlfriend hires him to find the fifteen-year-old runaway son of New York City's mayor, Lydia joins her partner in a mad dash across all five boroughs. The boy has a pattern of disappearing from his dysfunctional family, but Bill and Lydia's pace accelerates when it appears someone is trying to kill the kid. Following a lead to Times Square, the duo end up in a street brawl with costumed characters hawking for photos. Lydia has a go at Elmo, and Bill must fight off the Incredible Hulk, who is, fortunately, mostly padding. But the tone changes drastically when they end up in a finale reminiscent of the O.K. Corral. Rozan allows the Big Apple to shine by depicting its diversity and the many "mayors" that rule the city's neighborhoods, from Chinatown to upscale enclaves in the Bronx. The characterizations are brilliant, and Bill's voice narrating is a total delight.

PIs Smith and Chin tackle a pair of hot potato mysteries in Edgar winner Rozan's excellent 15th outing for the duo (after 2021's Family Business). Bree Hamilton, who handles PR for Carole McCann, the city's first female mayor, enlists Smith to help her boss: McCann's 15-year-old son, Mark, has apparently run away, taking money, clothes, and a backpack with him. The mayor is hoping to keep his disappearance from the NYPD, out of concern that involving them could cost her at the bargaining table during sensitive salary negotiations with the Detectives' Endowment Association. Despite his personal distaste for McCann ("I'm a New Yorker. I have a God-given right to dislike politicians"), Smith, who frequently ran away from home himself as a child, agrees to take the case. He soon discovers it might connect with the apparent suicide of a teenage overachiever that Chin has been asked investigate. Rozan has never been better at quip-filled dialogue that Rex Stout would be proud of, and once again excels at evoking the tangled power dynamics of contemporary New York City. This superior series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Josh Getzler, H.G. Literary. (Dec.)

Lydia Chin and Bill Smith hit the big time, in good ways and bad, when they're hired by New York City's mayor--at least, the official one. Nobody knows that Mayor Carole McCann's 15-year-old son has run away from home again, and that's how she'd like to keep it. Since she's in the middle of negotiating with the police department over its new contract, she thinks it would show both nepotism and weakness to ask the cops to look for Mark, so she gets her aide, Aubrey Hamilton, to approach Bill, who was once Aubrey's boyfriend. Lydia, who's been asked to look into the suicide of Macauley Prep student Amber Shun, turns down that case so she can come along for the ride. And quite a ride it is. Before it's over, Bill and Lydia will have survived a brawl with costumed superheroes in Times Square; questioned several other unofficial mayors of New York's neighborhoods and ethnic groups who demand better subway service, improved park lighting, and more immigration attorneys for their constituents in return for their assistance; seriously antagonized the duly elected mayor of New York; traced the motive for Mark McCann's disappearance to a particularly insidious trafficking ring; and inevitably linked it to the death of Amber Shun. As usual, Rozan is less interested in hiding the culprits than in providing a consistently brisk and illuminating tour of the city, gently probing the underside of any number of rocks, and supplying a triple-barreled climax that will answer all your questions and then some. Professional-grade work from two of the best private eyes on the scene. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.