Review – The Shanghai Moon by S. J. Rozan
Lydia Chin and Bill Smith pair up again to solve the murder of Lydia’s boss in The Shanghai Moon by S. J. Rozan. I’ve never read the other books featuring Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, but let me assure you it’s not necessary to do so. These books appear to be stand alone, so you can jump in at any point.
Lydia, a free-lance private investigator, is hired by her old mentor, Joel Pilarsky, to help with a new case involving missing jewels that were recently excavated from Shanghai. No costume jewelry here, because these jewels belonged to Jews who fled Europe during World War II and found refuge in Shanghai.
The Shanghai Moon is one of the jewels that is thought to have been stolen and to have found its way to New York City. Around the time Lydia finds out that the Shanghai Moon is one of the jewels she’ll be looking for, someone gets murdered, and shortly thereafter she’s fired from the case. Even though Lydia’s technically fired, she continues working on the case as she’s found letters from the original owner of the Shanghai Moon, Rosalie, to her mother. Lydia feels a connection with Rosalie and wants to find out exactly what happened to her and her jewelry.
I thought the plot moved along at a fair pace and the storyline was interesting, though I sometimes felt a little ho hum about the hullabaloo over a necklace. The letters from Rosalie and the subplot of finding out what happened to her and her family was my favorite part, much more interesting than the necklace.
While the author’s writing is definitely good, her ability to write conversations is great. I know, I should have a great sample for you, but while I was reading, I was like, “I don’t need to mark any parts as excerpts because they’re all great!” And now I can’t find the perfect excerpt. But let me assure you that the writing is top notch and S. J. Rozan writes some of the most life-like conversations I’ve ever read. If you’re a fan of mysteries, you’ll definitely enjoy The Shanghai Moon.
Rating: 85 out of 100
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| Tags: book review, Books, mystery, Reading, s. j. rozan, the shanghai moon 11 comments »
June 16th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Sounds like a fun book and I will have to convince myself that I don’t need to start at the beginning!!! LOL!!
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June 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
This does sound appealing to me, but I am a little anal about reading a series in order, so I don’t think I would want to read it until I’ve read the previous books.
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June 16th, 2009 at 9:35 am
It sounds like something I would like, but I *have* to read series in order…. So I’d start at the beginning.
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June 16th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I really need to stop reading other people’s book blogs – I have been buying and mooching so many books lately. I don’t necessarily need to read a series from the start. Sometimes I think it’s fun to go back to the beginning after reading a newer book and discovering how the relationships developed. All that said, I did just order the first book.
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June 16th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Thanks for the review – this sounds fun. I’m always looking for new mysteries and enjoy series mysteries with unusual detectives set in unusual places!
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June 16th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
You are too funny! I have had that happen before when I forgot to mark passages because they were all good. Then like you, couldn’t find the “just right” fit. Don’t you hate that? Anyway, you conveyed your enthusiasm for the book and that’s all that counts. Thanks
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June 16th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I love when books have great conversation and dialogue. I feel like sometimes that’s a difficult one to get right.
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Thanks for entering me. I’d like to read this book.
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Tokemise Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Sorry about that–you aren’t doing a giveaway of this book. I was reading alot of blogs this morning and entering some giveaways and must have posted the wrong thing in the wrong place. I tried to delete my other comment but can’t figure out how to do it.
Sorry,
Tobi
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June 17th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I haven’t read a mystery in ages, but this one looks very good. I think I will put it on my list of beach reads and give it a shot. Great review!
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I’ve heard good things about this book but I wasn’t sure if I read it without reading the other books in the series, I would be missing something. It’s good to know that I won’t!
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