Rating: 
Summary: Small Town Meltdown
Review: S.J. Rozan knows how to punch a story. From the time Bill Smith gets a plea for help from his estranged sister's son, to the last desolate scenes in a bleak New Jersey parking lot, Rozan totally engages the reader in a powerful narrative. The story is paced by clipped dialogue and driving action.When nephew Gary disappears, Bill battles through his sister's total denial ("Gary is a good boy!") and his brother-in-law's sour hatred. Bill tries to get a feel for Gary's problems and finds them in football-mad Warrenton, NJ. The "jocks" are everything and apparently untouchable in the community. The Bear-Bryant-On-Steroids coach reaffirms the all-for-football mania. The whole school closes for a week while the seniors on the football team attends a super camp to better ready them for college tryouts. Nephew Gary is an up-and-coming Junior varsity player. Bill finds that Gary had befriended a girl now dead after a wild and unchaperoned party at her home. The party was crashed by the "jocks," there may have been drugs and possibly murder. The entire town seems bent on protecting the athletes--or at least wanting to wait until the camp is over.
The body count rises and inevitable tragedy lies in the wings. Ms. Rozan has strong feelings about the children who are made "outsiders" through no fault or wish of their own. She deftly draws what can happen when organized high school sports run amok. But the result is too black and white; the story needs a little leavening gray areas. My big problem with the book is its lack of resolution. There is no ending as such. After the sound and fury of the deeply felt narrative, I think the reader is entitled to a solid conclusion, which in this case just isn't there.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating: 
Summary: Another Rozan Winner!
Review: S.J. Rozan may have surpassed herself with this novel. The writing is even more evocative than usual and the underlying themes are very timely. The book is fast paced but I found myself not wanting it to end--always an excellent indicator of a great book. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series. This is an wonderful author.
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Summary: Wonderful writer, wonderful series
Review: S.J. Rozan never writes the same book twice. She's created a series with two protaganists, partners Bill Smith and Lydia Chin, who take the lead in alternate novels. Their backgrounds and sensibilities are quite different, but their relationship is nonetheless plausible. "Winter and Night" is Bill Smith's story - involving a sports-mad town, tense family relationships, a missing nephew, ancient scandals, and a riveting finale. It's a compelling read, with much to say about the world in which we place our young people. Read it!
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Summary: Bill's latest story
Review: SJ Rozan is the author of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series. They're unique in that each new book alternates point of view. For example, Winter and Night is narrated by Bill Smith. The previous book, Reflecting the Sky, was narrated by Lydia. Bill and Lydia are polar opposites which makes for lots of dramatic tension. But, as far as I'm concerned, the dialogue is the best part of the book. Rozan's dialogue is at least as good as Elmore Leonard's. Maybe better. Anyway, if you haven't read this series, you really should give it a chance. Robert Crais (another great mystery writer) says Rozan "paints with the full palette of the human heart, using depth, detail, and nuance of character that I haven't seen since Raymond Chandler. (Yes, I mean it.)"
Rating:
Summary: Biting commentary wrapped in sports metaphor
Review: This is my first reading of an S.J. Rozan novel and I am *very* impressed by writer who capably handles her tale on a variety of fronts. She tells a smooth story, introduces you to characters you love and loathe with equal passion, and gently injects a social commentary about bullied children in an overly competitive suburban environment. Well-done, highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is one ESPN should pick up as its next movie! The story needed to be told.
Rating: 
Summary: Deserved winner
Review: While not having the opportunity (yet) to read all of this books competition, it is easy to see how this won the Edgar Award for the best novel. The author's prose flows like one of the lands great rivers and certainly she is a professional with great talent. This is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Deserved winner
Review: While not having the opportunity (yet) to read all of this books competition, it is easy to see how this won the Edgar Award for the best novel. The author's prose flows like one of the lands great rivers and certainly she is a professional with great talent. This is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Title
Review: Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan is her best book so far, and that's saying a lot. The title, with its sense of darkness, underscores the sense of evil in the book. Bill Smith and Lydia Chin work together to find Smith's 15-year-old nephew Gary, who has run away from home. While trying to find him, Smith confronts his own family demons as well as a crime that took place more than 20 years before.
Rozan probes deeply into our sports-crazed culture, probing the concept of winning-at-all-costs and its price to the citizens of the New Jersey town where Bill's estranged sister and her family live. Secrets have been buried deep there for years, and the cover-up has affected every aspect of life.
Despite the incidents of anger and brutality in the book, a sense of compassion runs through it, almost demanding that we take a look at what our priorities are or should be in this post-Columbine, post-9-11 age.
Rozan writes with great skill, examining life in a suburb that on the surface, with its tree-shaded trees and curving lanes, seems too good to be true. But the cracks and flaws are there, and Smith's persistence in uncovering what lies beneath the surface will change some of the contours of the town forever.
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Summary: The book I was waiting for
Review: WINTER AND NIGHT is as good as I hoped! I'd heard about it, and if you heard what I heard, it's true. This book is a knock out. If you want to know why high school students are killing each other, read this book. And find out the demons in Bill Smith's past, too. This one is GOOD.
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