Rating: 
Summary: Chinatown, New York Style
Review: "China Trade" is a busy book, crowded with images, locales and descriptions. We are immersed in an atmosphere of crowds, colors and lively people. Ms. Rozan has a light and delicate hand with prose.Lydia Chin, the unlikely private investigator, is appealing in a girlish way. She is bright, protected, enjoys her creature comforts, and is well behaved in a child-like way. Where Lydia shines is in her fleeting observations of what she sees around her. She has an artist and poet's eye for color and description. Her sometimes partner, Bill Smith, is a series of one-liners in this dialogue-driven book. He clearly adores every word and gesture emanating from his beloved Lydia. Her kittenish behavior would drive the average man to the nearest hard-drinking lady rugby player, but not Bill. Lydia's mother is well drawn and humorous, but I met her first in an Amy Tan book. The plot revolves around stolen export porcelain. I wish we had been given more education about this little known art market. It would have been interesting and helped us understand the motivations of the thief and killer. We have plenty of likely suspects and the story moves briskly. The characters are deftly drawn (except for the hapless Bill) and were interesting in their own right. Ms. Rozan's debut novel displays skill and originality.
Rating:
Summary: Chinatown, New York Style
Review: "China Trade" is a busy book, crowded with images, locales and descriptions. We are immersed in an atmosphere of crowds, colors and lively people. Ms. Rozan has a light and delicate hand with prose. Lydia Chin, the unlikely private investigator, is appealing in a girlish way. She is bright, protected, enjoys her creature comforts, and is well behaved in a child-like way. Where Lydia shines is in her fleeting observations of what she sees around her. She has an artist and poet's eye for color and description. Her sometimes partner, Bill Smith, is a series of one-liners in this dialogue-driven book. He clearly adores every word and gesture emanating from his beloved Lydia. Her kittenish behavior would drive the average man to the nearest hard-drinking lady rugby player, but not Bill. Lydia's mother is well drawn and humorous, but I met her first in an Amy Tan book. The plot revolves around stolen export porcelain. I wish we had been given more education about this little known art market. It would have been interesting and helped us understand the motivations of the thief and killer. We have plenty of likely suspects and the story moves briskly. The characters are deftly drawn (except for the hapless Bill) and were interesting in their own right. Ms. Rozan's debut novel displays skill and originality.
Rating: 
Summary: Chinese-American PI-- cool!!
Review: Being Chinese-American, I'm thrilled to be reading about a heroine that I can relate to. The books starts off a bit slow, but builds up pretty nicely. I enjoyed it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Chinese-American PI-- cool!!
Review: Being Chinese-American, I'm thrilled to be reading about a heroine that I can relate to. The books starts off a bit slow, but builds up pretty nicely. I enjoyed it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, educational debut in Chinese American series
Review: In a genre that is finally reasonalby well populated by woman and African Americans, an Asian slueth (of either gender) is still a rarity. Enter Lydia Chin, an ABC (American Born Chinese)who still lives with her mother in Manhattan's growing Chinatown. For me, a native of Oakland (which has a strong Asian community), the highlight of this book is the entire sensory experience. Rozan, an Anglo, does a wonderful job of writing a book that stimulates the senses of smell and taste. It doesn't hurt that Lydia loves to eat and shares her wonderful meals with the reader. The mystery revolves around a couple of crates of missing Chinese porcelains (hence a wonderful pun in the title). Lydia and her sort of partner, Bill, explore a mix of Manhattan museums and gangs as they seek the china. The resolution is nicely complicated and shouldn't be obivous - at least to the Anglo reader. What keeps the book from pure hard boiled status is Lydia's meddling family (they don't approve of her work); a convenient best friend who's a cop; and Lydia's ambiguous relationship with Bill (good ABC girls aren't supposed to be attracted to white dectectives). Bottom line: A solid debut in a series I'm already looking forward to reading again.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, educational debut in Chinese American series
Review: In a genre that is finally reasonalby well populated by woman and African Americans, an Asian slueth (of either gender) is still a rarity. Enter Lydia Chin, an ABC (American Born Chinese)who still lives with her mother in Manhattan's growing Chinatown. For me, a native of Oakland (which has a strong Asian community), the highlight of this book is the entire sensory experience. Rozan, an Anglo, does a wonderful job of writing a book that stimulates the senses of smell and taste. It doesn't hurt that Lydia loves to eat and shares her wonderful meals with the reader. The mystery revolves around a couple of crates of missing Chinese porcelains (hence a wonderful pun in the title). Lydia and her sort of partner, Bill, explore a mix of Manhattan museums and gangs as they seek the china. The resolution is nicely complicated and shouldn't be obivous - at least to the Anglo reader. What keeps the book from pure hard boiled status is Lydia's meddling family (they don't approve of her work); a convenient best friend who's a cop; and Lydia's ambiguous relationship with Bill (good ABC girls aren't supposed to be attracted to white dectectives). Bottom line: A solid debut in a series I'm already looking forward to reading again.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific new duo!
Review: In S.J. Rozan's China Trade, we have a new mystery herione who has the same fearless fiestiness of a Kinsey Milhone or V.I. Warshawski! Our herione and her faithful, and smitten, companion conquor New York's tough Chinatown by solving mystery's and eating lunch! Reading this book makes me want to travel to Chinatown myself and check it out!
Rating:
Summary: Don't trade this one in!
Review: In S.J. Rozan's China Trade, we have a new mystery herione who has the same fearless fiestiness of a Kinsey Milhone or V.I. Warshawski! Our herione and her faithful, and smitten, companion conquor New York's tough Chinatown by solving mystery's and eating lunch! Reading this book makes me want to travel to Chinatown myself and check it out!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Much better than Grafton, with more interesting characters. Comparable to Jance, perhaps. But forget the comparisons; this is a really good book. If you can find it (try the library), read it.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding series
Review: New York P.I. Lydia Chin is investigating the theft of Chinese export porcelains from the Chinatown Pride museum. With the help of her sometimes partner, Bill Smith, her investigation leads her through Chinatown into the world of Chinese gangs and what she finds there is heartbreaking and tragic. As a good Chinese daughter Lydia still lives with her mother, rare in a hard-boiled detective series. Of course, Lydia's very traditional family is horrified by her career choice which is in turn humorous and frustrating. This is fine start to an intriguing series with each book alternating between Lydia and Bill's point-of-view.
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