Family business

An open coffin in a flower-filled room, an urn for offerings and another for sticks of incense, chanting monks, and black-suited gangsters. It's a Tong funeral, and New York PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith are there with their client, the young Mel Wu. Big Brother Choi, long-time Li Min Jin leader, has died and left the Tong headquarters building to Mel, his niece. A shady real-estate developer is determined to convert the building into a luxury high-rise. The historic-preservation people want it left just as it is. The Tong members, separated into armed rival factions, want to tear it apart to find a rumored treasure within its walls. Choi's chief lieutenant is murdered, a wild motorcyclist is throwing rocks at people, Lydia's obnoxious brother Tim (born in the Year of the Ox) gets involved, and Mama Chin, as always, lends a helping hand. It all ends in a major siege of the building involving hostages, riot police, and secret tunnels. The novel is absolutely brilliant and infused with plenty of Chinese essence, revealing the intricacies of burial customs and the intensity of family ties--not to mention enough pastry and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory cones to give the reader a sugar high. This fourteenth in the series, following The Art of Violence (2020), offers an intricate puzzle, to be read carefully, from the award-winning Rozan.

In Edgar winner Rozan's superb 14th mystery starring New York City PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith (after 2020's The Art of Violence), several people jockey to succeed tong leader Big Brother Choi after he dies of a heart attack. Meanwhile, Jackson Ting, a Chinese American real estate developer, wants to buy the headquarters of Choi's tong, housed in a historic building in Manhattan's Chinatown, and construct a 20-story apartment building on the site, a project Chinatown residents fear will further gentrify their community. Lydia is asked for help by Choi's surprise heir, his niece Mel Wu, a real estate attorney devoted to housing justice who's opposed to the project. But when Lydia accompanies Mel to the building to learn a secret Choi confided in his lieutenant, Chang Yao-Zu, they find Chang's stabbed corpse instead. Blackmail and an attempted murder ensue amid rumors of hidden treasure. Rozan evokes the milieu perfectly, while smoothly integrating current debates over neighborhood development into an intricate plot. This is another triumph for this talented author. Agent: Josh Geltzer, HG Literary. (Dec.)