Review by Booklist Review
In the newest in the Lydia Chin and Bill Smith mystery series from S. J. Rozan since The Mayors of New York (2023), Dr. Elliott Chen asks his sister, private investigator Lydia, to investigate when Sophia Scott, a nurse helping to negotiate with management to prevent a nurses' strike, is murdered. Lydia and her partner Bill find themselves in a maze of basement rooms in which it becomes evident that the institution is riddled with "scams and grifts . . . lying and covering up" and that there were many motives for the murder. Nurse Scott was definitely not a model employee. It's a mad tangle and plays out in a brutally hot New York City August when air conditioning comes and goes at an annoying rate, reflecting the confounding case. Amidst the pervasive fragrance of legendary Manhattan curbside hot dogs, the two foodies find sanctuary in a few of the city's amazing eateries. Throughout 16 books in a series that started in 1994, Rozan's characters have bonded and grown, and readers are treated to a seemingly effortless flow of banter and deduction. They are in a class by themselves.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fatal overdose in a hospital's unofficial nap room cries out for Smith and Chin Investigations. Actually, it's Lydia Chin's brother Elliott, who runs the ER at River Valley Downstate Medical Center, who begs her to come to the aid of his friend Jordy Kazarian, a morgue assistant who woke up from his own 40 winks to find nurse Sophia Scott sleeping the big sleep. Since Jordy checked to make sure Sophia was dead and then waited for the authorities to show up, he's naturally the person NYPD Det. Helena Church is convinced shot her up with drugs she never would've taken on her own. When Lydia finds out that Juanita Cohen, Jordy's attorney, has already reached out to Bill Smith, Lydia's partner, she's in it for good. Or for evil, as the pair's probe of the hospital quickly reveals. There's the fact that security chief James McGraw denies any knowledge of the basement nap room or the neighboring hookup room, which was so popular that staffers had to sign up for reservations. There's the consequent lack of in-house oversight of the murder scene. And there's the strike River Valley's nurses are threatening, which the hospital hopes to prevent by negotiating with a team that unaccountably included Sophia Scott, a by-the-numbers caregiver who's never volunteered for double shifts and has always taken management's side in earlier disputes. Rozan keeps everything moving along with a lot more efficiency and sympathy than either the NYPD or the hospital staff, and although the big reveal is a big letdown, the final scene that follows makes the whole trip worthwhile. Warning: not the best gift for a hospital-bound friend, or a read likely to speed your own recovery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
