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This page lists novels and story collections by S.J. Rozan.

Cover images are when possible the first US edition and a recent digital or paperback edition.

By S.J. Rozan:
- novels, story collections
- non-fiction
- collaborative novels

Edited by S.J. Rozan:
- edited anthologies

China Trade

S.J. Rozan

1994

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Asian-American private investigator Lydia Chin knows New York City's Chinatown, its people, and its ways as no outsider ever could. So when the Chinatown Museum is robbed of a set of rare export porcelains, Lydia is hired to recover them quietly - a task that quickly proves more difficult than it at first appears. Maneuvering gently around the local gangs who control the streets of Chinatown, Lydia tackles an investigation that takes her - and her sometimes partner Bill Smith - far beyond the borders of Chinatown into the equally cryptic world of art and collecting, and upstart outer-borough gangs trying to gain a toe hold in the closed world of Chinatown."

Concourse

S.J. Rozan

1995

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"At the end of the avenue called the Grand Concourse is the place people go to die, the Bronx Home for the Aged. The only trouble is the people dying there are going before their time. Bill Smith has been hired by an old friend to investigate the brutal killing of a young security guard on the Bronx Home grounds. Going undercover, Smith wades out into a sea of violence and lies washing up against the old brick building. When a second murder is committed, Smith knows that there’s a method to the madness. With the help of bright, young Chinese-American investigator Lydia Chin, Smith uncovers a web of corruption that’s found a home in the Bronx. Now he has to figure out who will die next."

Mandarin Plaid

S.J. Rozan

1996

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"It’s a long way from the cramped, dreary sweatshops where Lydia Chin’s mother once sewed for the heady world of fashion. But in New York City, worlds collide. And a petite, Chinese-American P.I. can still rub shoulders with the rich, the poor, the beautiful, and the depraved. Elegant, porcelain-skinned Genna Jing is sure her latest designs are worth a fortune. That’s why she is willing to pay the fifty grand being demanded by the person who stole her design book. But when Lydia–backed by her partner Bill Smith–makes the drop, everything goes wrong. Soon a simple case of high-fashion extortion leads Lydia and Bill from Chinatown to Park Avenue, and from murder to more money: a million dollars in exchange for a missing man’s life."

No Colder Place

S.J. Rozan

1997

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Bill Smith is going undercover again as a favor to an old friend who wants him to investigate thievery on the 40-story Manhattan site of Crowell Construction’s latest project. His bricklaying is a little rusty, but passable as he checks out the foreman who’s under suspicion. A crane operator has disappeared–along with some heavy machinery. But when a well-orchestrated riot causes the foreman’s “accidental” death, Smith plunges into a morass of bribery, blackmail and blood looking for answers. With the help of his Chinese-American partner Lydia Chin, he follows a trail of twisted loyalties, old-fashioned greed and organized crime to its heart-stopping conclusion."

A Bitter Feast

S.J. Rozan

1998

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"It's Lydia Chin's turn to go underground as the Chinese-American P.I. investigates a case that strikes at the heart of Chinatown's dangerously shifting power structure. Four restaurant workers, including a union organizer, have disappeared, and the union's lawyer hires Lydia to find them. But when a bomb shatters the Chinese Restaurant Workers' Union headquarters, killing one of the missing men and injuring the lawyer, Lydia is summoned by the prime suspect, one of Chinatown's most powerful men, to continue the search--on his payroll. With backup from her partner Bill Smith, Lydia goes undercover as a dim sum waitress, slinging steamed dumplings while dodging a lethal conflict between the old and the new orders, and searching for the missing waiters and their deadly secret--before someone serves them their last supper."

Stone Quarry

S.J. Rozan

1999

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Bill Smith's country cabin in upstate New York is far from the city's savage streets--a retreat where a weary P.I. can play Mozart on his upright piano and let nature heal him. But when Eve Colgate, a local farmer and painter, asks him to find stolen items--six paintings which could reveal Eve's highly guarded thirty-year-old secret--he caves. When Smith's partner, Lydia Chin, comes in on the action, she brings along her cool courage and sharp mind. It's a simple case--until the runaway daughter of a hotshot politician and the murder of a local hood change the playing field. Now the stench of corruption fills this rural paradise, as Bill and Lydia scour through dangerous secrets and greedy corridors for the stone-cold truth."

Reflecting the Sky

S.J. Rozan

2001

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Lydia Chin, a Chinese-American private investigator in her late twenties, is hired by Grandfather Gao, one of the most respected figures in New York City's Chinatown, for what appears to be a simple task. Lydia, along with her professional partner Bill Smith, is to fly to Hong Kong to deliver a family heirloom to the young grandson of a recently deceased colleague of Grandfather Gao. They arrive in Hong Kong safely but before they can deliver the heirloom, the grandson is kidnapped and two, separate ransom demands are made. While the family of the kidnapped boy tries to freeze them out, Lydia and Bill must quickly learn their way around a place where the rules are different, the stakes are high, and the cost of failure is too dire to imagine."

Winter and Night

S.J. Rozan

2002

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Private detective Bill Smith is hurtled headlong into the most provocative - and personal-case of his career when he receives a chilling late night telephone call from the NYPD, who are holding his fifteen-year-old nephew Gary. But before he can find out what's going on, Gary escapes Bill's custody and disappears into the dark and unfamiliar streets... Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, try to find the missing teen and uncover what it is that has led him so far from home. Their search takes them to Gary's family in a small town in New Jersey, where they discover that one of Gary's classmates was murdered. Bill and Lydia delve into the crime-only to find it eerily similar to a decades-old murder-suicide... Now, with his nephew's future-and perhaps his very life-at stake, Bill must unravel a long-buried crime and confront the darkness of his own past."

Absent Friends

S.J. Rozan

2004

"The secrets of a group of childhood friends unravel in this haunting thriller by Edgar Award winner S. J. Rozan. Set in New York in the unforgettable aftermath of September 11, Absent Friends brilliantly captures a time and place unlike any other, as it winds through the wounded streets of New York and Staten Island...and into a maze of old crimes, damaged lives, and heartbreaking revelations. The result is not only an electrifying mystery and a riveting piece of storytelling but an elegiac novel that powerfully explores a world changed forever on a clear September morning. In a novel that will catch you off guard at every turn, and one that is guaranteed to become a classic, S. J. Rozan masterfully ratchets up the tension one revelation at a time as she dares you to ponder the bonds of friendship, the meaning of truth, and the stuff of heroism."

In This Rain

S.J. Rozan

2006

"Three years ago, a child’s death blew open a vortex of corruption inside Manhattan’s lucrative construction industry. And it sent one innocent man to jail. Joe Cole is a former city investigator who now lives a broken life, cut off from his wife and daughter, and from the city he once knew so well. But for Joe, everything changes when a woman’s murder and a teenager’s rooftop freefall rip open old wounds—and reveal a shocking layer of rage and deception. It is Joe’s former partner, beautiful, hard-charging investigator Ann Montgomery, who first sees the lies, forcing Joe out of his self-imposed isolation to help her unravel the cover-ups and secret relationships that allow the powerful to hide their crimes. Soon, the two are entering the darkest corners of their city, delving into the hidden desires of a borough president who wants to be mayor, the motivations of a charismatic community activist, and the machinations of a mayor whose ambitions know no bounds. As the secrets of each player are exposed, as the primal forces of greed, sex, and power come to the surface, Ann and Joe know they must press their search all the way to the end—because the most powerful revelations are yet to come."

The Shanghai Moon

S.J. Rozan

2009

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees. The jewelry, identifed as having belonged to one such refugee - Rosalie Gilder - was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are to find any and all leads to the missing jewels. However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they've been told: The Shanghai Moon, one of the world's most sought after missing jewels, reputed to be worth millions, is believed to have been part of the same stash. Before Lydia can act on this new information, Joel Pilarsky is murdered, Lydia is fired from the case, and Bill Smith finally reappears on the scene. Now Lydia and Bill must unravel the truth about the Shanghai Moon and the events that surrounded its disappearance sixty years ago during the chaos of war and revolution, if they are to stop more killings and uncover the truth of what is going on today."

A Tale About a Tiger and Other Mysterious Events

S.J. Rozan

2009

A collection of 9 previously published stories. The contents are:

• Film at Eleven
• Hoops
• Seeing the Moon
• Passline
• Night Court
• Subway
• A Tale About a Tiger
• Childhood
• Double-Crossing Delancey

On the Line

S.J. Rozan

2010

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"P.I. Bill Smith is sent on a high stakes chase when an electronically modified voice on his cell phone informs him that Lydia Chin, his occasional partner, has been kidnapped. Now if Bill wants to keep Lydia alive, he'll have to play an elaborate game of the kidnapper's devising. The first move sends him to an abandoned building wherein Bill finds the corpse of a small Chinese woman dressed like Lydia and discovers that the building is being rapidly surrounded by police. Now Bill is on the run from the cops and in the worst trouble of his very troubled life. With the help of Lydia's hacker cousin Linus, and Linus's cohort Trella, Bill has to not only stay one step ahead of the cops, he has to uncover the secret behind the kidnapper's identity and the reason he's come after Bill, if he's to reach Lydia before it's too late."

Ghost Hero

S.J. Rozan

2011

A Lydia Chin / Bill Smith novel

"Chau Chun is a renowned artist and controversial painter. And rumours of new work by him has the media in a frenzy – and sees Lydia Chin and Bill Smith hired to follow the whispers to their source. They soon discover that Chau has been officially dead for over twenty years, killed in the Tianamen Square uprising. Are Lydia and Bill really chasing a ghost?"

Building and Other Stories

S.J. Rozan

An electronic only publication of 7 short stories. The contents are:

• Building
• Night Court
• Going Home
• Silverfish
• Seeing the Moon
• I Seen That
• Sunset

In the Shadow of the Master

Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

Editor: Michael Connelly

2009

Includes a chapter by S.J. Rozan called Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain And Me.

"In the Shadow of the Master is an exceptional collection of classic stories from the lord of literary darkness himself—the inimitable Edgar Allan Poe—accompanied by enthralling essays from twenty of his bestselling acolytes and admirers. With appreciations by Michael Connelly, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, Tess Gerritsen, Laura Lippman, Nelson DeMille, Lawrence Block, and thirteen others, In the Shadow of the Master is a must-have for thriller and mystery fans of all ages."

In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero

Editor: Otto Penzler

2012

Includes a chapter by S.J. Rozan called Who Is Silverman, What Is She?.

"When Robert B. Parker passed in early 2010, the world lost two great men: Parker himself, iconic American crime writer whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, and his best-known creation, Spenser. Parker's Spenser series not only influenced the work of countless of today's writers, but is also credited with reviving and forever changing the genre. In Pursuit of Spenser offers a look at Parker and to Spenser through the eyes of the writers he influenced."

• Introduction (Otto Penzler)
• Songs Spenser Taught Me (Ace Atkins)
• Voice Of The City (Dennis Lehane)
• They Like The Way It Sounds (Lawrence Block)
• Spenser's Code Of Humor (Parnell Hall)
• Parker And Spenser: A Collaboration (Loren D. Estleman)
• Bob, Boston And Me: A Remembrance (Jeremiah Healy)
• A Man For All Seasonings (Brendan Dubois)
• Spenser And The Art Of The Family Table (Lyndsay Faye)
• Looking For Hawk (Gary Phillips)
• Who Is Silverman, What Is She? (S.J. Rozan)
• A Look At Spenser: For Hire (Max Allan Collins And Matthew Clemens)
• Go East, Young Man: Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone, And Spenser (Reed Farrel Coleman)
• Parker Saddles Up: The Westerns Of Robert B. Parker (Ed Gorman)
• Spenser: A Profile (Robert B. Parker)
• A Bibliography Of The Works Of Robert B. Parker

The Chopin Manuscript: Serial Thriller

Jeffery Deaver and 14 others

An audiobook/ebook thriller conceived by Jeffrey Deaver. The opening and closing chapters are by Deaver - the 14 other contributing authors each provided a chapters between the two. These authors (in chapter order) are: David Hewson, James Grady, S.J. Rozan, Erica Spindler, John Ramsey Miller, David Corbett, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Jim Fusilli, Peter Spiegelman, Ralph Pezzullo, Lisa Scottoline, P.J. Parrish, Lee Child.

"Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure out of his past: the man known only as Faust."

Inherit the Dead: A Novel

Jonathan Santlofer (Editor) plus 20 others

Touchstone

2013

This collaborative novel has chapters by: Mary Higgins Clark, John Connolly, Charlaine Harris, CJ Box, Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Marcia Clark, Max Allan Collins, James Grady, Heather Graham, Bryan Gruley, Val McDermid, SJ Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, and Sarah Weinman.

"Pericles “Perry” Christo is a PI with a past—a former cop, who lost his badge and his family when a corruption scandal left him broke and disgraced. When wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla summons him one cold February night, he grabs what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case. The socialite is looking for her beautiful, aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young woman. But as Christo digs deeper, he discovers there’s much more to the lovely “Angel” than meets the eye. Her father, her best friend, her boy­friends all have agendas of their own. Angel, he soon realizes, may be in grave danger…and if Christo gets too close, he just might get caught in the crossfire. This classic noir tale twists and turns down New York’s mean streets and along Hamptons’ beaches and back roads during a bitterly cold and gray winter where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide."

Blood of the Lamb: A Novel of Secrets

Sam Cabot (S.J. Rozan and Carlos Dews)

2013

"Father Thomas Kelly has been called to the Vatican. A Cardinal’s desperate plea: find a missing document that contains a secret so shocking it could shatter the Church. Livia Pietro, in Rome, has been called before the Noantri Conclave. Her mission: join the Jesuit priest on his search—because one misstep could destroy her people as well. As Thomas and Livia are thrown into a treacherous whirlwind of art, religion, and age-old secrets, they find themselves pursued by enemies who will do anything to stop them. Only the Conclave knows the true gravity of the document’s revelations. The Noantri—Livia and her people—are vampires. And the unimaginable secrets of their past are far too dangerous for man to ever know."

Skin of the Wolf: A Novel

Sam Cabot (S.J. Rozan and Carlos Dews)

2014

"It was shocking enough for Father Thomas Kelly to discover a community of vampires. Even more so was that two colleagues, art historian Livia Pietro and scholar Spencer George, were among them. Now they're working together in New York City. When Spencer is attacked in Central Park by a wolf, they're plunged into a world where Native American lore and the doctrines of the Catholic Church have collided, resulting in a catastrophic revelation: the wolf is a shapeshifter and he is searching for a sacred mask with power that, badly wielded, could destroy millions of lives."

Bronx Noir

Editor: S.J. Rozan

2007

An anthology of mystery stories. The contents are:

• White Trash (Jerome Charyn)
• Gold Mountain (Terrence Cheng)
• Hey, Girlie (Joanne Dobson)
• The Woman Who Hated the Bronx (Rita Lakin)
• Rude Awakening (Lawrence Block)
• Burnout (Suzanne Chazin)
• The Cheers Like Waves (Kevin Baker)
• Jaguar (Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.)
• Early Fall (Steven Torres)
• Hothouse (S.J. Rozan)
• Lost and Found (Thomas Bentil)
• Look What Love Is Doing to Me (Marlon James)
• Home Sweet Home (Sandra Kitt)
• A Visit to St. Nick’s (Robert J. Hughes)
• Numbers Up (Miles Marshall Lewis)
• The Big Five (Joseph Wallace)
• Ernie K.’s Gelding (Ed Dee)
• The Prince of Arthur Avenue (Patrick W. Picciarelli)
• You Want I Should Whack Monkey Boy? (Thomas Adcock)

The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime

Editor: S.J. Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer

2010

"This tantalising collection abounds in dark-haired vixens and crimes of passion. Some stories are brooding, others twisted; some offer righteous satisfaction while others linger long in the mind. This innovative, exciting and intriguing book is a rare treat for fans of great fiction, whether it's high literature, good old-fashioned suspense, or anything in between."

• Dragon's Breath (Madison Smartt Bell)
• Scenarios (Lawrence Block)
• The Hereditary Thurifer (Stephen L. Carter)
• Me & Mr. Rafferty (Lee Child)
• The Perfect Triangle (Michael Connelly)
• You Are My Sunshine (Lynn Freed)
• Midnight Stalkings (James Grady)
• Greed (Amy Hempel)
• Deer (Janice Lee)
• The Salon (Jonathan Lethem)
• Tricks (Laura Lippman)
• Toytown Assorted (Patrick Mccabe)
• I've Seen That Movie, Too (Val Mcdermid)
• The Story Of The Stabbing (Joyce Carol Oates)
• The Beheading (Francine Prose)
• Celebration (Abraham Rodriguez Jr)
• Daybreak (S.J. Rozan)
• Ben & Andrea & Evelyn & Ben (Jonathan Santlofer)
• The Creative Writing Murders (Edmund White)