Book 10 of Lydia Chin & Bill Smith
Language: English
Chin; Lydia (Fictitious Character) Chinese Americans Cultural Heritage Fiction General Hard-Boiled Kidnapping Mystery & Detective Police Procedural Private Investigators Smith; Bill (Fictitious Character)
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Description:
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 where Bill finds the corpse of a small Chinese woman dressed like Lydia and the building 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.
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Edgar-winner Rozan's exciting 10th novel featuring New York City PIs Bill Smith and Lydia Chin (after 2009's The Shanghai Moon), Bill receives a phone call from someone using Lydia's cell who claims to have kidnapped Lydia. Lydia gets on the line long enough for Bill to realize this is no joke. The fiend gives Bill a 12-hour deadline, doles out clues that lead to other victims, and changes the "rules" just to keep things interesting. Forced to improvise wildly, Bill finds himself at odds with the cops, who consider him a suspect in at least one murder, but he's fortunate to have such supporters as Lydia's cyber expert cousin, Linus Wong, and Lydia's best friend, NYPD detective Mary Kee. The tension rises as Bill tries to figure out who the villain is and how he can get ahead of someone who holds all the high cards. Some neat twists keep the reader guessing to the surprise kick ending.
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From Booklist
Expecting his partner Lydia Chin’s voice when he picks up his chirping cell phone, PI Bill Smith is shocked to hear an unidentified man on the line, telling him that Lydia is a hostage—and Smith has 12 hours to locate her before she will be killed. Clues to her whereabouts come by phone, delivered by the heckling voice of a man obviously out for vengeance. But for what? To help him track the kidnapper, Bill enlists the aid of Lydia’s nephew, a crackerjack young techie, who brings along his goth girlfriend, a force to be reckoned with all by herself. The trio, aided on the sly by Lydia’s cop-pal Mary, runs a race against the clock, finding little related to Lydia but a lot of kidnapped Chinese prostitutes who need saving, and a vicious pimp who thinks Bill is wrecking his business. With zilch to go on, Bill sees only one option: play along until the lunatic makes a mistake. Of course, that eventually happens, and the action never stops until the lost is found. A high-velocity entry in a reliable series. --Stephanie Zvirin