A Bitter Feast
St. Martin’s Paperbacks 1998
ISBN 0-312-97011-0
Christina says:
Lydia Chin, a PI operating out of New York’s Chinatown, is hired by
her old friend Peter Lee to locate four missing Chinese waiters. Peter is
a lawyer and represents the Chinese Restaurant Workers Union. He supposes
that the four men were threatened because one of them is a union member.
Lydia doesn’t really want to cross swords with H. B. Yang, the most
powerful man in Chinatown, but instead of resenting her efforts Yang hires
her himself to find his employees. Together with her partner Bill Smith
Lydia soon discovers that Yang isn’t the only one interested in the men.
Unwittingly she walked right into a fight for control of Chinatown.
S. J. Rozan takes her readers to a part of New York where old feudal
China meets the modern West. American born Chinese have to decide which of
the traditions of her ancestors to keep, their parents who came from China
to build a better life for their children have to accept that said
children turn their backs on the way of life of their parents and new
immigrants have to cope with a strange society when they often don’t
even speak the language. In the middle of all this there’s Lydia Chin.
Other than her four brothers she has not left Chinatown and lives with her
mother who doesn’t approve of her career choice. Rozan tells her books
alternately from the point of view of Lydia and of her partner Bill. A
BITTER FEAST is told by Lydia, and she is an excellent guide to Chinatown
and the mentality of its inhabitants. And the mystery part isn’t
neglected either.
A suspense-filled book and not your typical run-of-the-mill mystery. |
Any comments? Write us:
Christina Gross
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