I just finished On the Line by S.J. Rozan, one of my favorite mystery authors. I couldn't put this book down. It was perfectly paced with one obstacle after another for the hero in true thriller fashion. I had no idea how it was going to end. (For an avid reader, this is actually rarer than you might think.) On the Line is Rozan's latest book in a hard-edged, well-written mystery series staring P.I.s Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. There are guns, criminals, and swearing. (If you like your mysteries with adorable stray mutts and brownie recipes in the back, this is not the series for you.)
The first book I read by S. J. Rozan was Mandarin Plaid, the third book in her series. Mandarin Plaid is the name of a company owned by Genna Jing, a fashion designer who hires Lydia to deal with an extortion attempt. Here's the description of Genna from the first chapter:
Genna Jing was wearing a skirt, a tight knee-length one with a slit up the side, and a short-sleeved silk blouse with a Mandarin collar—a cliched Chinese vamp outfit, except both pieces were plaid. Different plaids.
Rozan writes wonderful dialogue and includes just the right amount of description, picking those perfect details and presenting them in a clear (and often clever) way. How could you resist writing like this:
Wayne Lewis lived in the ground-floor apartment of a house on a street near the river. When these were private houses the ground floors were the kitchens. Only service people came there; they were lowly spots. Now they were highly desirable garden apts., quite st., West Vil., near Riv. & trans.
I'd been thinking about making earrings inspired by Mandarin Plaid for awhile. I bought these red plaid ceramic tubes years ago in a Denver bead shop, but never knew what to do with them. When I saw these brass imitation Chinese coins at a craft shop, I knew they were a great match. On the one hand, Mandarin Plaid is a company the deals with high fashion and these coins are not anything a model would wear. On the other hand, one of the themes of this book is perception and how everything—and everyone—is not what it (or he or she) seem. People lie, they keep secrets, they hide their true selves. And of course, this book takes place in Chinatown, where there's the constant contrast between the touristy areas that show outsiders what they expect to see and the areas where the real Chinese/Chinese-Americans live and work. See more photos of Genna's Earrings in the Beads & Books shop.
You can read an excerpt from Mandarin Plaid (and her other books) on the author's website. Happy Friday!