Mandarin Plaid

Publisher's Summary

Lydia Chin, a Chinese-American P.I. who lives in New York City's Chinatown, is hired for a simple job. She's to deliver the ransom for a set of stolen sketches that comprise the inaugural collection of fashion designer Genna Jing and her new label, Mandarin Plaid. But everything on this simple job goes terribly wrong. The ransom is stolen out from under Lydia, her sometimes partner, Bill Smith, is arrested, and just as she is trying to sort out exactly what is really going on, the client fires her. Lydia, however, isn't about to just let it go.

Determined to find answers and preserve her pride, Lydia and Bill follow a confusing trail that leads from the sweatshops of Chinatown to the drawing rooms of Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side and into a dark underworld of prostitution, drugs, and murder. All they need to uncover is: who stole the sketches, who hijacked the ransom payment, and, most important, who would kill to keep them from the truth.

©1996 S. J. Rozan (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

Entertaining story

Entertaining story, the pacing was good (most of the time), the stakes were raised at the right times and you could never tell what going to happen next. Although some spots were unnecessarily long and drawn-out, the overall plot was interesting enough for me to wait for the conversation to finally get to the point.

The performance, however, was terrible. The reader's strong accent and the terribly overdone character voices were distracting.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable mystery with a refreshing detective

I really liked this book and have gone on to listen to the others in the series available through Audible. The series involves a pair of PIs who occasionally help each other out but are not actual partners, and the books alternate between their two perspectives. This one is from the Chinese-American female PIs perspective and has some interesting cultural elements thrown in that ring true. I only wish more of the series had been recorded! #FemaleProtagonist #NewYork #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes