If Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan was Chinese American and did her private investigating not in Baltimore but in Manhattan, she might be Lydia Chin, who drives the hard-charging but thought-churning Family Business, another welcome offering in Edgar Award winner S.J. Rozan's Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series. Like Tess, Lydia protects more than her clients: she'll be damned if someone is going to mess with her city.
As Family Business begins, crime boss Big Brother Choi has just died--of natural causes, of all things. Choi owned a Chinatown building occupied by the New York branch of the Li Min Jin, the tong over which he presided for decades. Developer Jackson Ting wants to buy the property, which would mean the building's demolition and, as Lydia grouses, "that whole gentrification thing." The decision to sell is now up to Mel Wu, a real estate attorney who inherited the property from Choi, her uncle. Mel hires Lydia and Bill Smith, Lydia's partner (in both senses), to escort her to the building, where Choi's top lieutenant said he would give her the message her uncle intended for her. She never receives it.
Family Business contains some gasp-making reveals and leaves readers with lots to ponder--about loyalty, about assimilation. Rozan embroiders her story with references to Chinese customs courtesy of chatterbox narrator Lydia, who uses her background to professional advantage. Still, her ultra-traditional mother considers her a disappointment: Why date a white guy like Bill when she could date Jackson Ting? --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer