No Colder Place

S.J. Rozan

Bill Smith is a private investigator in New York City. Chuck DeMattis is a retired copy who now runs a fairly large detective agency. DeMattis calls Smith and asks Smith to take on a job for him. This one is a hands on investigation at a construction site. Smith agrees to take the job as long as he can investigate his own way.

Smith finds himself returning to a career he had left behind 20 years earlier. He becomes a brick layer in the new building. He is supposed to find out if one of the foremen, Joe Romeo, was running illegal gambling and loan sharking from the site. Smith brings his partner, Lydia Chin, in to work in the construction office. Smith hasn't done this type of manual labor in years and soon feels it, making things more difficult.

Smith quickly discovers more is going on than Romeo's involvement. On his first day a young man is almost killed in what appears to be an accident. The next day a body is found buried in the elevator shaft. Then Joe Romeo falls to his death during a site riot. The quality construction materials originally called for in the architect plans are being replaced with inferior materials that won't last as long. Smith starts digging deeper, believing the Mob has some involvement in the construction site. Chin helps as he uncovers more of the story. And how is Chuck DeMattis really involved?

Rozan gives the reader a tight, twisting mystery in No Colder Place. You believe you know where the story is heading, then it takes an unexpected twist. What was becoming obvious is once again obscured. This is solid detective fiction, although I'm not sure if enough clues are available to forsee "who dun it". I certainly didn't try, and when I was reading the ending knew I couldn't have predicted all of it - some, yes, but not everything.

This is good fiction that holds the reader's interest, leading well through the switchbacks of the story to a satisfying ending. The relationship between Smith and Chin is there with their (her) boundaries, building through the story to continue into the next book of the series. This novel stands well by itself as well as part of the series Rozan has created.

China Trade
Concourse
Mandarin Plaid
No Colder Place
A Bitter Feast
Stone Quarry
Reflecting the Sky
Winter and Night
The Shanghai Moon
On The Line