Rozan, S.J.

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ROZAN, S.J.

(Shira J. Rozan)

PERSONAL:

Surname pronounced "Rose-anne"; born in the Bronx, NY. Education: Oberlin College, B.A.; State University of New York at Buffalo, M.Arch. Hobbies and other interests: The New York Knicks.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Axelrod Agency, 49 Main St., P.O. Box 357, Chatham, NY 12037. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Stein, White, Nelligan Architects, New York, NY, architect, until 2004. Presents panels on "Crime Writing and the American Imagination" at New York's 92nd Street Y. Has worked variously as a janitor, self defense instructor, photographer, and jewelry salesperson.

MEMBER:

International Association of Crime Writers, Mystery Writers Association (former board member), Private Eye Writers of America (president), Sisters in Crime (board member), American Institute of Architects.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Shamus Award for best private eye novel, Private Eye Writers of America, 1996, for Concourse; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, for best short story, 1997, for "Hoops," for best novel, 2002, for Reflecting the Sky, and for best short story, 2002, for "Double-Crossing Delancy"; Shamus Award for best hardcover P.I. novel, 2002, for Reflecting the Sky; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, for best novel, 2003, for Winter and Night.

WRITINGS:

"lydia chin/bill smith series"; mystery novels

China Trade, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Concourse, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Mandarin Plaid, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

No Colder Place, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997.

A Bitter Feast, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Stone Quarry, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 1999.

The Gift of the Magi: A Christmas Story, Mysterious Bookshop, (New York), 2000.

Reflecting the Sky, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2001.

Winter and Night, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2002.

other

Absent Friends, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to anthologies, and to periodicals, including P.I. Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine; Rozan's works have been translated into Japanese, Dutch, Italian, and Bulgarian.

SIDELIGHTS:

S.J. Rozan is an architect by day and a mystery writer by night. She works for a New York architectural firm that specializes in the design of zoo buildings, police stations, and firehouses. Having grown up in the Bronx with a brother and two sisters, Rozan now lives in New York City. Her first mystery novel, China Trade, introduces private investigator Lydia Chin, a single woman who, like the author, lives in New York City and occasionally works with partner Bill Smith, a sometime love interest. The reader meets Lydia's family in the novel: a mother who harps on the subject of her daughter finding a Chinese husband, and a brother, Tim, who involves her in the robbery of a collection of porcelains. Chin finds herself in a maze of possible leads and a sea of suspects. She is confronted by neighborhood gangs, discovers that the porcelains have been stolen several times, and links two murders to the missing objects.

Several reviewers found Rozan's characters and settings appealing. A Publishers Weekly contributor, for one, praised Rozan's skill at "characterizing Chinatown's denizens, apothecaries, shops, and food," but deemed the result to be "more flavor than substance." However, JoAnn Vacarel stated in Library Journal that "Chin has a refreshing vulnerability."

In Concourse Rozan returns to the scene set in China Trade, but she gives Bill Smith the role of narrator. He and Chin are involved in a murder investigation at the Bronx Home for the Aged. A critic for Publishers Weekly stated that "her major characters … and the minor cast … leave a lasting impression. Rozan brings a distinctive, commanding voice to the genre." Washington Post Book World reviewer Paul Skenazy commented that the second novel "is better: firmer in its details, tighter in its construction, complex in its links of politics and violence. What's best here is the city life." Skenazy also noted that the book does not suffer from the shift in viewpoint from Chin to Smith. In 1996 the author won the Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America for Concourse, making her only the second woman to win the award.

After the Chin-Smith team is hired to recover a fashion designer's stolen sketches for a critical first collection in Mandarin Plaid, they appear again in No Colder Place. This novel is set in familiar territory by the author/architect, taking Chin and Smith into events surrounding the construction of a Manhattan apartment building. The investigators go undercover as a secretary and mason in their attempt to discover who is behind several thefts and murders at the construction site. Booklist reviewer Stuart Miller considered the book to be evidence that Rozan is "a major figure in contemporary mystery fiction."

Rozan continues the "Lydia Chin/Bill Smith" series with A Bitter Feast and Stone Quarry. In a Booklist review of the former, GraceAnne A. DeCandido lauded Rozan's "gift for taut action overlaid with understated sensuous detail," and called her ability to shift narrative point-of-view from Chin to Smith in different books an "extraordinary accomplishment." Miller, writing again in Booklist, noted that Stone Quarry will appeal to all types of crime fiction fans; he recommended it "highly to any mystery readers who aren't yet hooked."

Rozan's 2001 novel, Reflecting the Sky, continues the series. Here, Chin and Smith are sent to Hong Kong to deliver the ashes of a family friend and a jade amulet to surviving relatives. They soon find themselves immersed in a kidnapping and the Chinese underworld of the Triads. The novel garnered praise from critics. A Publishers Weekly critic argued that it was no mistake that Rozan had received awards for the series, calling this seventh installment a "beautifully written book with a sophisticated plot, rich in both action and atmosphere." Booklist critic Stuart Miller also lauded the work, calling it "definitely a don't-miss book in a don't-miss series."

In a Booklist review of Winter and Night, Miller commented that Chin and Smith "remain one of the very best private-eye duos in the genre." This outing is told from the perspective of Bill Smith, who receives a surprise phone call in the middle of the night from his teenaged nephew, Gary, son of Bill's long-estranged sister. The husky Gary, a high-school football player, has been arrested, and he inexplicably asked for Bill. Though he manages to get Gary released into his custody, Bill cannot get the teen to explain why he ran away from home. Before Bill can press the matter, Gary slips away and disappears. The search for his nephew takes Bill and Lydia into a seemingly perfect New Jersey suburb full of big, expensive houses and obsessively dedicated fans of high school football; here, the obsession with winning takes on deadly consequences. As Bill uncovers evidence that the community's football mania may have led Gary to be involved in the murder of a young girl, Bill faces ugly truths about his own past and his current overwhelming need to find and help his troubled nephew. "Rozan delivers strong characters, deft plotting, and a hard-driving narrative," Miller remarked. Library Journal reviewer Wilda Williams called the book a "compelling mystery about the roots of teen violence."

With Absent Friends Rozan departs from the Chin and Smith series to pen a novel about James McCaffery, a heroic firefighter who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The book is also about what happens when it is discovered that in his civilian life, McCaffery may not have been so heroic after all. In the aftermath of 9/11, a newspaper report suggests that McCaffery may have been involved with organized crime and might have taken part in a shooting that happened twenty years earlier. On September 11, 1979, McCaffery's best friend, Mark Keegan, killed a mobster's stepson, allegedly in self-defense. Keegan is later killed in prison without revealing any more information about the incident. After Keegan died, a mysterious benefactor started supporting his wife and son, Kevin—a benefactor that turned out to be McCaffery. Questions arise as to the motivations behind McCaffery's actions, and the nature of his ties to Keegan and the murdered gangster. Before reporter Harry Randall can delve deeper into he story, he commits suicide by jumping off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. However, Randall's protégé and lover, Laura Stone, believes Randall's death-plunge was not a suicide, but a murder intended to keep the reporter from exposing more aspects of the sensational case. Despite the apparent danger, she picks up Randall's investigation where he left off. Further questions arise, including ones about the relationship between Kevin Keegan, himself a young firefighter injured on 9/11, and his relationship with beloved "Uncle Jimmy." As Stone searches for documents that are alleged to shed light on the murder, details about James McCaffery's past emerge that reveal how he could be both hero and villain at the same time. "Rozan pulls off a group portrait that's both grandly scaled and painfully intimate," commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor. "Rozan is a wonderful and insightful writer, and she creates an intricate, intimate portrait of a group of 40-something New Yorkers coping with a city in ruins," remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Booklist writer Allison Block called the novel an "unforgettable elegy to the clear September morning that forever changed our lives."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, September 1, 1997, Stuart Miller, review of No Colder Place, p. 67; September 1, 1999, Stuart Miller, review of Stone Quarry, p. 73; May 1, 2000, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of A Bitter Feast, p. 1598, and Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Concourse, p. 1609; December 15, 2000, Stuart Miller, review of Reflecting the Sky, p. 791; January 1, 2002, Stuart Miller, review of Winter and Night, p. 820; September 1, 2004, Allison Block, review of Absent Friends, p. 7.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2000, review of Reflecting the Sky, p. 1648; September 1, 2004, review of Absent Friends, p. 832.

Library Journal, April 1, 1995, JoAnn Vacarel, review of China Trade, p. 152; February 15, 2002, Wilda Williams, review of Winter and Night, p. 182.

New York Times Book Review, November 7, 1999, Marilyn Stasio, review of Stone Quarry, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, September 26, 1994, review of China Trade, p. 56; September 4, 1995, review of Concourse, p. 53; July 29, 1996, review of Mandarin Plaid, p. 74; July 28, 1997, review of No Colder Place, p. 57; January 15, 2001, review of Reflecting the Sky, p. 55; September 6, 2004, review of Absent Friends, p. 45.

Washington Post Book World, November 19, 1995, Paul Skenazy, review of Concourse, p. 6.