Concourse

Lydia Chin & Bill Smith #2

by S.J. Rozan

It flows through the Bronx like a river between banks of faded elegance. And at the end of the avenue called the Grand Concourse is the place people go to die, the Bronx Home for the Aged.

The only trouble is the people dying there are going before their time.

Bill Smith has been hired by an old friend to investigate the brutal killing of a young security guard on the Bronx Home grounds.

Going undercover, Smith wades out into a sea of violence and lies washing up against the old brick building. When a second murder is committed, Smith knows that there’s a method to the madness.

With the help of bright, young Chinese-American investigator Lydia Chin, Smith uncovers a web of corruption that’s found a home in the Bronx. Now he has to figure out who will die next.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Thriller, Noir

291 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 15, 1996

About the author

SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of the Bill Smith and Lydia Chin detective series as well as several stand-alone novels. She has won the the Edgar, Nero, Macavity, Shamus and Anthony awards for Best Novel and the Edgar award for Best Short Story. She is a former Mystery Writers of America National Board member, a current Sisters in Crime National Board member, and President of the Private Eye Writers of America. In January 2003 she was an invited speaker at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In February 2005 she will be Guest of Honor at the Left Coast Crime convention in El Paso, Texas. A former architect in a practice that focussed on police stations, firehouses, and zoos, SJ Rozan was born and raised in the Bronx. She currently lives in Greenwich Village, New York. (from the author's website)"
S.J. Rozan has a B.A. from Oberlin College and M.Arch from SUNY/Buffalo

Reviews

[Vfields Don't touch my happy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently paced and completely intriguing.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll start with something a bit unflattering and then pick it up a bit. I didn't like this one as much as the first in the series, but that's OK. I think what Rozan is doing is interesting, and I need to do some background checking, but I think she is one of the first to do this. She is shifting point of view between two characters throughout the series. The first book featured Lydia Chin. I loved that book. This second one features her partner Bill Smith. A good, solid book where we got to meet and really know Bill ( we met him in the first book and I loved him there). I think I prefer Lydia; she has a different energy and perspective. But I like Bill (he is an army brat after all).It was also quite interesting to see Lydia from Bill's perspective. I got another view of their relationship, and that was very interesting. The mystery itself was a typical PI story, but there were twists, and I liked them. The twists tended to be character ones, which I find much more nuanced and layered. I'm starting the third in the series today, and I really can't wait.

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in this series and if you have been reading the reviews you know it's not from Lydia Chin's perspective but rather her partner's Bill Smith. I do like the Lydia Chin character but I felt this was the stronger of the two books I have read in the series. It is a little darker and the Bronx with its underlying gritty, violent character is the star. An home for the elderly sits alone like a flower garden in a sea of broken concrete somewhere in the Bronx.

I'm not going to repeat the plot, but you know things are gonna happen and the garden will begin to blend in with its environment. But, on the good side, you will be entertained watching the weeds come out to play.

[Hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much as I enjoyed the first book, from Lydia's perspective, I was more than happy with Bill's much more somber POV as well. Don't think I've read a series that alternates like this, and it works surprisingly well, although it's going to be tough to find a place to mention series movement when nobody else I know has read the series yet. (Katie, if you see this, I just don't know whether to push it on you or not! I'm leaning to an enthusiastic yes, but that might be because I want to talk about them with you.)

[Taco Beta · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. A very solid mystery with credible characters and dialogue. It has an intriguing plot that kept me guessing. Although the story is a bit dark, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I missed the interaction between Bill and Lydia in the first part of the book.
I very much like the idea of writing the story from the perspective of one half of a duo, and the from the perspective of the otter half in the next. Since this was my first book in the series, i look forward to reading one from Lydia's perspective.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I'm a bigger fan of Lydia Chin than Bill Smith. Bill is a good character, but he really reminds me of Spenser just with a musical bent rather than literature. He even has an uncle that took him in as a kid. Since this is the second book in the series, and the first to feature Bill, I'm guessing that Rozan has engaged in a lot of character development since 1995. I'm certainly going to read the next few books to see how it goes.

Recommended for fans of detective stories and those who want to read them in the vein of Robert B. Parker.

Find it. Buy it. Read it!

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d put off reading this book for years. I owned it once and it’s been loaned to me by my local library 3-4 times. Finally sat down to it and once I pushed past the first 15 pages…it’s really good! I love tales of municipal corruption and this one is layered well. Bonus points for setting it in the Bronx. Could’ve done without the white knight-ism but beyond that, it’s good.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book I've read in this series. I don't know how I discovered them, but liked the first one very much. This one almost wholly covered a case of Bill Smith doing undercover work at a nursing home in the Bronx. Lydia does some leg work for him, but it is Bill who gets involved with a gang, the Cobras, and risks his life to get to the bottom of a very complicated case. Bill is a unique person who plays piano (only for himself), loves classical music, and has a warm heart, but can be hard as nails against wrong. If a person were familiar with New York, they might enjoy it more, but I like this twosome and their interplay. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many adorable characters in #2 of the Chin/Smith mysteries that I couldn't put this one down! There are kittens, too! Awesome.

I cannot figure out why this series doesn't get more interest from the mystery fans.

The first in the series was from Chin's point of view, and it was funny and a touch chick lit. This one is from Smith's point of view and is darker and bleaker. I get the feeling Smith suffers from depression and has had a much harder life before working with Chin. His circle of acquaintances are also more familiar with failure, alcohol and deadly contests. The voice of the novel is much more the sound of a classic detective novel.

Smith is hired by an old friend who was also his mentor, Bobby Moran. Moran runs a security guard company and one of their clients, the Bronx Home for the Aged, has suddenly become a dangerous place. A Moran employee is murdered while doing his rounds, and Moran senses there is more to the murder than meets the eye. Smith goes undercover, replacing the murdered guard. Soon, Smith has learned enough to agree with his old teacher. And then the bodies start accumulating and the tangled motives mean death to anyone learning about them.

I thought the story was intense and fast-moving. I cared about the characters, particularly Ida Goldstein, one of the elderly roomers in the home. As feisty of a person she turns out to be, she made personal the sadness of aging. She is only one of many interesting people involved, and as the good guys are separated out from the bad guys, I found myself rooting for them all. One of the bad guys was fascinating as well, so much so I hoped he'd survive to haunt our heroes in the next books in the series. You know it's good when you want more.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

CONCOURSE - Ex
Rozan, S.J. - 2nd in Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series

It flows through the Bronx like a river between banks of faded elegance. And at the end of the avenue called the Grand Concourse is the place people go to die, the Bronx Home for the Aged. The only trouble is the people dying there are going before their time.

Bill Smith has been hired by an old friend to investigate the brutal killing of a young security guard on the Bronx Home grounds. Going undercover, Smith wades out into a sea of violence and lies washing up against the old brick building. When a second murder is committed, Smith knows that there's a method to the madness. With the help of bright, young Chinese-American investigator Lydia Chin, Smith uncovers a web of corruption that's found a home in the Bronx. Now he has to figure out who will die next.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This sort of thing is done in the not-for-profit world all the time [...] There's a lot of money floating around, and it's not terribly well-tracked. For everyone in this business for my naive, bleeding-heart reasons, there are half a dozen people here because they make a good living."

My third Chin/Smith novel within one month: the very good Winter and Night whetted my appetite for more adventures of the unlikely duo of private detectives. I put a few of early installments of the series in my random rotation and after the adequate but unremarkable China Trade , I expected a lot from Concourse (1995) as it won the Shamus Award. Well, it has been an exasperating read: brilliant aspects obscured by clichés, bad characterizations, and cheap ending.

This is a "Smith novel": now I understand that in the consecutive novels of the series the leading roles alternate. Smith's friend owns a protection company business where one of his men has been killed on the job. Smith's task is to find the killer: he is hired by the company as a replacement for the victim - a guard at The Bronx Home for the Aged, a care house funded and managed by a non-profit organization. The police suspect the guard was killed by one of the Cobras, a gang that owns the neighborhood and extorts money from the businesses. However, Smith's investigation uncovers real-estate improprieties and shenanigans.

Corruption in ostensibly charitable non-profit organizations is one of my hot-button issues, so I was excited to see Ms. Rozan clearly explain how people can profit heavily and legally from huge amounts of money floating in the non-profit world. The white-collar parasites suck the bulk of funds generated through generosity of donors. An illuminating conversation between Smith and a borough president's employee illustrates the mechanisms of corruption and is, to me, the highpoint of the novel. I find it refreshing when a crime writer has an ability to offer serious social insights without proselytizing and moralizing.

I have a serious problem, though, with characterizations in Concourse. Snake, the leader of the Cobras is a paper character, a cliché with no depth. Detective Lindfors is a caricature as well, with only the "on/off" button: the conversation between him and Smith sounds like a burlesque skit. The scene between Snake and a hospital patient - probably aimed at "humanizing" the former - rings particularly false and is probably aimed at making the reader feel good. Ida Goldstein and Eddie Shawn are also drawn with the faintest of brushes, but at least their roles are only to provide comedic relief. Even Mr. Smith himself does not come across as a real enough person - just a template of an extremely well meaning, noir PI with a heavy baggage of the past. Only Lydia's character is well written - I can imagine myself knowing her. Some of my earlier interest in the Chin/Smith duo was based on the ambiguity of their relationship: this thread of the series is handled well and I hope the author will gradually tell us more about the odd couple.

It could have been a great book and now, while I recommend it, it is with serious reservations.

Two and three quarter stars.

[Nolan]

This is the second book in the Bill Smith and Lydia Chin series. I read this series partially because these two fascinate me. She’s a Chinese-American woman probably in her late 20s. He’s something close to twice her age, and he’s a bit of a loner. He loves his piano, but he plays only for himself. Oh, and he loves Lydia Chin, but she doesn’t reciprocate that; the day she does, her Chinese family will disown her pretty much. But he needs her in his life. She is his dayspring. She is the first muffled sleepy chirp of the pre-sunrise bird, the unused air surrounded by the mystery that always enrobes that portion of the day when no one else is out—when you are the earliest hint of dawn’s only greeter. She is that for him and more. She is his time machine to a less scarred more invigorated more youthful self. And what is he to her? She’s so enigmatic it’s hard to determine that. Clearly, she admires his practical no-nonsense approach to things. His skills as a keen observer impress her. But so far, she’s not in love with him. He needs her because of her depth of network. Lydia or her family either already have knowledge or know where they can get it—knowledge that helps Smith immeasurably.

As the book opens, Smith goes undercover at a nursing home in an otherwise seedy neighborhood in the Bronx. He’s working for a mentor of his—a guy who showed him how to be a private detective. His mentor operated a security company, and that company had the contract to keep an eye on the home and its residents. When someone murders the nephew of the security company owner who worked security at the home, Bill goes to work trying to figure out what happened and who killed the young man.

Lydia is there, to, but she’s the behind-the-scenes under-the-hood member of the team. It is she who does the computer research; it is she who goes places Bill can’t even get close to because of her unique heritage and talent set. Before the book ends, Smith will confront gang members, lawyer swindlers and corruption at the nursing home among its staff; all the time, the bodies mount up.

This promises to be an interesting series indeed. There’s no way that Smith and Chin remain separate and celibate throughout the entire series; I’ll be interested to see how that bridge comes together.

[Julie Trapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

And at the end of the avenue called the Grand Concourse is the place people go to die, the Bronx Home for the Aged. The only trouble is the people dying there are going before their time. Bill Smith has been hired by an old friend to investigate the brutal killing of a young security guard on the Bronx Home grounds. Going undercover, Smith wades out into a sea of violence and lies washing up against the old brick building. When a second murder is committed, Smith knows that there's a method to the madness. With the help of bright, young Chinese-American investigator Lydia Chin, Smith uncovers a web of corruption that's found a home in the Bronx. Now he has to figure out who will die next.[Amazon synopsis]
The books in this series alternate between highlighting Bill or Lydia. Bill narrates this one. Very gory/brutal and foul language. Bill smokes waaaaay too much [I am NOT a lover of smokers]. Need to remember when the book was written. Bill does love Lydia, but his comments and actions would not be PC today. I, however, was not offended.

[M. Sprouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read the first book in this series, written from the perspective of Lydia Chin. So on that one, I can't comment. However, Bill Smith's voice is hard-boiled, very hard-boiled. I liked it a lot. It's gritty, tough and the PI doesn't know when to quit and when he's beaten. This novel reminds me a bit of Ross MacDonald and Loren D. Estleman. The setting, the Concourse, is in part in a "nursing home," however it's more about that whole section of the Bronx. Rozan does a good job of showing us what an undercover PI might go through before the advent of the technology of the last twenty years. My only complaint was that the plot of this novel seems to bet bogged down in the last 60 pages or so of the story. Overall it's a compelling read, think I'll go back and read the first in the series.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this mystery, especially near the end when Bill is able to put the pieces together. But I missed Lydia who appears in the novel but doesn't play a large a part as in the first of the series. This one is mostly about Bill who is hired by his old mentor to figure out who killed a friend who was working as a security guard at a retirement home. Bill goes undercover but is unable to prevent a few more murders. He tangles with a gang, deals with dishonest bureaucrats, defends a man unjustly arrested for murder and nearly gets killed. As I said the ending was exciting and quick-moving but the early part of the novel dragged. So much of it was trying to establish the financial shenanigans going on in the institution that I sometimes lost interest.

[Katie N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in the Lydia Chin Private Eye series and the author does something interesting, I learned, which is alternating perspectives with every other book. This was from Bill’s perspective and it was also his case and story. It was nice to learn more about Bill, but I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Lydia. She was still helping his case, but I truly think she makes for a more interesting lead character and Bill is a better side character or supporting lead. The feeling of this books felt a bit different to because it was Bill’s. It seems his cases have a much darker tone, it feels grittier and more mature. Still interesting, but I found myself less hooked on the story so it took me longer to finish. I am excited to return to China town and Lydia in the next book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith detective series and a book I have long been waiting for. The author has done the unique thing [in my experience in 1996] of telling the entire first mystery in Lydia’s voice and this, the second, in Bill’s, which are two very different voices. And it’s my favorite kind of mystery, where the personal lives of the characters are as important as the mystery itself.

2020 note: Critics and prize-givers love the “Bill” books. I on the other hand think that the “Lydia” books are superior, more unusual and interesting, though I love the series generally. But the “Bill” books I generally rate at 3 stars and “Lydia” at 4 or 4.5 stars.

[Conni · Rating 4 out of 5]

What sounds like a great program is being questioned after first one guard is murdered followed by another and the head of a home for the aged. Is it a street gang that is causing the problem or is something going on that no one recognizes? A cop who is an "authority" on the Cobras is determined that they are the culprits but when Bobby Moran, the owner of the guard company calls in his friend Bill Smith to see what is going on, all kinds of things start happening very fast.

A well written Bill Smith, Lydia Chin mystery which will keep you guessing as to what is happening and why.
S.J. Rozan has written one that is hard to put down.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has cleverly changed the narrator in this story to Bill Smith, a 40+ PI. The first book in the series was told from his partner's perspective. Lydia Chin, Bill's partner, is a 28 year old Chinese American. The setting is 1990's Bronx. The plot has many twists, but mostly implicating another character in the corruption. For a man who has been in the Security business and a PI for years, he should have multiple connections to help him. But he doesn't, and he fails miserably at solving the crimes on his own. For example, without backup or a weapon, he meets with the leader of a gang who has already tried to kill him. Not a realistic story line.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It might have been the hectic nature of my life the last month, it might have been the material, but I had a harder time getting into this second book than the debut of the series. Characters and plot points blurred together, and our lead felt needlessly aggressive at times (what worked as a side character didn’t really click as a main protagonist). But the world was built wonderfully, and I’m sure to pick up book #3 soon!

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good Bill Smith/ Lydia Chin novel about murder at the Bronx Home for the Aged. Bill is hired by an old friend to find out who killed a security guard; was it a gang killing? I like the way the author keeps some answers from you for a while—What happened to the $6000 in the boot? Who did he call? , etc. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars so just average for me/ I was hoping for better from a Shamus award winner but it was slow starting by today's standards I guess. The ending got better but then it just wouldn't end. Maybe this is why I let almost 30 years go between Bill & Lydia reads? Not bad, but also not all that good in my opinion.

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know that this series has garnered all kinds of awards and other kudos, but I just didn't like it much.

A sensitive, 90s kind of guy and his Chinese partner/girlfriend investigate the murder of a security guard. This of course leads to deeper, darker doings.

[Freda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is mostly about Bill again, with Lydia coming in at times. Bill is hired to look into the death of a friends son, at a nursing g home. He was killed in a particular way, beat to death, then shot in the foot. That was the signature of a local gang, but things just didn't add up.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this second book in the series because I liked the character of Lydia Chin and her mother. Unfortunately neither one are in this very much. Instead we get Bill Smith who is a bruiser of a man. So he's a caricature rather than a character. meh

[Arlie Mayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like the previous book, I really enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who enjoys detective novels. This one focuses more on the secondary protagonist from the first book, but has all the same elements I enjoyed from the first one. I look forward to reading other books from this series.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the whole series. S. J. Rozan is a fantastic writer and there isn't another crime/mystery series like the Lydia and Bill series.

[Oscar Maquito · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.6/5

[Linda Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I couldn't get into this one. Very probably, it's just me. It just didn't click for me.

[Kim]

Investigating murders at Bronx nursing home