No Colder Place

Lydia Chin & Bill Smith #4

by S.J. Rozan

Bill Smith is going undercover again as a favor to an old friend who wants him to investigate thievery on the 40-story Manhattan site of Crowell Construction’s latest project.

His bricklaying is a little rusty, but passable as he checks out the foreman who’s under suspicion. A crane operator has disappeared–along with some heavy machinery.

But when a well-orchestrated riot causes the foreman’s “accidental” death, Smith plunges into a morass of bribery, blackmail and blood looking for answers.

With the help of his Chinese-American partner Lydia Chin, he follows a trail of twisted loyalties, old-fashioned greed and organized crime to its heart-stopping conclusion.

Murder–with no end in sight.

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

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded to 4. I didn't enjoy this as much as I have the other books of the series. Maybe it's because it takes me longer to get through the audio when I have to us this "old-fashioned" type of recording. Don't we get spoiled with technology quickly! But I am glad that the book is at least available in audio of some sort. I really enjoy the unique partnership of the two protagonists. In this story Bill is undercover for a former cop friend working on a construction site. Lydia works in the office of the company trying to get information. I like the repartee between these two partners. It is an exciting story with some close calls for Bill. He, of course keeps declaring his love for Lydia. I think that she secretly love him, too, but can't give in because of her Chinese family, especially, her mother. I will continue enjoying these books.

[Carl Brookins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wit, excellent characters and twisted plot lines mark this novel as a distinct reading pleasure. Add to that a high level of writing skills, and you have another winner from Ms. Rozan. That the novel retains solid interest is testimony to its staying power.

Take two very different professional investigators, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. Insert them into a Manhattan building project to investigate theft. It sounds simple on the surface, but there are circles within circles, and motivations that are only revealed as the story unfolds into murder and more. The cultural differences between the two investigators, their often bristly relationship, add texture and dimension. There are more than the overt dimensions to this novel, as the reader will learn from carefully structured scenes throughout the book. They add to the richness of the reading experience. Finally, in the most positive manner, I can say that unlike many genre novels today, No Colder Place does not offer up endless, needless verbiage. This novel, no longer than it needs to be, comes with a strong positive recommendation from this reviewer.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There's no place colder than a construction site. [...] the chill that pulls the warmth from your bones while you're working, the wind that blows through steel and concrete carrying the ancient dampness of echoing caves."

I am livid. Until the last 35 pages I felt this was a great book, one of the best books in the PI genre that I can remember. At least a four-star rating. But then the author resorts to the tired, cliché, theatrical ending that reminds me of the badly dated noir movies of the 1950s. S.J. Rozan's No Colder Place (1997) won the Anthony Award for the best novel in 1998: I wholeheartedly agree provided we remove the last 35 pages of the book. Why is the author - who is clearly capable of speaking with an original voice - determined to end most of her novels with a stock style of denouement? Why is the author defacing her great work?

The action takes place mainly on a construction site in New York. Bill Smith is subcontracted by another PI to investigate problems on the site: tools have been stolen, construction equipment has vanished, and one of the crane operators has disappeared. The owners of the construction company suspect one of the foremen and want to catch him at wrongdoing. Mr. Smith, who had worked as a bricklayer in his past, gets hired as a mason to watch the crew and find out what is going on. The tension on the site escalates when the body of the crane operator is found. Lydia Chin, Smith's partner and undying target of his romantic interest, is hired as a secretary in the construction site office to help with the investigation.

The story is interesting, moves fast, and - what's most important - is logical and plausible. But the best thing about the novel is that the plot is firmly grounded in labor relations conflicts, and additionally complicated by racial issues. The passages about the assault on the construction site conducted by the "full employment coalition" and its ramifications are the high points of the novel. The whole thread featuring the "Strength Through Jobs/Jobs Through Strength" organization that arranges busloads of rioting people is superb. It is indeed rare to find a mystery so attuned to rhythms of social issues. Even better: the author does not find easy solutions in the superficial political correctness.

I find the construction site scenes and the conversations between the crew completely believable (disclaimer: my labor experience, dating to 49 years ago, is from a steel mill rather than construction site). I have also enjoyed various references to crew members who might be "connected" (wink, wink, Italians in New York, capisce?)

This is my fifth Bill Smith/Lydia Chin novel and once again it is Lydia's character which is superbly drawn. Once again I can fully believe she is a real person. Bill is more believable than usual - the author does not cheapen the plot with references to his traumatic past. Another highpoint of the novel is the scene on the ferry and Lydia's rescue of Bill. Clever, sweet and funny. And no guns are involved! No guns! If only the author could maintain this good form until the end...

Three and a half stars.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am planning on reading the entire Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series, unfortunately I am not able to get a hold of them in order. Probably doesn't matter. Bill is in the center of this one, he ends up taking a construction job in order to help out an old friend. What looked like a missing person case gets totally out of hand. Bill is good but he needs a little help from his friends. The author has a great feel for NYC and it's almost like going there to read these books.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

NO COLDER PLACE - Ex
Rozan, S.J. - 4th Smith/Chin book

When a Manhattan construction site is plagued by an escalating series of thefts and misfortunes, the contractors suspect that they've been targeted by one of their own subcontractors' employees. Brought in to investigate, P.I. Bill Smith goes undercover on the site as a bricklayer - a profession he hasn't practiced for more than twenty-years - to try to uncover the truth about the suspect as well as the troubles on the job site. With his sometime-partner, Chinese-American P.I. Lydia Chin, working as his inside contact, Smith finds himself in the midst of a much more serious case - a case that has escalated from fraud to murder, one that could reach through layers of corruption into the very depths of the underworld.

1997 Top Read - Truly excellent; wonderful characters, great turn of phrase, strong sense of place. I love this series.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised to say that this is my second favorite of the series. This is a Bill Smith book, and I found this quite subtle, yet so lovely. I actually wrote that certain lines were elegiac. I think what I liked best is despite the confusion that the principle characters felt (which is the norm in private investigator books), I wasn't confused about how they were feeling or acting. The previous book was often messy , and I didn't enjoy that. This book had a greater sense of control. I liked it so much that I started the fifth book without typing up my notes for interview.

[Kelvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 1997 detective mystery by S.J. Rozan and is the fourth book in her PI detective duo Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series. The setting is in late 1990s New York City with a high-rise construction site as the backdrop. This book won the 1998 Anthony Award for Best Novel. The writing is smooth and the book moves pretty fast. Rozan did a good job painting the daily life of a construction worker and how the construction industry in New York works. As a 1997 book, it also provides readers with a flashback to life in the beeper and pay phone generation. The book has a complex plot with various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle all coming together in the end.

The story involves two construction scams that got on a sad life of their own and finally led to three murders and one attempted murder. Dan Crowell, Senior, the owner of Crowell Constructions who is dying of leukemia, tried to make a last hurrah and underbid on an ambitious high-rise construction project in New York City with a new developer Denise Armstrong. He has secretly strike a deal with Armstrong to enter into a profit sharing partnership on the building without telling his only son Dan Crowell, Junior. Dan Senior’s plan was to build a good relationship with Armstrong so after he died, his son Dan Junior can carry on with the firm with future projects from Armstrong. However, because of the underbid, Crowell Constructions had a major cash crisis from the start and had difficulty paying its sub-contractors and workers’ salaries. Dan Junior, not knowing the upside potential in the partnership, thought his father has gone senile and Dan Junior tried to keep the company afloat by running two scams, one to use inferior materials in the building to save money so he can use the saved money to make payroll. The other is to steal his own construction equipment to fence and then to claim insurance on the stolen property. When his accomplice on the equipment theft Lenny Pelligrini tried to blackmail Dan Junior, Dan Junior murdered him. Later, when a construction worker Reg Phillips accidentally uncovered inferior materials were substituted for what were called for in the plans, Dan Junior had another accomplice Joe Romeo murdered Phillips. Romeo failed in his efforts and severely injured Phillips and put him in a coma. Dan Junior later hired Chester Hamilton to kill Romeo. After Romeo’s death, Dan Junior killed Hamilton to clean house. All these came out in a climatic showdown at the end of the book when Smith and Chin were cornered in Crowell’s office by Dan Junior. Under pressure from Dan Senior, Dan Junior confessed to what he has done. Just when the Crowells were going to kill Smith and Chin, Smith’s bricklayer partner on the construction site Mike DiMaio showed up and saved the day.

The book also has a parallel running subplot which is really just a red herring. Smith and Chin was brought into the case by Chuck DeMattis, an ex-NYPD cop who now has his own PI firm. DeMattis believes his arch enemy mafia boss Louie Falco is running some scam at the Armstrong building. He knows Falco is retiring and is going straight and DeMattis thinks the Armstrong scam is the last chance he would have to catch Falco at racketeering. Therefore, he sent Bill to go undercover as a bricklayer in the Armstrong construction site and Lydia to go undercover as a secretary in the Crowell construction trailer on site. Unfortunately for DeMattis, he was too late. While Falco is in fact involved in the Armstrong building, he was acting only as a legitimate investor. He has already gone straight.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A construction site is not an ordinary setting for a mystery and in this one it's not just a building under construction, but a place where many different tradesmen organize chaos into creation. PI Bill Smith and his partner Lydia Chin are the protagonists, but the workers are also fully-realized characters who bring their workplace to life. That workplace of steel and concrete is the title's eponymous cold place. Cold, not only in temperature, but in the cold, hard facts of life of a competitive business.

Equipment has gone missing and Smith goes undercover to work as a bricklayer on a Manhattan building project where he tries to keep up - and not reveal his rusty skills - with his partner Mike DiMaio, a veteran. Everyone connected with the job faces his or her own pressures. Chin works in the construction offices of the Crowells, Senior and Junior, who low-balled the bid; Denise Armstrong is the developer, a black woman in a white, male world and facing loans that come too quickly due. The masonry foreman lives with his guilt as he cuts corners on materials to bring in the job on time; he needs to keep paying the men he brought to the job in a tight and contentious labor market. As the investigation progresses it moves from dodgy building practices to three murders, and back to old neighborhood ties that still bind, some of them to wise guys. Before it's all solved, it reveals a fragile father/son relationship that provides the motive for murder.

As an aside: A before-cell phones era read was refreshing.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed every book in this series so far, and this was no exception. Confession time: One of the most fascinating components for me is the sexual tension between Smith and Chin. You just want to shake your head at both of them and say, “come on, guys, you both know how you feel; just get it over with.”

There’s more thievery than usual at a 40-story construction site in Manhattan. The contractor hired an investigator, who, in turn, hired Bill Smith to go undercover to see whether he could ferret out the thief.

Bill goes to work as a bricklayer, something he had done as a younger man, but hadn’t done long. His slow clumsiness all but destroys his cover, but before that can happen, workers find a dead colleague in the bottom of an elevator pit, and another worker gets his head gashed to the point of unconsciousness in what looks like an accident but isn’t. It’s up to Bill and Lydia, who signs on as a temporary secretary for the contractor, to figure out whether the shoddy construction practices and so-called accidents are mob related. This is an ending that surprised me, and that’s a good way to finish a book. I’ll catch the next book in the series in a few months for sure.

[BBoulier · Rating 4 out of 5]

S.J. Rozan's "No Colder Place" (2012) is the fourth book in the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin detective series set in New York City. The first three books in the series are narrated by Chin. This one is narrated by Smith. Smith is hired to investigate thefts at a construction site on a new building. While he is working undercover as a bricklayer, a body is discovered on the site and the case becomes more complex. The book has a nicely complicated plot and is very well written. Highly recommended.

[M. Sprouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

S. J. Rozan does it again! She has a way of making you feel like you are either Bill or Lydia or at least walking along beside them. Rozan's writing builds the suspense as you somehow actually care about her characters, and not just the main two. A fine mystery that was written 24 years ago, but holds up like it was penned last week. That is except for Bill Smith often looking for a phone booth, but that just added to it's charm.

[Robyn Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in BN looking in the mystery section and someone recommended this series to me. I was a little reluctant but after finishing 3 of the books in the series (I skipped #2 and will go back) I am really enjoying the series and the authors style of writing. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Ollie Acheson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Solid Detective Book

This is the fourth book in S. J. Rowan”s Bill Smith / Lydia Chin series and these just keep getting better. Smith and Chin are plausible, well developed characters, the mystery, about a deep-seated construction scam, is believable and nuanced and the scene, NY in the 90s, raises memories o f the famous crime novels of the 30s and 40s. A good read.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aimless But Well Told

Rozan is such a good writer, and the characters are interesting enough, that this story is decent. Unfortunately, the plot is needlessly convoluted and the story seems aimless. Not the best from Rozan.

[John Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Great continuation of the series. I prefer the books from Lydia Chin's perspective, but I find it interesting that Rozan alternates between each book (so far).

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t aware of this series until recently and I am really enjoying the books. This one is different because it is told from Bill Smith’s viewpoint instead of from Lydia Chin’s.

[Charles A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice easy read with two enjoyable characters. As with many of the Smith/Chin book, there’s a little twist at the end.

[Suzanne Nordhaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool Story

SJ Rozan really knows how to put the words in place. I worked in construction offices. Yes, the skilled workers really do take pride in their work.

[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.

[Jes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill’s books continue to vex me. I don’t know why his book always have a weird racial slant to them, but it makes me very annoyed and uncomfortable. Back to Lydia pls.

[Mary Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good noir-style tale set on a construction site.

[Barbara Gifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good guy trying to show how egalitarian he is

[Bill Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing wrong with this book. It just didn't grab me. The Characters were fine, the crime fine, the unrequited love fine. It was all just fine.

[Regine]

Grounded.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Construction crime is not sexy. There is not much heart. so it is a credit to SJ Rozan this is a solid mystery. The Smith/Chen novels deserve more attention.

[Lenay Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality

From four directions. And communication, two ways. And the cost of missing one, in either subset. Proof that intention is inconsequential.

[George M]

But year construction site was hiot

[Woman Reading (is away exploring) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟 (rounded down)

Solid, conventional mystery.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a fun read. Thank you S.J. Rozan.

[Spuddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

#4 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery set in New York City. This series is somewhat unique in that it alternates points of view every other book. This one is told from Bill's point of view. Both are private investigators with separate agencies who work together. Bill would like their relationship to be more than it is, and I think Lydia would as well, except that her family is traditional Chinese and her mother dislikes Bill--or the idea that any Caucasian would woo her daughter.

Bill is contacted by an old cop friend who now runs his own much larger and more sophisticated PI agency. A construction company boss has hired him to discover who's stealing from his company--and also if possible to find a worker who disappeared a few days ago, seemingly without a trace. They have an idea who the thief might be, but proving it and dismissing him without the Union raising a fuss is another matter--and as Joe Romeo is also suspected of being a bookie and possibly running other kinds of illegal activities on site, even trickier.

Bill goes undercover as a mason working with the company--not so far-fetched as he did construction work when he was younger. First day on the job, there is an 'accident' that puts one of Bill's co-workers in the hospital in a coma, and the second day, they dig up the body of the missing guy in an elevator pit that needed to be redone due to water seepage. The situation deteriorates from there, when Bill discovers (via Lydia, whom the client has agreed to put in the office as a temporary 'secretary' to keeping an eye out there) that the company is having financial problems, that the architect has her own agenda, and that there may well be a mob connection somewhere in the works.

I enjoy this series and find that the switching back and forth from Bill's and Lydia's point of view in every other book works great--much better, IMO, than swapping about within the same book. It gives the story more cohesiveness. Although I had figured out most aspects of the actual mystery and figured out the murderer well in advance, I still enjoyed this book immensely. Looking forward very much to the next one!