Publication
Blackstone Audio, Inc. (2008)
Original publication date
2002-02-28
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Awards
Edgar Award (Nominee — Novel — 2003)
Anthony Award (Nominee — Novel — 2003)
Barry Award (Nominee — Novel — 2003)
Macavity Award (Winner — Novel — 2003)
Nero Award (Winner — 2003)
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: From the critically acclaimed, award-winning S. J. Rozan comes her finest novel to date-an explosive novel about the corrosive power of secrets and corruption in a small town. In the middle of the night, private investigator Bill Smith is awakened by a call from the NYPD. They're holding fifteen-year-old named Gary-Bill's nephew. But before Bill can find out what is going on, Gary escapes custody into the dark night and unfamiliar streets. Bill, with the help of his partner Lydia Chin, tries to find the missing teen and uncover what it is that led him so far from home. Tracking Gary's family to a small town in New Jersey, Bill finds himself in a town where nothing matters but high school football, where the secrets of the past-both the town's and Bill's own-threaten to destroy the present. And if Bill is to have any chance of saving Gary and preventing a tragedy, he has to both unravel a long buried crime and confront the darkness of his own past..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jennyo
The latest in SJ Rozan's Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mysteries is as good or better than any of the previous books. This installment is narrated by Bill, and he has to investigate the murder of one of his nephew's classmates. There's a scary high school football theme running through this book, and I
This book already won the Edgar, and it's up for an Anthony, a Macavity and a Shamus. Rozan deserves all of them. Her work is stellar.
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live in a town that's obsessed by high school football, so I found it particularly interesting. Besides, Rozan writes the snappiest dialogue this side of Elmore Leonard.This book already won the Edgar, and it's up for an Anthony, a Macavity and a Shamus. Rozan deserves all of them. Her work is stellar.
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LibraryThing member susanamper
Bill Smith and Lydia Chin are p.i. partners in NYC. Smith's nephew Gary is arrested for rolling a drunk, seeks Smith's help, then disappears. Smith has a family history that's not very interesting and takes up too much plot space. Gary may or may not be involved in a Columbine type attack, but the
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town he comes from is crazy for football and reluctant to investigate until the big football game is over. Story is lacking, but Smith and Chin seem interesting enough to warrant taking a look at another book in the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member markatread
The moral of this story is - Football turns boys into monsters (one of the characters actually says this). And the fictional town of Warrenstown, NJ is the place where high school football is celebrated to the point of fanaticism. Where football players are young gods and the town honors them and
The book has several strengths - the writer has a good flow to the narrative, it usually does not get ahead of itself or bog down in unimportant areas of the story. She does try to juggle a lot of balls all at one time but it never becomes weighted down, though some of the story lines that start off with promise don't really go anywhere; but such is life itself. The flaws out number the strengths though, but only 2 of them actually detract from the overall effect of the book.
Warrenstown is a fictional town and is so one demensional that it is actually more like a caricature of small town America. There is not very much belivable about it. In contrast, New York City is very believable. All the characters from there have depth and seem three deminsional, even some of the minor characters from NYC are real. But there is much less of this in Warrenstown. The men are really angry and really ready to get in a fight with everybody that moves, or.... they are nerds. The women are even worse, almost invisible except for one 17 year old girl that writes for the school newspaper. The male Neanderthal act does get heavy handed by the end of the book. It drags on the story as a whole and is repetitive.
***Spoiler Alert***As the story comes to it's conclusion, there are several holes in the ending that are implausible and irritating. Not all the threads of the story are neatly tied off, but again... such is life itself. This is even the point the writer is making to some degree, things don't get cleaned up nicely in real life. The thing that does stand out glaringly as a flaw though is that the hero, Bill Smith, tries to get one of the bad guys in a "round about way" by telling his story to the 17 year old girl who writes for the paper. In an attempt to get at the bad guy, Bill tells her the sorry things the bad guy has done so she can write a story about him and get the court of public opinion against him. Bill feels pretty good about himself for having done this as the book ends; he may not have gotten him arrested but now everyone will know what he is really like. Only problem, the girl has already been beaten up and put in the hsopital for helping Bill. And he goes ahead and puts her back in harms way. Thanks a lot Bill.
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protects them even from having to be responsible for criminal acts they committ. Where the older generation not only wants to protect their football team from outsiders but also has secrets of their own that they want to keep hidden from the time when they were the young football gods of Warrenstown NJ. It is against this back drop that the writer wants to explore how Columbine-like violence occurs when kids decide they are going to kill all the kids in school that bullied and abused them.The book has several strengths - the writer has a good flow to the narrative, it usually does not get ahead of itself or bog down in unimportant areas of the story. She does try to juggle a lot of balls all at one time but it never becomes weighted down, though some of the story lines that start off with promise don't really go anywhere; but such is life itself. The flaws out number the strengths though, but only 2 of them actually detract from the overall effect of the book.
Warrenstown is a fictional town and is so one demensional that it is actually more like a caricature of small town America. There is not very much belivable about it. In contrast, New York City is very believable. All the characters from there have depth and seem three deminsional, even some of the minor characters from NYC are real. But there is much less of this in Warrenstown. The men are really angry and really ready to get in a fight with everybody that moves, or.... they are nerds. The women are even worse, almost invisible except for one 17 year old girl that writes for the school newspaper. The male Neanderthal act does get heavy handed by the end of the book. It drags on the story as a whole and is repetitive.
***Spoiler Alert***As the story comes to it's conclusion, there are several holes in the ending that are implausible and irritating. Not all the threads of the story are neatly tied off, but again... such is life itself. This is even the point the writer is making to some degree, things don't get cleaned up nicely in real life. The thing that does stand out glaringly as a flaw though is that the hero, Bill Smith, tries to get one of the bad guys in a "round about way" by telling his story to the 17 year old girl who writes for the paper. In an attempt to get at the bad guy, Bill tells her the sorry things the bad guy has done so she can write a story about him and get the court of public opinion against him. Bill feels pretty good about himself for having done this as the book ends; he may not have gotten him arrested but now everyone will know what he is really like. Only problem, the girl has already been beaten up and put in the hsopital for helping Bill. And he goes ahead and puts her back in harms way. Thanks a lot Bill.
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LibraryThing member annbury
Bill Smith is the narrator in this installment of the series about two New York PI's, Smith and his partner Lydia Chin. This one sends them to the wilds of New Jersey (or at least to a small town in the Garden State) where Bill is trying to salvage his nephew. Rozan is a terrific writer, but the
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bleakness of the atmosphere in this and the other Bill Smith novels gets wearing. Lydia's novels are more upbeat, and I find them more enjoyable. Show Less
LibraryThing member KajeHarper
All of S.J. Rozan's Bill Smith and Lydia Chin books are worth a read, but this may be the best. Finding out much more about the enigmatic Smith's background and family makes him a far more complex character (or perhaps explains some of the complexity that is hinted at in previous books.) The plot
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is clean and well-paced. Smith's banter as always makes him one of my favorite literary characters, although this is a somewhat darker outing for him. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beamis12
Enjoyed this book about the lengths a town will go to in covering up for their football jocks. Also how events from the past and future merge with diaster looming. Love the Smith and Chen novels.
LibraryThing member auntieknickers
It seems to me that a series writer has a tougher time winning awards that a writer of stand-alone novels, and not just in the mystery field -- just look at how Laura Ingalls Wilder never won a Newbery, and Beverly Cleary had to wait for hers until she wrote a stand-alone "problem novel." Since I
I picked up [b:Winter and Night at a used book sale some time ago and left it on the shelf until I reached it in the progression of Edgar Best Novel winners. Normally I like to begin at the beginning of a series but for this reading project I decided to go in "cold" if the author was new to me.
First, Winter and Night was certainly deserving of the 2003 Edgar Best Novel award. Oddly, (and I gather the judges change regularly so this may be the reason), three of the four nominees who were runners-up were also series entries, which is somewhat unusual. I enjoyed the two I've read, and I would have had a hard time choosing between Manda Scott's No Good Deed and the winner, but I would find it hard to quibble with the judges' choice in this case.
Rozan set herself a difficult task in this book. She artfully mingles "ripped-from-the-headlines" topics (to tell what they are would introduce too many spoilers), a decades-old case whose resolution is in doubt, one of the most complicated revenge stories I've ever encountered, and a major revelation by one of her protagonists, private investigator Bill Smith, about his past. I was riveted from beginning to end. The secondary characters are well-drawn and nuanced even when they at first seem to be stereotypes. And of course, the relationship -- whatever it is! -- between Bill and his younger partner, Lydia Chin, is intriguing. I will definitely need to read the remainder of the series and hope it continues for a long time. Highly recommended.
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greatly enjoy watching characters develop through a series, I'm always disappointed when a favorite is nominated but doesn't get the final prize.I picked up [b:Winter and Night at a used book sale some time ago and left it on the shelf until I reached it in the progression of Edgar Best Novel winners. Normally I like to begin at the beginning of a series but for this reading project I decided to go in "cold" if the author was new to me.
First, Winter and Night was certainly deserving of the 2003 Edgar Best Novel award. Oddly, (and I gather the judges change regularly so this may be the reason), three of the four nominees who were runners-up were also series entries, which is somewhat unusual. I enjoyed the two I've read, and I would have had a hard time choosing between Manda Scott's No Good Deed and the winner, but I would find it hard to quibble with the judges' choice in this case.
Rozan set herself a difficult task in this book. She artfully mingles "ripped-from-the-headlines" topics (to tell what they are would introduce too many spoilers), a decades-old case whose resolution is in doubt, one of the most complicated revenge stories I've ever encountered, and a major revelation by one of her protagonists, private investigator Bill Smith, about his past. I was riveted from beginning to end. The secondary characters are well-drawn and nuanced even when they at first seem to be stereotypes. And of course, the relationship -- whatever it is! -- between Bill and his younger partner, Lydia Chin, is intriguing. I will definitely need to read the remainder of the series and hope it continues for a long time. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member SharronA
WINTER AND NIGHT (2005) is my second Bill Smith / Lydia Chin novel. My first was Rozan's 2009 entry in this series, THE SHANGHAI MOON, a vast story covering at least 70 decades and three continents. In comparison, WINTER AND NIGHT was small, focused on a small town and on Bill Smith's childhood and
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upbringing. I found WINTER AND NIGHT to be much less captivating, and often wished it had been a shorter novel. Had it been my first book in this series I would've stopped there. But I will continue, reading at least one more before making a judgment on Rozan's series. Show Less
Language
Original language
English