''The Shanghai Moon'' is a Lydia Chin/Bill Smith

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reas ...

S. J. Rozan S. J. Rozan is an American architect and writer of detective fiction and thrillers, based in New York City. She also co-writes a paranormal thriller series under the pseudonym Sam Cabot with Carlos Dews. Life and career S.J. (Shira Judith) Roz ...

. It was published in 2009 by

Minotaur Books St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

. In 2010 it was published by

Ebury Press Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Century ...

in the UK as ''Trail of Blood''. Set partially in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and partially in the

Shanghai Ghetto The Shanghai Ghetto, formally known as the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, was an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkew district of Japanese-occupied Shanghai (the ghetto was located in the southern Hongkou and southwest ...

, the book follows Lydia Chin as she tries to recover a fictional stolen jewel also called ''The Shanghai Moon''.

Background

The book follows eight others in a series of eleven novels and six novellas by Rozan. The main characters,

PIs Pis ( oc, Pis) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Geography Localisation Hydrography The river Auroue forms most of the commune's eastern border. Population See also *Communes of the Gers department The fol ...

Lydia Chin and her "sometimes-partner-in-crime-fighting" Bill Smith had been estranged since the previous novel, and Lydia had just returned from a trip to California.

Plot

Another PI friend of Lydia's, Joel Pillarsky, hired her to help him find a number of antique gems, including potentially a brooch, the ''Shanghai Moon'', which has become the stuff of legend. When Lydia finds this out, however, there has been a murder, she is fired from the case, and Bill Smith reappears, claiming to have heard of the gem while in the Navy.

References

American mystery novels 2009 American novels Novels set in New York City Novels set in China Minotaur Books books {{2000s-mystery-novel-stub