Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Mayors of New York by S. J. Rozan

The Mayors of New York (Pegasus Crime, 2023) is the fifteenth title in the excellent Lydia Chin and Bill Smith private investigator series by S. J. Rozan. Chin is a first-generation American-born Chinese whose battle with her traditional mother’s expectations runs through each book. Kentucky-born Smith is a prototypical private eye, rumpled, cynical, world-weary. Their partnership is unconventional and successful.

I was delighted to win the character name that Rozan donated to a charity fundraiser a couple of years ago and was especially pleased to see what a fat role she gave my name in this book.

In this case Smith is approached by a former girlfriend who works for the mayor of New York. The mayor’s teenage son Mark has disappeared. He has run away before and his mother believed that he would turn up after a day or two but he hasn’t this time. Since the mayor is deep in negotiations for the new police union contract, she does not want to ask the police to search for him. She fears she would appear beholden to the group she is supposed to be standing firm with. She wants Smith to quietly search for her son and bring him home. Smith doesn’t like Madam Mayor and feels no compulsion to take the assignment and he really doesn’t like the former girlfriend. He agrees to look for Mark because he was a teenage runaway too.

Mark’s parents are divorced and do not co-parent. They barely parent individually. Neither of them really knows what Mark has been up to. His twin sister doesn’t know much more as she’s deeply involved in her own life. The member of the mayor’s household who does know Mark is the chef, with whom Mark spends time. He describes Mark’s interests and activities and gives Chin and Smith far more insight than his family did. It sends the pair across New York, where they meet neighborhood leaders, unofficial mayors who watch out for their patch of the city. Each of them proves helpful.

This series is about New York as much as it is solving crime and this book showcases the city more strongly than ever. It also delivers a great plot twist, revealing unexpected sinister motivation for what seemed to be an innocuous minor character. The final confrontation scene is spectacular.

Starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Highly recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Pegasus Crime (December 5, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎288 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1639365257

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1639365258\

 

The Amazon Associate image system is not working, still, so please go to https://amzn.to/422O1GF  to pick it up.

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.