Winter and Night

Winter and Night by S.J. Rozan is another in the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series and the third that I have read. This one, like No Colder Place, focuses on the Bill Smith character, while Reflecting the Sky concerns Lydia Chin. Winter and Night won the Edgar Award in 2003.

from the back of the book:

Private detective Bill Smith is hurtled headlong into the most provocative-and personal-case of his career when he receives a chilling late night telephone call from the NYPD, who are holding his fifteen-year-old nephew Gary. But before he can find out what’s going on, Gary escapes Bill’s custody and disappears into the dark and unfamiliar streets...

Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, try to find the missing teen and uncover what it is that has led him so far from home. Their search takes them to Gary’s family in a small town in New Jersey, where they discover that one of Gary’s classmates was murdered. Bill and Lydia delve into the crime-only to find it eerily similar to a decades-old murder-suicide...

Now, with his nephew’s future-and perhaps his very life-at stake, Bill must unravel a long-buried crime and confront the darkness of his own past...

There's music in this book. Now, really, I don't know if this is something I'd just never noticed before or if this is a fad that cropped up in the early 2000's, but it's interesting that the last couple of mysteries I've read make it a point to mention which cd is on. In this book Gould's Bach, the Brahms Sonata in F-sharp minor, Bach's French Suites, Sinatra and Copland's Piano Sonata each get a mention, and all the music is in the first 1/3 or so of the book. It's just odd.

I liked the book and the main characters. I thought the writing was better in the last Rozan book I read, but this one was still a fine read. The pacing was good.