S. J. Rozan – Carol's Notebook

Author: S. J. Rozan

SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of twenty novels and eight dozen short stories. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel and the Edgar for Best Short Story. She’s also the recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award and has received Life Achievement Awards from both the Private Eye Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. BRONX NOIR, a short story anthology SJ edited, was chosen NAIBA “Notable Book of the Year.” She also co-edited, with Jonathan Santlofer, the anthology DARK END OF THE STREET, and the 2022 Mystery Writers of America anthology, CRIME HITS HOME.

SJ has served on the National Boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and is ex-President of the Private Eye Writers of America. In January 2003 SJ was an invited speaker at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The 2005 Left Coast Crime convention in El Paso, Texas made her its Guest of Honor and she was Toastmaster at Bouchercon 2009. She’s been a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Writer-in-Residence at Singapore Management University, and is a Senior Instructor and the Writing Retreat Mentor at the annual Bookcamp in Racine, WI. She speaks, lectures and teaches, and she runs a summer writing workshop at the Art Workshop International in Assisi, Italy. A former architect in a practice that focused on police stations, firehouses, and zoos, SJ Rozan lives in lower Manhattan.

Lao She is an unassuming, respectable young scholar from China who has emigrated to London and now teaches Chinese language at Oxford and wants to write a novel. Then he is called to the home of philosopher Bertrand Russell who needs his assistance - in breaking a friend out of jail. It's during this errand that Lao meets Judge Dee Ren Jie. I do have to say it's an interesting meeting and sets the tone for the rest of the book. Judge Dee is in London to investigate the death of Mr. Ma, a fellow member of the Chinese Labor Corps who served in France during the First World War and was allowed to come to London afterward. Lao, who is more familiar with the city, offers to help Dee, but soon another Chinese man is found dead and the whole situation becomes more complicated. Lao is our Watson to Dee's Sherlock. I listened to the audiobook, which worked well....

Author: S. J. Rozan

The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan

Mailbox Monday – 3/18