There's lots of action, great food, and social insight into the attitudes of various generations of immigrants in S.J. Rozan's fifth book in her superlative Lydia Chin-Bill Smith series. There's also a remarkable moment when Lydia's mother actually admits that she approves of the way her daughter does her job. Mrs. Chin has always hated the fact that Lydia's work as a private detective puts her in danger and in the company of men, like Smith, who don't make suitable husbands. But when Lydia refuses to knuckle under to the demands of a venerable Chinatown patriarch, her mother astonishes her (and us) by praising her "professional manner"--and then goes on to give her a clue that helps her unravel a mystery involving the smuggling of people and drugs. With each novel, Rozan alternates the narrative focus between Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, and this time it's Lydia's turn to take center stage. She uses her ethnicity and acting talent to work undercover as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden (where four illegal aliens have disappeared) and her deep roots in New York's Chinatown to note and comment on subtle changes in the power structure as new Fukienese-speaking immigrants replace the old Cantonese. She and Smith also move their complicated personal relationship forward a notch and consume vast amounts of wonderful food--Chinese, Jewish, even a homemade meatloaf--in a story that manages to satisify all the senses. Previous Chin-Smith outings in paperback: China Trade, Concourse, Mandarin Plaid, and No Colder Place. --Dick Adler


From Publishers Weekly
While lots of amazing events happen in Rozan's fifth book in her superlative Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, none surprises more than the moment when Lydia's mother actually admits that she approves of the way her daughter does her job. Mrs. Chin has always hated that her daughter's work as a PI puts her in danger and bad company, namely that of men, like Bill, who don't make suitable husbands. But when Lydia refuses to knuckle under to the demands of a Chinatown patriarch, her mother astonishes her by praising her "professional manner"?and then gives her a clue that helps her unravel a mystery involving the smuggling of people and drugs. Since Bill took center stage in the Shamus Award-winning Rozan's last book, No Colder Place (1997), this time it's Lydia's turn in the spotlight. Working undercover as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden, where four illegal aliens have disappeared, Lydia calls upon her deep roots in New York's Chinatown to note and comment on subtle changes in the power structure as new Fukienese-speaking immigrants replace the old Cantonese. She and Bill also move their personal relationship forward a notch and consume vast amounts of wonderful food?Chinese, Jewish, even a homemade meatloaf?in a story that manages to satisify all the senses. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Caught in the cross fire between union organizers and rival rest-aurateurs, private detective Lydia Chin is trying to track down four missing Chinese restaurant workers. Although the recording is uninspired, the story itself is satisfying as it takes Chin and her sometimes-partner, Bill Smith, through a world of illegal aliens, drug smuggling and the Chinatown bureaucratic jungle. Agnes Herrmann puts on an effective Chinese accent, but the normal voice she employs for narration and for non-ethnic characters comes out sounding nasal, on edge, and slightly whiny. Chin's character has a fun, spontaneous quality, which doesn't come through in Herrmann's reading. Despite the mismatch, BITTER FEAST makes for an exciting and edifying listen. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Last seen in No Colder Place , PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith return in their fifth adventure. Rozan--the only other woman besides Sue Grafton to have won the Shamus Award for Best Novel--has built a marvelous series around these two characters. Each installment has alternated between the voice of Lydia, a Chinese American born and raised in New York's Chinatown, and Bill, a veteran with a past he'd rather forget. This one focuses on the complexities of power in Chinatown that Lydia encounters when hired to find four missing waiters who all worked at the Dragon Garden, a popular dim sum restaurant owned by one of the community's Cantonese power brokers. The job leads Lydia and Bill to the conflict between the older Cantonese and the newer Fukienese immigrants, discovery of illegal aliens imported for cheap labor to prevent unionization of Chinese restaurants, the deadly business of drug running, and possible U.S. government involvement in smuggling dissidents out of mainland China. Quite a brew indeed, and one that Rozan handles with skill and verve in the most complex plot she has yet written. Lydia and Bill's relationship provides the intriguing subplot in what may be the best of this uniformly excellent, well written, and entertaining series. If you've missed the first four, now is the time to get acquainted with one of the best PI duos in contemporary mystery fiction. Stuart Miller

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Private investigator Lydia Chin has lived in New York City's Chinatown all her life. But even to those born and raised in this city-within-a-city, where the power structure is often based on perceptions and shifting alliances, the complex interactions of Chinatown can be elusive. The Chinese Restaurant Workers' Union - a new, unaligned, and untried union - is making waves in Chinatown by trying to organized the restaurant workers, challenge the powerful restaurant owners, and shift the balance of power. When four restaurant workers, one of them a union organizer, disappear with no known reason and without a trace, the union's lawyer reluctantly hires Lydia Chin to find the missing men. With her sometimes-partner Bill Smith, Lydia soon discovers that she is not the only one looking for them. Approached by all sides and alternately pressured to drop the case and to solve it quickly, Lydia finds herself in the middle of a mysterious conflict between two powerful Chinatown rivals, the New York City police, a struggling union, and a shadowy pair of federal agents. And four missing men, possessing a deadly secret, whose very lives hang in the balance.

FROM THE CRITICS

Marilyn Stasio

The rich sights, sounds and textures of daily life in Chinatown are a sumptuous feast for jaded palates. -- New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly

While lots of amazing events happen in Rozan's fifth book in her superlative Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, none surprises more than the moment when Lydia's mother actually admits that she approves of the way her daughter does her job. Mrs. Chin has always hated that her daughter's work as a PI puts her in danger and bad company, namely that of men, like Bill, who don't make suitable husbands. But when Lydia refuses to knuckle under to the demands of a Chinatown patriarch, her mother astonishes her by praising her 'professional manner' -- and then gives her a clue that helps her unravel a mystery involving the smuggling of people and drugs. Since Bill took center stage in the Shamus Award-winning Rozan's last book, No Colder Place), this time it's Lydia's turn in the spotlight. Working undercover as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden, where four illegal aliens have disappeared, Lydia calls upon her deep roots in New York's Chinatown to note and comment on subtle changes in the power structure as new Fukienese-speaking immigrants replace the old Cantonese. She and Bill also move their personal relationship forward a notch and consume vast amounts of wonderful food -- Chinese, Jewish, even a homemade meatloaf -- in a story that manages to satisify all the senses.

AudioFile - Steven E. Steinbock

Caught in the cross fire between union organizers and rival rest-aurateurs, private detective Lydia Chin is trying to track down four missing Chinese restaurant workers. Although the recording is uninspired, the story itself is satisfying as it takes Chin and her sometimes-partner, Bill Smith, through a world of illegal aliens, drug smuggling and the Chinatown bureaucratic jungle. Agnes Herrmann puts on an effective Chinese accent, but the normal voice she employs for narration and for non-ethnic characters comes out sounding nasal, on edge, and slightly whiny. Chin's character has a fun, spontaneous quality, which doesn't come through in Herrmann's reading. Despite the mismatch, BITTER FEAST makes for an exciting and edifying listen. S.E.S. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Chi-Chun Ho, an organizer for the restaurant workers whom Lydia Chin's old friend Peter Lee is trying to unionize, has disappeared from his apartment, and so have all three of his roommates, two other waiters and a busboy at the Dragon Garden, the Chinatown landmark owned by the powerful (and union-phobic) H.B. Yang. Peter wants Lydia (Mandarin Plaid) to find the men before anything bad happens to them—but even as she takes on the case, it's too late for Ho, who's killed in a bombing of the Chinese Restaurant Workers' Union headquarters that also sends Peter to the hospital. Disturbed because Lydia has been threatened by a roughneck who stopped by her place to warn her off the case, Peter tells her it's time to drop the disappearances into the lap of the law—specifically, into the lap of Peter's girlfriend, NYPD Detective Mary Kee. But no sooner does Peter fire Lydia than she's hired to do the same job by none other than H.B. Yang. Lydia's contortionist attempts to placate each of her clients without giving in to them, her undercover stint as a dim sum waitress at the Dragon Garden, and her sometime romance with her sometime partner Bill Smith (No Colder Place) all keep her balanced precariously on the hyphen in 'Chinese-American,' consistently illuminating both sides of her heritage. Rozan skillfully measures out the layers of double-dealing, keeping her plot just twisty enough to spin it out with consummate professionalism. If you still don't know Lydia and Bill, you'll never have a better chance to meet them.