In This Rain by S. J. Rozan

Review by Gloria Feit

In an odd coincidence, having recently finished reading’s S. J. Rozan’s In This Rain, I read an article in that morning’s edition of the New York Times dealing with the new designs just made public for Ground Zero, referring in its opening sentence to “the mediocrity we have come to expect from a planning process driven by political opportunism, backdoor deal-making and commercial greed.” These are precisely the issues with which Ms. Rozan deals in her wonderful new book.

A scandal in New York City involving the ever-burgeoning construction industry following a death at a building site results in a plea-bargain by a bribe-giver and –taker, and a prison sentence for Joe Cole, a cop with the City Department of Investigation who, though innocent, still feels guilt for being too fixated on getting to the ‘top guy’ in the scheme to see the potential danger in shoddy practices that ultimately resulted in death. Now, having served two and a half years in prison and out on parole, and having lost, perhaps forever, his reputation, his wife and his daughter, he is contacted by his former partner, who is investigating [and wants to enlist Joe’s help in] a whole new, but startlingly similar situation involving possible corruption in the construction of a huge new development in Harlem, with some heavy hitters, wealthy and with influence in high places, involving more tha n one death, both ’accidental’ and homicidal. The ensuing probe reaches the highest levels of local government, and threatens careers and, increasingly, lives.

S. J. Rozan is an author who reels you in slowly. Unlike others who try to grab you with an opening sentence, or paragraph, or chapter, Ms. Rozan steadily pulls the reader into her story, and the lives of the compelling characters depicted. The groundwork, and background, and events from which the rest of the story flows, consume about the first 100 pages of the book, by which point the reader is thoroughly ‘hooked,’ and by which point, in her inimitable style, the author has immersed the reader into big-city politics [as well as racial politics], construction moguls, and the greed and ambition that drive them.

The reader is presented with an intricate puzzle, not unlike that created in Absent Friends, this author’s previous stunning standalone novel. And when you think you know where the plot is going, Ms. Rozan throws an unexpected curve that takes the book, and the reader, off in another direction when, in her words, the cat becomes the mouse. The depiction of New York, often in the rain [as implied by the title] in this book, is always a particularly special ingredient of this author’s work. The book has everything – terrific writing, pulse-poundin g, hold-your-breath moments, suspense – S. J. Rozan has another winner.