April Woo Mysteries Series by Leslie Glass
April Woo Mysteries #1
Burning Time awm-1
Leslie Glass
A serial killer leaves a college coed to die in the California desert, his signature of fire seared into her flesh.... A beautiful Chinese-American detective, recently transferred from Chinatown to the Upper West Side, is assigned a routine missing-persons case... A famous doctor returns home from a lecture to discover that his actress wife has been living a secret life.... Now, the paths of the cop, the killer, and the psychiatrist are about to converge.... A savage killer is on the loose in New York City. His calling card is a tattoo of flames; his trail of victims leads from the scorched sands of Californa to the blistering heart of Manhattan. Only Detective April Woo can block this vicious madman's next move. And with the help of psychiatrist Jason Frank, this NYPD policewoman will prove that the predator she's hunting is no ordinary killer--but then, April Woo is no ordinary cop. From the Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly All superficial characterization and sadism, this thriller about a serial killer, its plot founded entirely on coincidence, is charmless in the extreme. When a man and a woman show up at NYPD headquarters to file a missing persons report on their college-age daughter, detective April Woo does the paperwork. Woo eventually learns that California cops have found the daughter's apparently fire-branded body near San Diego. Shortly thereafter, a New York psychiatrist approaches Woo with several disturbing letters sent to his porno-star wife. The letters have a San Diego postmark, prompting Woo to connect them with the murderer (3000 miles away, but not for long.) Horrific, if predictable, descriptions of the pyromaniac killer and his methods of torture are interspersed with updates on Woo's investigation. Glass ( To Do No Harm ) attempts a multicultural angle by casting Woo as a Chinese-American in conflict with her old-fashioned immigrant mother, but the tension between them is hackneyed at best. From its farfetched premise to its suspenseless action-drama climax, the novel is a chore to wade through.
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April Woo Mysteries #2
Hanging Time awm-2
Leslie Glass
NYPD DETECTIVE APRIL WOO IS BACK — AND THE STAKES IN HER NEW CASE ARE HIGHER THAN EVER! Several very disturbing people had their reasons to persuade Maggie Wheeler to open the door of her shop and then savagely murder her. One of them has disappeared. Another confesses. But faced with a corpse hanging from a chandelier, April Woo isn’t buying the story. When another girl dies in exactly the same way across town, April gets a call from psychoanalyst Jason Frank about a strange man who keeps a sick woman in restraints and might like to dress up in her clothes, and two angry sisters with a very ugly past. Jason and April race to find a vicious killer before another young woman is found dangling.… “Fine psychodrama. Glass walks on the noir side.” — The Poisoned Pen
“Complex insights … Deft plotting and strong characterization will leave readers eager for further installments.” —Library Journal
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April Woo Mysteries #3
Judging Time awm-3
Leslie Glass
It's snowing in New York. On the soaring skyscrapers. On the cozy brownstones. And on the sidewalk in front of a trendy West Side restaurant where two bodies lie entangled on the ground. A man and a woman. One viciously stabbed to death, the other the victim of an apparent heart attack. Each married to someone else, both joined in a chilling tableau of death. For Detective Sergeant April Woo, newly promoted to Manhattan's Midtown North, it is a baffling double homicide that screams of race, class, sex, and headlines. Because the dead woman was the beautiful wife of African-American pro football player turned stockbroker Rick Liberty. And the dead man was Liberty's close friend and perhaps his wife's lover. With the heat coming down from City Hall - and Rick Liberty at the center of a raging media frenzy - the pressure is on for the NYPD to bring in a killer. But April isn't so sure Liberty is guilty. Neither is Mike Sanchez, April's former partner, who has just been brought in as a special investigator. As the manhunt turns savage, April and Sanchez must uncover the truth before time runs out on the wrong suspect.
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April Woo Mysteries #3
Loving Time awm-3
Leslie Glass
In a pricey bachelor pad, a tormented man loses the battle for his soul...and dies a terrible death, apparently by his own hand....
In a huge hospital complex, an ex-nurse steals through the halls, hiding behind a phony ID...and plotting to exact a terrifying revenge....
In an elegant high-rise, a driven psychiatrist tries to manipulate the truth...and escape punishment for the sins of her past....
Deadly obsessions at a prestigious psychiatric institute, where people are dying--and killing--for love, lead NYPD Detective April Woo and eminent psychiatrist Jason Frank into the dangerous and shadowy area of sabotage and criminal responsibility--in an institution where a cold-blooded killer lurks...and where words can be the most lethal weapon of all.
From the Paperback edition.
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April Woo Mysteries #5
Stealing Time awm-5
Leslie Glass
With her mastery of police procedure and unflinching take on race relations, Leslie Glass is one of today's most original female suspense writers. April Woo's investigation of a child's disappearance in New York's Chinatown takes a nasty turn when suspicion falls on the wealthy parents. The father is hostile, the mother is unconscious, the police are without a lead, and all the pressure is on April. The facts don't add up and April's only hope of cracking the case is to find the child's real mother. Everyone involved is clearly hiding something, but is bound to silence by fear or guilt or both. With the reporters, her superior officers, and her own mother pressuring her, April is stuck in the middle of the kind of high-profile case most cops despise-- the kind of case perfect for cool-headed Sergeant Woo.
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April Woo Mysteries #7
The Silent Bride awm-7
Leslie Glass
NYPD homicide detective April Woo ("Tracking Time, Stealing Time") investigates the murders of two brides, both shot by a sniper's bullet. Trying to find how the two brides were connected, April and homicide specialist Mike Sanchez sift through the evidence for clues to the killer's identity. But they have to work fast because the wedding of April's close friend is fast approaching.
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April Woo Mysteries #9
A Clean Kill awm-9
Leslie Glass
Manhattan's Upper East Side isn't a neighborhood that NYPD detective April Woo and Precinct Captain Mike Sanchez associate with grisly crimes--until the wife of a celebrity chef is slashed to death in her fashionable town-house. The obvious suspect is her longtime nanny. Then the victim's best friend is murdered as well. The suspect in the case--the nanny. As April's investigation unfolds, so do the victims' privileged secrets. And each one of them cuts like a knife.
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