The Barnes Noble ReviewThis novel featuring Asian-American detective April Woo is a powerful blend of police procedural and thriller. When the guest of honor, Lieutenant Alfredo Bernardino, leaves before his retirement party's over, he neglects to take the gifts he's been given in honor of his 38 years with the New York City Police Department. His famous protégé, April Woo, follows him with his property, planning to say a last goodbye, but it's already too late. She comes across her mentor's still-warm body in the fog, his neck broken by an unknown assailant. April gives chase and comes close to sharing Bernardino's fate at the hands of a killer whose skills at unarmed combat challenge her own. Bernardino had plenty of friends and more than a few enemies, and the investigation into his murder is filled with complications involving high-ranking detectives, an internal affairs investigation, input from the dead detective's children (a son who works in the D.A.'s office and an FBI agent daughter), plus a hunt for millions of dollars missing from Bernardino's recent lottery winnings – not to mention the search for the source of a series of cryptic threatening phone calls to Bernardino and the killer's other victims. Because of her injuries – and the department's policy against cops who are crime victims investigating their own cases – April's involvement has to be unofficial. At times she must even hide it from her fiancé, Lieutenant Mike Sanchez of the NYPD Homicide Task Force. But still she hunts relentlessly for the cop-killer who is bold enough to seek out new victims amid the ever-expanding manhunt. Sue Stone

Cassandra Sales is a woman with a gift for nurturing things – her husband, the successful wine importer; her two adult children; the fabulous flowers in her garden. After twenty-six years of marriage, however, Cassie's husband, Mitch, is spending more time skipping abroad than remaining at home with her. Tired of being a modest Long Island housewife who can't even remember what it's like to be kissed, Cassie has a face-lift to recapture her youthful allure. The surprise for her husband goes awry when Mitch returns home early from a business trip. When he sees the post-op horror show, he collapses on the spot. The resulting coma may spare Mitch from the tax audit he's facing, but Cassie is forced to step in and research the facts of her own life. What she discovers about Mitch and the family business shocks her to the core: her "loving" husband was preparing to divorce her, swindle her out of tons of money, and run off with another woman. As Cassie recuperates, she realizes what she's after is revenge. Big-time. But she soon learns that the road to retribution can lead to unforeseen and often deadly complications.

When a young doctor goes for his daily run in New York City 's Central Park and doesn't come back, NYPD detective April Woo is convinced that he's still alive. Trusting her usually solid instincts, she goes outside her jurisdiction and orders a massive search using the city's best K-9 tracking unit. But it isn't until a witness in the case is brutally murdered that April's hunch is taken seriously – by her superiors, by the mayor and by the already frenzied press. Only now, it just might be too late to beat the clock and stop an out-of-control killer on the most bizarre and disturbing crime spree the city has ever seen.