From Publishers Weekly
April Woo (Judging Time, 1998, etc.) straddles two incompatible worlds: As a detective sergeant in the NYPD, she must be ambitious and aggressive; as the daughter of superstitious, demanding Chinese parents, she must be obedient and deferential. These tensions are the most involving aspect of this novel heavy on plot and coincidence. When Heather Rose Papescu, the Chinese-American wife of an affluent lawyer, is beaten and her adopted baby vanishes, it seems a straightforward kidnapping case. But Heather refuses to identify her attacker, and she and her husband, Anton, cannot produce adoption papers. Woven into the story is the plight of deathly ill Lin Tsing, an illegal alien working in a Chinatown factory owned by Anton's brutal relatives; Lin feels betrayed by her cousin, Nanci, who, coincidentally, was April's childhood friend. April's investigation of a case involving interracial marriage, meanwhile, prompts guilt over her affair with Latino cop Mike Sanchez. As the search for an apparently illegitimate baby continues, April examines her relationship with her parents, comparing her sense of assimilation with Heather's, who has also rejected Chinese traditions, and with Nanci's, who lives within them. While this overpopulated, overschematized story ends on an up beat, it's the themes of shame, guilt and familial obedience that make it work. Agent, Nancy Yost. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
NYPD Detective April Woo faces conflict in all directions--from bosses who are dubious about a woman in a macho department; to her Chinese mother, who is unwilling to see her child assimilated in a foreign world; and her boyfriend, who is pushing her toward commitment. April must negotiate her way through all these delicate relationships as she tries to find a missing Chinese-American baby. Kathy Hsieh's April is enormously appealing, if perhaps a bit innocent-sounding for a veteran police officer. More impressive are Hsieh's side characters, particularly April's mother and a wily Chinese woman who seems to know more about the crime than she lets on. Hsieh's reading perfectly captures the mixture of suspicion, guile, and manipulation that are part of Glass's complex characters. M.O. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Leslie Glass is back...with a terrific new mystery featuring NYPD homicide detective April Woo. In Stealing Time, she's caught between powerhouse politics and a troubled conscience when a brutal crime is committed in the heart of her own Chinese-American community. The most challenging case of her career makes for the most provocative mystery of the year.

"Leslie Glass is Lady McBain."-- Michael Palmer

"Leslie Glass is one terrific writer."-- Tami Hoag

Stealing Time is:

"Truly fantastic."-- New York Post

"Skillfull...Compelling."-- Dallas Morning News

"Exciting."-- Kirkus Reviews

"Involving."-- Publishers Weekly

"Masterful."-- Booklist

"I'll drop what I'm doing to read Leslie Glass anytime."-- Nevada Barr

"Gripping psychological drama."-- Publishers Weekly

"Complex insights...deft plotting and strong characterizations."-- Library Journal

"If you're a Thomas Harris fan...looking for a new thriller to devour, you'll find it in ... Leslie Glass."-- Sun-Sentinel, (FL)

SYNOPSIS

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

April Woo (Judging Time, 1998, etc.) straddles two incompatible worlds: As a detective sergeant in the NYPD, she must be ambitious and aggressive; as the daughter of superstitious, demanding Chinese parents, she must be obedient and deferential. These tensions are the most involving aspect of this novel heavy on plot and coincidence. When Heather Rose Papescu, the Chinese-American wife of an affluent lawyer, is beaten and her adopted baby vanishes, it seems a straightforward kidnapping case. But Heather refuses to identify her attacker, and she and her husband, Anton, cannot produce adoption papers. Woven into the story is the plight of deathly ill Lin Tsing, an illegal alien working in a Chinatown factory owned by Anton's brutal relatives; Lin feels betrayed by her cousin, Nanci, who, coincidentally, was April's childhood friend. April's investigation of a case involving interracial marriage, meanwhile, prompts guilt over her affair with Latino cop Mike Sanchez. As the search for an apparently illegitimate baby continues, April examines her relationship with her parents, comparing her sense of assimilation with Heather's, who has also rejected Chinese traditions, and with Nanci's, who lives within them. While this overpopulated, overschematized story ends on an up beat, it's the themes of shame, guilt and familial obedience that make it work. Agent, Nancy Yost. (Feb.)

AudioFile

NYPD Detective April Woo faces conflict in all directions—from bosses who are dubious about a woman in a macho department; to her Chinese mother, who is unwilling to see her child assimilated in a foreign world; and her boyfriend, who is pushing her toward commitment. April must negotiate her way through all these delicate relationships as she tries to find a missing Chinese-American baby. Kathy Hsieh's April is enormously appealing, if perhaps a bit innocent-sounding for a veteran police officer. More impressive are Hsieh's side characters, particularly April's mother and a wily Chinese woman who seems to know more about the crime than she lets on. Hsieh's reading perfectly captures the mixture of suspicion, guile, and manipulation that are part of Glass's complex characters. M.O. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

NYPD Detective Sergeant April Woo is up to her pretty neck in complications-not all of them generated by the high-profile kidnaping that has her brass in a tizzy-although those certainly matter. A wealthy young woman named Heather Rose has been found severely beaten, her baby missing. First complication: it's not her baby. In fact, while it seems that half the population of New York City can testify to Heather's recent (very obvious) pregnancy, she's never had a baby. Second complication: the victim is in a coma and can't tell anyone anything. Or is it a convenient coma, faked in order to remain incommunicado? April can't be sure. Third complication: The husband-the baby's putative father-can't have fathered anyone's baby, as events prove, anatomical problems prohibiting same. Everywhere April turns as she launches her investigation, she finds someone with a secret agenda and a reason to lie to her. And as if those weren't complications enough, there's her deepening affair with her Latino partner, Sergeant Mike Sanchez. April's "best-quality" mother, Sai Woo (a.k.a. Skinny Dragon), hates him because he's not Chinese. And she'll stop at nothing to break up a relationship that she says-that she screams, rather-demeans the dignity of their illustrious family. But spunky April perseveres, cracks the case in an exciting climax, and even makes a dent or two in Skinny Dragon's iron resolve. A colorful tale, cleverly told. Plus there's April (Judging Time, 1998, etc.)-sometimes inscrutable, often bedeviled, always beguiling. .