A Killing Gift

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
This 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

Publishers Weekly

Combining nerve-wracking suspense and wry humor, A Killing Gift, the latest installment in Leslie Glass's April Woo mystery series (after The Silent Bride), finds the intrepid NYPD detective in pursuit of a serial killer with martial arts expertise. After discovering the corpse of a recently retired colleague and nearly getting herself killed in the process, April wastes little time recovering before digging up clues with her fiance/partner, Mike Sanchez. When the body count rises, a chilling pattern emerges, and the couple realize that the victims all share a connection to a local university. Once again, Glass delivers a unique narrative filled with sharp dialogue, quirky characters and shades of oriental mysticism. Glass brings the Big Apple and its inhabitants to life as only a native New Yorker could, and Manhattanites-as well mystery aficionados-may well find Woo to be one of the most compelling heroines to grace the genre in years. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.