Burn

Publishers Weekly

A feisty young Latina, Jasmine Reyes, abandoned by her drug-addled parents as a teen, is mourning the prison suicide of her gifted twin, Jason. She runs her struggling bail bond business (funded with money saved from working as a hooker) like a social worker, attempting to salvage lives before they're lost to a cycle of hardened criminality. She thus gambles on posting bail for Malcolm "Macho" Booker, a talented graffiti artist whose sweet nature reminds her of Jason. Macho's failure to appear for a date in court plunges Jasmine into a gritty urban underground. Artemis packs the book with entertaining if one-dimensional street lit clich s and characters (a gruff cop who becomes Jasmine's lover; an HIV positive pre-op trannie), as Jasmine confronts a shady gang of graffiti artists and the sleazy founder of a too-good-to-be-true community health clinic. Artemis's previous offerings include Explicit Content and Picture Me Rollin' (as well as the chick lit novel Divas Don't Yield, written under her own name, Sofia Quintero). This busy, formulaic tale, with its hyperbolic and hyperactive twists and turns, is done with sensitivity and has genuine noir appeal. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.