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April Woo sees her former boss, Lieutenant Bernadino, leave his retirement party without his gifts. She follows him, stumbles across his body, chases the killer, and is almost killed herself. A passing dog-walker, Jack Devereaux (and his dog Sheba) save her. Her fiance and CO of the Homicide Task Force, Lieutentant Mike Sanchez, is assigned to the case as his last one before being bumped up the ladder. If one can accept as believable the following, the rest of the story makes some sort of sense: April is allowed to work the case even though she is also a victim of the guy who killed Bernadino. Mike Sanchez is allowed to work the case when his fiance is a victim. Sanchez is supervising his fiance. Bernadino is not just an ex-cop, with all the potential enemies that can bring. Bernadino's wife, towards the end of her losing battle with cancer, won 15 million dollars in the lottery. Bernadino inherited. Four million dollars is missing. Did his son Bill, a prosecutor, steal it? Did his daughter Kathy have a clue about what her dad was doing with his money? Why did Bernadino lend/give his old partner, a first-class mooch and lousy gambler, $250,000 to buy a racehorse? Why did Bernadino cremate his wife, a staunch Catholic? Jack Devereaux is the incredibly wealthy heir to Creighton Blackstone's fortune. Jack is not entirely thrilled with this turn of events, since he didn't know that he was Creighton's son until several weeks after Creighton died. His world has been turned on its ear, and Jack isn't liking it at all, especially the anonymous telephone calls reminding him of a promise he doesn't ever remember making. Birdie Bassett is the second wife, now widow, of Max Bassett. He was 81, she is 37. When he died, he left her fifteen million dollars and the responsibility of his charitable foundation. She is being hounded by all sorts of people wanting money, and his children are contesting the will. Thirty days after Max dies, Birdie is killed. The cause of death is very similar, although not identical, to the COD for Lt. Bernadino, who also was killed thirty days after his spouse died. Coincidence? Probably not. What about all the "B"s? Bernadino, Bassett, Blackstone . . . another coincidence? April Woo is not a team player, at least not in this book. She has insights that others don't have, makes connections that others don't make, goes off on tangents that others don't like. Lucky for April that her insights are good, her connections are valid, and the tangents turn out to be major factors in solving the case. She also feels a great deal of guilt for almost getting killed; she should have known better, done differently, called for back-up, whatever. I'm beginning to believe that every culture claims guilt as their own invention; I was unaware, until I met April's mother, that "Chinese" guilt is as pervasive as "Catholic" or "Jewish" or "Irish" guilt. This was, for me, an OK book. I didn't particularly empathize with April Woo, didn't feel her angst, didn't much care. I got no real sense of "romance" between her and Mike. I had a pretty good idea that the obvious leads weren't the key to the crime, although I never had a clue about where the four million dollars went. I'd read Leslie Glass again, if I run across her, but I won't search her out. Non-sequiter: I know the writer usually has little or no say about the cover art. Whoever picked the cover for this book didn't do it any favors. A woman of indeterminate ethnicity (could be anglo with black hair, oriental, hispanic, aleutian . . .) wearing a white slip-dress with the strap coming off the shoulder -- I don't remember anyone in the book wearing a dress like this. Absolutely nothing to do with the story at all. If the black ribbon is an oblique reference to the karate elemnents, it is the only connection to the story.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, June 2003
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