STEALING TIME

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.