Praise for A Killing Gift
"Nerve-wracking suspense and humor ... 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 as mystery aficionados—may well find Woo to be one of the most compelling heroines to grace the genre in years/' — Publishers Weekly
"The pace is fast, the characters gritty and the intensity . . . grabs the reader." —Romantic Times Book Club
Praise for The Silent Bride
"If you haven't succumbed to the Woo/Glass one-two punch, The Silent Bride should win you over." —Chicago Tribune
"The author [has a] flair for capturing cultural idio- syncrasies and developing quirky characters. . . . With its rich characterizations and well-drawn setting, this rollicking mystery is a plentiful source of comic thrills and suspenseful chills." —Publishers Weekly
"Excellent. . . . The strength of the series continues to be the characterization, especially the details of April's dilemma in trying to reconcile her Chinese heritage with her American way of thinking." —The Mystery Reader
"Woo comes across as wonderfully human. . . . Plenty of suspense and enough red herrings to make it interesting." — Crescent Blues
More praise for the novels of Leslie Glass
"One terrific read." —Tami Hoag
"Glass anatomizes relationships with a light touch of the scalpel." —The New York Times Book Review
"Skillful . . . compelling. . . . Weaving together divergent cultures and their people is one of Ms. Glass's strengths." — The Dallas Morning News
"Detective Woo is the next generation descended from Ed McBain's 87th precinct." —The Hartford Courant "Fast-paced, gritty. . . . [April Woo] joins Kinsey Millhone and Kay Scarpetta in the ranks of female crime fighters." — Library Journal
"Builds to an explosive climax as unpredictable and surprising as April Woo herself. A fresh, engrossing read." —Perri O'Shaughnessy
"An intense thriller. . . . Glass provides several surprises, characters motivated by a lively cast of inner demons and, above all, a world where much is not as it initially seems." — Publishers Weekly
"Glass not only draws the reader into the crazed and gruesome world of the killer, but also cleverly develops the character of Woo . . . and her growing attraction for partner Sanchez." —Orlando Sentinel
"A masterful storyteller in the field of psychological suspense." — Abilene Reporter-News
"Sharp as a scalpel . . . scary as hell. Leslie Glass is Lady McBain." —Michael Palmer
"If you're a Thomas Harris fan anxiously awaiting the next installment of the 'Hannibal the Cannibal' series and looking for a new thriller to devour, you'll find it in Burning Time." —Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"A suspensefull story in which those who appear to be sane may actually harbor the darkest secrets of all." — Mostly Murder
"The plot is clever . . . and the ending is a genuine surprise. Woo is so appealing a protagonist that Leslie Glass can keep her going for a long time." —The Newark Star-Ledger
"Glass writes a masterful police procedural. ... But it's her wonderfully rich portrait of smart, sensible, intrepid, stubborn April Woo that sets this book apart." — Booklist
"Brilliant . . . Skillfully done." — The Tampa Tribune
"Glass does a masterful job of building suspense, and she's a wizard at creating believable, unforgettable characters." — Romantic Times
"This series [is] a winner." — Mystery News
"Tough, fast, edgy book."
a layered and rewarding —Contra €osta Times
ALSO BY LESLIE GLASS
For Love and Money
Over His Dead Body
A Killing Gift
The Silent Bride
Tracking Time
Stealing Time
Judging Time
Loving Time
Hanging Time
Burning Time
To Do No Harm
Modern Love
Getting Away with It
Leslie Glass
A
CLEAN KILL
AN ONYX BOOK
ONYX
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
Copyright © Leslie Glass, 2005 All rights reserved
For the Home Team— Jim, Alex, Lindsey, Rocky, and Julius
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to all the police officers who have shared their stories with me over the years. It is always an honor and a privilege to work with them. They are the heart of all my NYPD stories. I take my liberties with the geography of New York City, but not with the Department. I do my best to get it right. Cheers to all my friends at the New York City Police Foundation, and to all who work so hard at NAL to make my books look so good.
One
Everyone has a favorite place and a favorite time of day. For Madeleine Wilson, mornings in her private spa in the garden at the back of her town house were her salvation. Every day that she had to endure the pressure of living in New York with her famous husband, Wayne, and two hyperactive little boys, she spent the hours between eight and eleven in her private gym to get away from them.
At thirty-four, in the prime of her life, Maddy had never experienced violence in any form or wished real harm on anyone. All she wanted was the kind of peace and contentment that she felt working out in her spa. Never in a million years would she have believed that a bloody fight to the death would occur there, and that she would not emerge the victor.
Madeleine, known to everyone as Maddy, suspected that Wayne had built the gym for her as a salve to his guilty conscience for ignoring her exactly the same way he'd ignored his previous wife. The gym had a glass-roofed exercise and massage room, a hot tub, and a fabulous shower with a bunch of pulsing jets that could also be used as a steam room. She went there every morning, and often she slipped away there in the afternoon, too. The spa was her haven, the only really private place she had to indulge herself and soothe away the nagging irritations of a glamorous existence that had come with a very high emotional price tag.
On June 4 her morning started in the usual way, with a spike of rage. In his typical hurry, Wayne had inched out of their bed long before she'd begun to stir. Every morning she tried to be in sync with his demanding schedule, but every morning she woke with a jolt to realize he was already gone. Today, as usual, she reached for his spot to see if the sheets were still warm and she was disappointed that they were cool.
She felt logy, not quite herself, and was annoyed anew that her husband, a restaurateur of some renown, had the ability to slip in and out of the bed they shared without her being aware of it. He never woke her when he came home from work very late. But even on those rare occasions when they went to bed at the same time, he was never there when she awoke in the morning. This was a chronic hurt. So was the fact that he could eat and drink all night and still be up before Maddy, hungry for more, while she worked hard to avoid food and needed her full eight hours of sleep.