STEALING TIME

NYPD Detective April Woo faces conflict in all directions--from bosses who are dubious about a woman in a macho department; to her Chinese mother, who is unwilling to see her child assimilated in a foreign world; and her boyfriend, who is pushing her toward commitment. April must negotiate her way through all these delicate relationships as she tries to find a missing Chinese-American baby. Kathy Hsieh's April is enormously appealing, if perhaps a bit innocent-sounding for a veteran police officer. More impressive are Hsieh's side characters, particularly April's mother and a wily Chinese woman who seems to know more about the crime than she lets on. Hsieh's reading perfectly captures the mixture of suspicion, guile, and manipulation that are part of Glass's complex characters. M.O. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]