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A Clean Kill

by Leslie Glass

A Clean Kill by Leslie Glass continues the series on April Woo, a NYPD detective, with her new husband, precinct Captain Michael Sanchez. Ms. Glass isn't, perhaps, as famous a mystery writer as some others with instantly recognizable names, but Leslie Glass assuredly deserves your attention. Ms. Glass writes from actual personal experience, being closely associated with the New York Police and traveling with them to some of that city's most gruesome crime scenes. Not Asian herself, Ms. Glass writes most convincingly about a Chinese protagonist because Leslie's own parents had a Chinese couple working for them who became like another parental pair to the young girl.

A Clean Kill begins with the murder of a wealthy female socialite who is stabbed to death in her private shower cum steam bath. When the body is eventually discovered by her children's nanny, all traces of blood have been washed away, the body is sitting upright on a bench (the woman had originally been lying down) and the shower heads are turned on full. The woman's name was Madeline (Maddy) Wilson. Her husband Wayne is a famous chef and interested primarily in food.

The nanny who discovered the body is an attractive young girl named Remy, whom Maddy intended to let go as soon as she returned from taking Maddy's two young sons to playschool. Maddy suspected – rightly- that Remy was having an affair with her husband. Then Maddy's best friend, Alison Perkins, is also murdered – found in her bed in clean nightwear, with everything in the room straightened up. Her nanny, Lynn, and Remy were good friends, and both had still another girl named Leah, who followed them around like a homeless puppy. The nannies are the initial suspects. In both murders, they were the ones who had fist discovered the bodies and made the 911 call.

Each nanny came from an agency run by a woman named Jo Ellen, and as April Woo investigates both cases, she finds that Remy wasn't even initially supposed to be a nanny, but had been promised the place of sous chef in Wayne Wilson's new restaurant. Circumstances pile up, including some that have nothing to do with the murders – i.e, April's parents come and camp out in April's house, bringing all their Chinese culture and beliefs with them.

When the real murderer is known, it's a toss-up whether or not April and Mike will get to the place in time before another death – this time one of their own people – takes place. Leslie Glass describes Manhattan interiors well – both the wealthy and the weird – as intimately as she describes city natives. Ms. Glass is also obviously no stranger to secrets or the attempts to hide behind them that individuals use. A Clean Kill is a fine murder mystery story.

Alan Paul Curtis

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