Wood redefines L.A. urban noir as an explosive blend of race relations, politics and murder in her third installment (after Stormy Weather) of the award-winning Charlotte Justice series, which follows the career of an African-American LAPD detective after the 1978 gang-related murder of her husband and son. Fast forward to 1993, 11 months after the riots, to an L.A. still struggling with post-Rodney King tensions. Justice, now assigned to Robbery Homicide, is investigating the murder of Vicki Park, a young Korean campaign worker for Mike Santos, a former news anchor who is now a mayoral candidate. On her first case since a suspension for her part in "the mishandling of a confessed murderer," Justice, along with Det. Billie Truesdale, has to work alongside some "female-hating, trash-talking cowboys," but solving the crime unites them in a common purpose. Woods's gift for realistically depicted police work, tight plotting and succinct characterization serves her well, notably with angry, self-righteous African-American patrol supervisor Tony Brackeen and Asian Task Force Det. Young "King" Kang, who introduces Justice to the workings of Koreatown's underside. Justice's visits to her family's "Nut House" for folksy consultations and her rushed moments with boyfriend Aubrey round out this satisfying, fast-paced police procedural. Its only flaw may be that the rush to "justice" is too swift, and that the plot threads-the suspicious suicide of a former Japanese WWII criminal living in L.A.; the enigma of Park-could have been developed further. (July 1) Forecast: In addition to satisfying fans of her previous police procedurals, Justice should build up steam with African-American readers and other ethnic groups. Her take on L.A. noir is smooth and authoritative. 4-city author tour. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Another busy night of high-profile corpses for LAPD Robbery-Homicide. Hideo Yoshimoto, the grandfather of Mark Ikehara, the deputy DA angling for mayor, has been shot to death, and Vicki Park, Korean campaign strategist for Latino mayoral candidate Mike Santos, is dead of blunt-force trauma. Called out of her doctor boyfriend's bed to work the Park case with lesbian detective Billie Truesdale and newly transferred wunderkind Roger Middleton, widowed black detective Charlotte Justice (Stormy Weather, 2001, etc.) must decide (a) if Park spurned her fiancÉ for another lover, (b) if Korean gangs are involved, (c) if political jockeying for a spot on the ticket has gotten out of hand, and (d) if the two deaths that night are related. More complications crop up when Park's secret files on the other political hopefuls go missing, a member of the department's Asian Task Force is gunned down, and Santos, his alcoholic wife, teenaged daughter, and second-in-command eerily know classified police business. Who's leaking information? And why do Justice's superiors call off her raid on the Koreatown massage parlor near where Park's body was found? Dirty cops? A sting in progress? Ultimately, wending past departmental racist and sexist slurs, media-hungry politicos with sordid family secrets, and a cop who puts a gun to his mouth, Justice prevails. If you need a reason not to move to LA, take the police exam, or run for office, count on Woods to give it to you. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Charlotte Justice, an African American homicide detective in the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division, is part of another elite crew, that of fictional women cops who are multidimensional and fun to watch. Justice has a tragic past: her husband and infant daughter were murdered years back. Woods gives us a convincing portrayal of a grieving widow and mother without stooping to an easy, formulaic use of Justice's tragedy. In the latest in the Justice series (previous novels include Inner City Blues 1999 and Stormy Weather 2001), L.A.'s Koreatown is shaken by the discovery of the body of a well-known young Korean woman, a campaign strategist for a mayoral candidate. It is a high-profile case, and Justice must slog through messy city politics, her colleagues' infighting, and the Korean community's hostility to police in an investigation that grows both uglier and more threatening every day. Riveting. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2003 Booklist

In the third installment of the Charlotte Justice mystery series, Woods returns with another intense, intriguing, and well-written police procedural. Introduced in Inner City Blues and Stormy Weather, African American LAPD detective Justice is back, investigating the homicide of Vicki Park, a promising young Korean woman working on an upcoming mayoral campaign. The novel, set in 1993, just after the Rodney King riots, takes place in and around Koreatown and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles. It weaves a variety of racial and familial issues into a well-crafted noir murder mystery while still allowing the listener insight into this tough detective who is still struggling with the grief of losing her husband and baby to gang violence 14 years earlier. The tale is wonderfully read by singer/songwriter Karen Kelly; her voice is polished and perfectly tempered for the tone of the text. Kelly's delivery accommodates the different ethnicities and ages of the characters without distracting from the plot. A clean, professional production; recommended for mystery or African American fiction collections.ANicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.