AN HOUR TO KILL

Two NYPD detectives, one a lesbian "badass" African-American beauty and the other a "second-generation blue" pining for his ex-wife, team up to solve two Central Park murders in this well-written but somewhat predictable debut thriller. Didi Kane and James Gurson trade cop slang over a charred corpse (" 'Blue plate special?'... 'Barbecued ribs.' 'Well done' ") in an isolated section of the park, not far from where Gurson found a dying man in a Mercedes—a dead sparrow with its wings cut off on the seat beside him—the day before. The burned body turns out to be Kane's disgraced ex-cop lover, while the man was a psychiatrist with a specialty in "post-oedipal erotic transference." As Gurson, whose father killed himself 20 years ago after finding himself the unjust subject of a murder investigation, struggles to be a good father to his son and a good detective at the same time, Didi becomes a suspect in the murder of the ex-cop. To make matters worse, the powerful assistant district attorney in charge of the cases is the same man who hounded Gurson's father to his grave, and the ADA's wife is another spooky shrink up to her pretty neck in the investigations. Yapalater, whom publicity materials refer to as a "Madison Avenue wife and mother," includes quite a bit of research, including forensic and psychological particulars, which lends her sexy and disturbing novel a certain authority. The multiple points of view—including those of a prostitute and a masochistic therapist, as well as the two heroes—make it a bit disjointed, but also intriguing. (Aug. 1)