Hot Poppies

Artie Cohen isn't your average New York City cop. Born Artemy Maximovich Ostalsky in Moscow, Artie left Russia at 16, spent some time in the Israeli Army, then came to America and joined the NYPD, where his background gives him special tools to use in fighting imported criminals. Now, after the misadventures chronicled in his first outing (Red Hot Blues, 1998), Artie is officially on ""extended leave without pay,"" but foreign-flavored crime still swirls around him. When a good friend in the diamond business finds a dead Chinese girl in his shop, he calls on Artie. The family of Ricky Tae, who was badly wounded saving Artie's life, begs him to help their daughter break her drug habit--fueled by an exotic kind of irradiated heroin from China known as Hot Poppy. Meanwhile, Artie's lover, Lily Hanes, desperately seeking an adopted child, finds herself in trouble on the Chinese mainland, where intentionally fattened female infants are also called ""hot poppies."" The New York Chinatown turf has been explored before (e.g., by the likes of S.J. Rozan), but Nadelson (an American who lives in London) makes it her own by creating fresh characters with unexpected insights that make their travails both entertaining and real. (Feb.)