Amid the upscale elegance and random violence of New York's Upper West Side, a saleswoman hangs from the chandelier of a trendy boutique. The corpse wears an expensive dress; garish makeup disfigures her face. Maggie Wheeler has been dead for two days, two blocks from the police station.Detective April Woo of the N.Y.P.D.; who not so long ago worked out of the relative obscurity of Chinatown, and her partner, Detective Sergeant Mike Sanchez, are the first on the murder scene. But their search of the premises yields few clues, and soon the partners face a frustrating dead end and an escalating battle with police brass - who want the highly visible boutique slaying solved now.Then, in a little shop on Second Avenue, a second woman is found hanging. Her face is masked by thick makeup, her body draped in an oversized dress. As April accelerates her inquiry into what increasingly appears to be a series of bizarre ritual killings, she receives an unexpected phone call - one that sends her investigation spiraling out of control. Psychoanalyst Jason Frank, who helped April with her first big case, has an importunate new client with a whopping personal problem. Sensual, successful architect Milicia Honiger-Stanton begs Jason to help put her mentally ill younger sister away. Haltingly, she describes Camille's mood swings from catatonic to frenzied, and details her increasing reliance on the brutally controlling man with whom she lives. Milicia hints that her sister could be in danger. Or that Camille herself could be dangerous - but Milicia will not say how or why....As April's double homicide and Jason's enigma converge, it will take all of his psychiatric expertise and her police training - tempered with a grain of ancestral wisdom - to end a harrowing drama of emotional terrorism and stark betrayal. Read Less