Burn

A feisty young Latina, Jasmine Reyes, abandoned by her drug-addled parents as a teen, is mourning the prison suicide of her gifted twin, Jason. She runs her struggling bail bond business (funded with money saved from working as a hooker) like a social worker, attempting to salvage lives before they're lost to a cycle of hardened criminality. She thus gambles on posting bail for Malcolm "Macho" Booker, a talented graffiti artist whose sweet nature reminds her of Jason. Macho's failure to appear for a date in court plunges Jasmine into a gritty urban underground. Artemis packs the book with entertaining if one-dimensional street lit clichés and characters (a gruff cop who becomes Jasmine's lover; an HIV positive pre-op trannie), as Jasmine confronts a shady gang of graffiti artists and the sleazy founder of a too-good-to-be-true community health clinic. Artemis's previous offerings include Explicit Content and Picture Me Rollin ' (as well as the chick lit novel Divas Don't Yield , written under her own name, Sofia Quintero). This busy, formulaic tale, with its hyperbolic and hyperactive twists and turns, is done with sensitivity and has genuine noir appeal. (Aug.)