cover image Streets of Fire: 8

Streets of Fire: 8

Soledad Santiago. Dutton Books, $23.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94078-4

Although it brings the people and sensory details of New York's ethnic neighborhoods to bustling life, Santiago's first novel suffers from a cluttered story line. Police officer Francesca Colon, 38, a Puerto Rican single mother of two teenagers, is starting a new high-profile assignment in the NYPD's Public Information Office. Her excitement over her promotion pales when she discovers that she must work with the angry and lecherous Dick Walsh, her former partner, whom she had hoped never to see again. When a police officer kills a young Latino who was possibly a drug dealer, and another officer is accused of throwing a young boy off a rooftop, Francesca finds herself thrust into the spotlight as a spokesperson whom the Department is counting on to calm the tense Latino community. The beleaguered cop must also deal with family troubles. Her daughter has returned home from Madrid, pregnant by her gypsy boyfriend. Her son has run off to stay with his AIDS-stricken father, who's living with squatters. Her sister and her sister's lesbian lover have a new baby, conceived with the help of a turkey baster, and her mother is practicing magical love spells. Amidst all this strife, Francesca makes peace with Walsh and begins a fiery affair with Denzel Brown, an activist lawyer representing both the squatters and the mother of one of the dead boys. Santiago's mix of personal problems, politics and police corruption doesn't quite gel. That it winds up not in the expected shoot-out, however, but on a quiet, hopeful note is emblematic of the author's seriousness of purpose, which shines through her strong characters and passionate, clean writing. (June)