The Glass Factory: A Filomena Buscrasela Mystery

Fil Buscarsela can smell a rat as far away as Long Island from her Manhattan apartment. The Ecuadoran ex-NYPD cop with a fiery temper and a mouth to match has been coughing up blood, and it isn't just from being a former heavy smoker. Her mortal enemy, Samuel Morse, the CEO of a huge technology empire, locked her in a room with enough methyl isocyanate ""to take out a city of a hundred thousand"" several years before, resulting in a recent lung cancer diagnosis. Thirsty for revenge, Fil takes her young daughter and heads out to her sister-in-law's home in the highly toxic Long Island city of Minoa, so she can get a little closer to her would-be assassin. A bawdy Chinese chemist helps her uncover one dangerous secret after another connecting Morse to toxic dumping, fraud, corrupt local politics and even murder. Getting people to substantiate her findings isn't exactly easy, however, because Morse has provided jobs for the entire town he's poisoned. Worse yet, he's on to Fil's plan and has some vengeful feelings of his own. With his third book in this promising series, Wishnia shatters more hopes than glass, weighing down his environmental mystery with contrived dialogue that only aspires to the gritty wit of Elmore Leonard. A disappointing ending is tied up more neatly than a professionally wrapped present. Agent, Nancy K. Yost. (June) FYI: The Glass Factory is in production as an HBO television series, with Spike Lee producing and directing.