Edgy and intricately plotted, yet curiously warmhearted and romantic, this thriller marks the hardcover debut of a novelist with five paperback originals to his credit (Hoodwinked, etc.). Nick Sasso, an ex-cop turned New York restaurateur, is called home to San Francisco to make peace with his dying father and to confront his older brother, Joe, who is attempting to finance some mysterious business enterprise by borrowing large sums from the family's popular Bay Area eatery, the Yankee Clipper. Unbeknownst to Nick, Joe is already the target of a pair of hired killers, and soon after Nick visits their father at the hospital, Joe and his gay attorney, Sonny Culp, are murdered. Sonny's ex-wife, sassy, savvy attorney, Billie Fox—mother of their six-year-old daughter, Emily—vows to unearth his killer, and finds herself spending more and more time with Nick. Meanwhile, Nick is forced to face up to his tumultuous past when his old cop partner, Dickson Hong, is put in charge of the investigation. The body count rises as the hit men bungle their assignment, and Nick and Billie wind up as prime targets for the killer. Packed with perhaps a few too many (however well fleshed out) characters and plotlines, the narrative exposes political corruption, revealing a scheme to recover a legendary emerald-encrusted Buddha from the jungles of Myanmar. Despite a tendency to overwrite, Kaiser is a crowd-pleaser. Major ad/promo, author tour.(Sept.)
