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Product Description
Mystery fiction's exciting new voice--and refreshing new heroine--return in the sequel to 23 Shades of Black. When 23 Shades of Black was self-published in trade paperback last year, the mystery world was abuzz with curiosity about this new writer who came from nowhere to be nominated for the genre's two most prestigious awards, the Edgar and the Anthony. Signet re-published k.j.a. Wishnia's novel in mass market, setting the stage for his second book in the series, Soft Money. A lot has changed in our Latina heroine's life: Filomena Buscarsela has dumped her deadbeat man, but kept her two-year-old daughter, and left the NYPD for less dangerous work in a non-profit company. But she's drawn back into the fray when a rookie cop needs her help solving a bodega murder in the Bronx, and when her big-money Manhattan employer turns out to be riddled with corruption. Once again, the street-smart Filomena cannot rest until she straightens a few people out.
"Packed with enough mayhem and atmosphere for two novels!" -Booklist
Amazon.com Review
If someone happens to ask you where the really important, groundbreaking new work in the mystery field is being done, point them toward this wonderfully rich novel by K.J.A. Wishnia. The novel manages to be exciting and funny, as well as convincingly multicultural, proenvironmentalist, and strongly feminist.
Filomena Buscarsela, a sharp and sexy Ecuadorian-born NYPD detective with a degree in literature, first appeared in 1997 in Wishnia's self-published 23 Shades of Black. Now, in her second outing, Fil has left the cop shop "thanks to a premature mid-life crisis helped along by a full-blown drinking and drugging habit." She now has a beautiful, bright 18-month-old daughter, Antonia, the result of a short but hot fling with a stud named Raul. To pay for food, rent, and day care, the overqualified Fil is working for an environmental foundation where she winds up learning to stamp envelopes. But old habits die hard: she's also looking into the murder of a local merchant, killed by voodoo-obsessed Dominican hoodlums. Meanwhile, a particularly nasty eco-villain from her first adventure is cooking the books at the foundation, and Fil investigates this con artist too. Wishnia, who has an Ecuadorian wife and two children, has obviously watched them very closely: the best parts of the book involve Fil either taking Antonia with her on investigative jaunts or feeling bad because she has to leave her behind. He also has a perfect ear for female urban angst, and the wit to disarm it: "I take Antonia to the park. On the way, one of life's little inconveniences broadcasts his desire to copulate incessantly with me. I decline." --Dick Adler
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