April Woo Books in Order
Part ofLeslie Glass Books in OrderSee the April Woo books by Leslie Glass in order, with quick summaries, series background, and simple help on where to start the series.
Last updated: July 10, 2026
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Publication Order
9 books
Burning Time
by Leslie Glass
1993
Newly transferred detective April Woo is pulled into a missing-person case that opens onto the trail of a serial killer marked by fire. Psychiatrist Jason Frank becomes an uneasy ally as the hunt moves from the California desert to Manhattan.
Hanging Time
by Leslie Glass
1995
A boutique sales clerk is found hanging from a chandelier, and the killing pulls April Woo back together with psychiatrist Jason Frank. Hidden rivalries, a troubled family, and another murder keep the case shifting until the last minute.
Loving Time
by Leslie Glass
1996
A suicide, a malpractice suit, and a string of deaths inside a psychiatric center draw April Woo into one of her most tangled cases. With Jason Frank close to the chaos, the novel leans hard into obsession, ambition, and institutional secrets.
Judging Time
by Leslie Glass
1998
After a soap star is stabbed and her wealthy companion dies beside her, suspicion falls on a former football hero with a shaky alibi. April Woo and Mike Sanchez have to cut through media pressure, money, and jealousy before the wrong person takes the fall.
Stealing Time
by Leslie Glass
1999
A Chinese American woman is beaten, her adopted baby disappears, and nobody in Chinatown wants to talk. As April Woo digs into family secrets, immigration fear, and questions around the adoption, the case hits close to her own divided sense of duty.
Tracking Time
by Leslie Glass
2000
A psychiatrist vanishes during a jog in Central Park, and April Woo refuses to believe he is already dead. With K-9 teams searching the park and two troubled teens circling the case, the investigation becomes a tense race against time.
The Silent Bride
by Leslie Glass
2002
When an Orthodox Jewish bride is shot on her wedding day, April Woo thinks she is hunting a hate-crime killer. A second murdered bride changes everything, forcing April and Mike Sanchez to race through New York's wedding world before another ceremony turns deadly.
A Killing Gift
by Leslie Glass
2003
At the retirement party of April Woo's old mentor, Lieutenant Alfredo Bernardino disappears and turns up dead. Injured in a chase and barred from the case officially, April follows the trail through lottery money, old debts, and threats aimed at more than one victim.
A Clean Kill
by Leslie Glass
2005
April Woo and Mike Sanchez are ready for their delayed honeymoon when a celebrity chef's wife is found slashed to death on the Upper East Side. Then a second wealthy woman is killed, and the case widens into a tense search through privilege, secrets, and domestic loyalties.
Series background & context
The April Woo books are police procedurals, but they are also family stories, workplace stories, and New York stories. The series opens with Burning Time, when April Woo is a Chinese American NYPD detective who has recently moved from Chinatown to the Upper West Side. From the start, Leslie Glass gives her more than a case to solve. April is ambitious, smart, proud, and often pulled in two directions at once.
That split is one of the things that gives the series its shape. April wants to move up in a department that is not especially easy on women, and she wants to do the job well. At home, though, she is still dealing with strong family expectations, especially from her traditional mother, Skinny Dragon. Across the books, murders and missing people matter, but so do the quieter tensions around duty, romance, identity, and what a daughter owes her family.
New York matters here.
Glass uses the city as more than a backdrop. The books move through Manhattan, Chinatown, Central Park, boutiques, hospitals, police precincts, and wealthy apartments. Each setting changes the pressure of the story a little. Some cases lean toward serial crime or psychological suspense. Others dig into class, marriage, immigration, or the way money can distort every relationship in the room.
April is not alone, either. Psychiatrist Jason Frank becomes an important recurring figure, especially in the earlier books, bringing a psychological lens to cases that might otherwise stay at the level of clues and procedure. Mike Sanchez is another key presence, first as a colleague and later as a deeper emotional anchor in April's life. Their relationships give the series continuity without overwhelming the investigations.
The cases themselves are varied. Hanging Time starts with a boutique murder. Stealing Time turns on an attacked mother and a missing baby. Tracking Time follows the disappearance of a psychiatrist in Central Park. The Silent Bride begins with a bride shot on her wedding day, and A Killing Gift opens with the murder of one of April's police mentors. You can read each book for its central mystery, but reading them in order lets you watch April change, get promoted, and slowly build a life that is never simple.
Overall, these are character-first crime novels with a strong procedural spine. They are tense without being all action, interested in psychology without becoming abstract, and sharp about culture, class, and family without losing sight of plot. If you want the clearest entry point, start with Burning Time. If you stay, it is usually because April Woo herself keeps pulling you back.
Edited by
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