amid the upscale elegance and random violence of new yorks upeer west side a saleswoman hangs from the chandelier of a trendy boutiqu the corpse wears an expensive dress garish makeup disfiures her face Maggie Wheeler has been dead for two days two blocks from the police station Detective April woo of the NYPD who not so long ago worked out of the relative obscurity of chinatown and her partner detective sergeant mike sanchez are the first on the murder scene but their search of the premises yields few clues and some the partners face a frustrating dead end and an escalating battle with police brass who want the highly visible boutique slaying solved now