This Book Turned Out To Be Much More Than I Thought It Would Be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                Dorothy Uhnak was big during the Seventies and Eighties. There was a period of time when everyone seemed to be reading her novel, "The Investigation," because  (and I was too young and naive to know this at the time) it was a fictional rendering of the Alice Crimmins case, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary, this summer.  She was that cheap cocktail waitress from Kew Gardens, Queens--where else does cheapness come from, darlings???--who killed her own children.

                                  And, as far as I am concerned, Alice did it.

                                  I must have found "Victims" somewhere; maybe at the Strand, and, as I perused the dust jacket it sounded like it would be a fictional take on the Kitty Genovese case, a source of never ending fascination to me.  Now, it is that, but, despite the relative shortness of the novel, it is a good deal more--an exploration into urban apathy, drug dealing family corruption, and just about anything else one can pull out of a hat in a police procedural.  All in just 316 pages.

                                    Which speaks volumes of Uhnak's abilities as a writer; she has a compelling style, and she is able to get to her point in a way other writers would take twice the length of time in doing so.

                                        As a result, I got more than I bargained for with "Victims."  Now, I want to go back and reread "The Investigation."

                                          I want to get her take on Alice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!