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This page lists novels and a memoir by Dorothy Uhnak.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first US edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

The Bait

Dorothy Uhnak

1968

A Christie Opara novel.

"Detective Christie Opara arrests a man on the subway for indecent exposure. Within hours, Murray Rogoff, a burly giant, is out on bail. Soon after, the body of a young dancer is found stashed behind the stairway of a Bronx apartment building. The girl was brutally raped and strangled, and a clue links her with two previous murders. The killer takes a signature trophy: a hacked-off lock of the victim's hair. When Christie starts to get strange, late-night phone calls her instincts tell her that Rogoff's the serial killer they're hunting. With the reluctant approval of her boss, Assistant District Attorney Casey Reardon, Christie prepares to become the bait of a deadly psychopath."

The Witness

Dorothy Uhnak

1969

A Christie Opara novel.

"Christie Opara, the only woman on the DA's Special Investigation Squad, is assigned by her boss to shadow his daughter to a civil rights demonstration. An ugly group of hecklers soon turns the demonstration into a riot and someone gets shot. A cop with a bewildered look on his face stands over the body with a revolver in his hand. The crowd and the public cry for the cop's blood in the days to come. Only Christie, who was standing next to the cop, saw another person pull the trigger. Now she must find the real murderer before matters get totally out of hand."

The Ledger

Dorothy Uhnak

1970

A Christie Opara novel.

"Elena Vargas is a witness to a homicide, the shooting of a foot soldier in an international mob cartel. But the sultry call girl and sometime-mistress of gang lord Enzo Giardino claims to have seen and heard nothing. Desperate to make a case against Giardino, the District Attorney offers Vargas protective custody in exchange for betraying her lover. But no one can make her talk. Going on nothing but gut instinct, New York Police Department cop Christie Opara uncovers something in Vargas's past that could give them the leverage they need."

Law And Order

Dorothy Uhnak

1973

"When Sergeant Brian O'Malley's prostitute lover pushes him from a window, his friends in the police cover up the details and give him a hero's funeral. His eldest son is encouraged to join the boys in the force, but as he rises through the ranks he realises that all favours must be repaid, whatever the repercussions."

The Investigation

Dorothy Uhnak

1977

"In a peaceful, residential section of Queens, Kitty Keeler's young sons have gone missing. Both she and her husband say they have no idea where the children are. Then New York Police Department cop Joe Peters gets the call he's been dreading. The bodies of two blond, blue-eyed boys have been found. As Joe launches an investigation, he becomes dangerously drawn to the exquisite Kitty. With the evidence against her mounting and the world calling her a heartless killer, Joe vows to uncover the truth, no matter what the cost. But as violence begets violence, and his obsession with Kitty grows, Joe knows he'll never rest until he finds the answer to the burning question: Did Kitty Keeler murder her own children?"

False Witness

Dorothy Uhnak

1981

"Lynne Jacobi gets the call a few hours before dawn. Model-turned-television celebrity Sanderalee Dawson lies on the kitchen floor of her sumptuous Manhattan apartment, hanging on to life by a tenuous thread. The victim of a savage assault, she stuns everyone when she survives and identifies her attacker. So begins a case that leads law enforcement down a twisting path of secrets, lies, and false leads. Lynne, bureau chief of the district attorney’s office, is fueled by ambition and her vow to bring a brutal killer to justice. But Chief Investigator Bobby Jones isn’t sure they have the right man, and he hesitates to put his legal career—and his affair with Lynne—at risk. The victim herself, as the only witness to her rape, must go up against a monster who just might get away with it."

Victims

Dorothy Uhnak

1985

"In Queens, in the middle of a brightly lit street, a woman is savagely stabbed to death. The victim, Anna Grace, was a nurse devoted to helping others. But no one tries to help her on the last night of her life, even as she screams. Homicide cop Miranda Torres vows to bring the killer to justice. Then a series of mob hits in the city takes the case in an astonishing new direction. And when Miranda discovers why Anna was murdered, she must catch a killer who will soon hold her life in his hands."

The Ryer Avenue Story

Dorothy Uhnak

1993

"On a winter night in a Bronx neighbourhood, a blow from a shovel fells a man in the street. From the scene flee six children, any of whom might have loosed the fatal strike. Weeks later, one of their fathers is executed for the crime. Four decades on, the Ryer Avenue gang gathers again: Megan Magee, Charley and Eugene O'Brien, Ben Herskel and Dante D'Angelo; the group is missing only Willie Paycek, the little hanger-on who never fitted in. But now that fatal blow is about to come crashing down upon them - and this time, Willie is calling the shots."

Codes Of Betrayal

Dorothy Uhnak

1997

"Irish-Italian detective Nick O'Hara, grandson of a Mafia don, knows who is responsible for his son's death, but his hands are tied. Abandoned by his wife, he grows increasingly desperate, going into a tailspin from which he can see only one escape: revenge. As Nick's life goes into freefall, he must choose between duty, family loyalty and his desperate need for justice."

Police-woman

Dorothy Uhnak

1964

"Dorothy Uhnak's no-holds-barred memoir about her life as one of New York's finest."