COP WITHOUT A SHIELD

by Lillian O'Donnell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 14, 1983

Again, as in The Children's Zoo (1981), O'Donnell starts off this Set. Norah Mulcahaney story with some excessive, sensationalized violence: New York is uncontrollably crime-ridden--and the latest victim is Norah's cop-husband Joe, who is shot by would be muggers, then dragged to his death while caught under the getaway car. Norah, grieving and fed-up with hopeless police work, resigns, seeking isolation in a borrowed Pennsylvania house. But, soon after arriving, she just happens to see a young woman being abducted by two men--a woman who soon turns up in a ditch, gang-raped, shot to death. And, when the local cops seem slow to sleuth, Norah does it herself--identifying the victim as an illegal-alien laborer from Mexico, uncovering a secret alien-labor setup at the local factory, fingering one obvious culprit (the gigolo-husband of the factory-owner). . . and eventually unmasking an unlikely co-culprit, as well as a corrupt cop. (At the end, of course, Norah's back at NYPD.) Somewhat more gothic than police-procedural this time around, without the realistic grit of Mulcahaney at her best--but O'Donnell fans will be pleased by the fast, high-pitched storytelling, even if they're likely to find the casual killing-off of Joe a Little too brutal and arbitrary.

Pub Date: Nov. 14, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION