The Bait (1968) by Dorothy Uhnak

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

The Bait (1968)

by Dorothy Unhak

The Bronx, New York City

New York: 5/105

The Bronx, New York City: 1/6

    As you'd expect from a state with 108 titles, there are states within states for New York.  Upstate, with its 22 titles qualifies as the third biggest state thus far (Massachussets, Maine) and The Bronx equals a smaller state like Vermont or Rhode Island. Pioneering female writer of police/detective fiction Dorothy Unhak is not a stranger to this blog- I read Policewoman memoir on the recommendation of a genre afficionado.  The Bait was her hit debut writing fiction- it won the Edgar Award the year it was released.  

  It certainly qualifies as a good novel about The Bronx- I believe all the action takes place there.  The story hasn't aged well- I'm not sure how many mentally defective serial murderers the 1001 Novels project is going to encompass but I think we are already at a half dozen 10 percent of the way through.  Are serially killers ever not mentally ill?  There are parts of The Bait that don't age particularly well- an incipient romance between the plucky girl detective and her District Attorney boss is cringe inducing, but the inter-cop banter is less racist than what you would expect from a more period accurate book.  Unhak, of course, was a cop, so she is clearly writing from that perspective.  A book like this, you half expect the N word to pop out at many minute, but thankfully there was no racial angle to the plot.