Dial 577 R-A-P-E

Norah Mulcahaney #3

by Lillian O'Donnell

Norah is a good cop. Smart enought to hold her own on a male dominated police force. Tought enough to handle the most savage criminal. Human enought to offer sensitivity and compassion to every victim. If she has any fault, it's getting to involved. Dial 577 R-A-P-E Norah was on this case from the the nineteen year old victim lived in her building. Watching the sheltered young girl haunted by a nightmare of terror and shame, the detective's outrage grew to an obsession to catch her assailant. The bizarre and violent manhunt would turn the shrewd policewoman into a helpless victim, the rapist into a desperate killer.

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Married J. Leonard O'Donnell. Lived in New York, NY. Interred in Maple Grove Cemetery.
Began career in theater then turned to writing crime novels. Longest running character was NY City policewoman Norah Mulcahaney, but also had series for Mici Anhalt, a crime victims investigator, and private detective Gwenn Ramadge.

Reviews

[Soscha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lillian O’Donnell was one of the first crime novelists to feature a female police officer as the lead character. “Dial 577-RAPE”, published in 1974, is one of those books. It’s a decent-enough suspense/thriller, but here’s why you should read it: this is the world our mothers and grandmothers lived in, where harassment and casual denigration of women were the norm. O’Donnell captures a world that is changing, with a lead character that’s out to make that happen, but sadly not damn fast enough. And in regards to the language around rape and rape victims you’ll see here, you’ll realize 42 years later and we still have a long way to go.