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Christie Opara #1
The Bait
Book by Uhnak, Dorothy
478 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
31 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Uhnak
35 books17 followersUhnak's first book was autobiographical Policewoman (1964), written and published while she was still a New York Transit Police detective.
Her debut fiction, The Bait (1968), received a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel (in a tie with E. Richard Johnson's Silver Street). ,The Bait was also made into a 1973 made-for-television film of the same title. It was followed by The Witness and The Ledger, which was adapted for the TV-movie and series Get Christie Love! starring Teresa Graves. All three novels featured Christie Opara, an NYPD detective assigned to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where Uhnak herself was assigned for many years.
Later works included Law and Order, which was made into a TV-movie starring Darren McGavin and The Investigation, which was adapted into a TV-movie, "Kojak: The Price of Justice", with Telly Savalas.
In her later years she suffered from depression. She committed suicide by a self-administered drug overdoes in 2006. She was seventy-six at the time of her death.
Her debut fiction, The Bait (1968), received a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel (in a tie with E. Richard Johnson's Silver Street). ,The Bait was also made into a 1973 made-for-television film of the same title. It was followed by The Witness and The Ledger, which was adapted for the TV-movie and series Get Christie Love! starring Teresa Graves. All three novels featured Christie Opara, an NYPD detective assigned to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where Uhnak herself was assigned for many years.
Later works included Law and Order, which was made into a TV-movie starring Darren McGavin and The Investigation, which was adapted into a TV-movie, "Kojak: The Price of Justice", with Telly Savalas.
In her later years she suffered from depression. She committed suicide by a self-administered drug overdoes in 2006. She was seventy-six at the time of her death.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 6, 2011
One of the delights I’ve experienced in my writing career was the opportunity to conduct a phone interview with Dorothy Uhnak about a year or so before her tragic suicide in 2006. I’d read all of her novels, so I felt as if I’d had prepared enough. I needn’t have worried. She was a pistol, very friendly and engaging. You can read my interview and essay here: http://tiny.cc/ge08r.
The Bait won the 1969 Edgar Award for the best first novel, and Anthony Boucher praised it in his New York Times review column. It introduced her character Detective Second Grade Christie Opara (the surname is Czech) who went on to appear in two subsequent novels: The Witness (1969) and The Ledger (1970). Christie was based on Ms. Uhnak’s own fourteen-year career as a twice-decorated detective with the New York City Transit Police. Christie is a 26-year-old widow living with her small son Mickey and mother-in-law Nora.
After her husband died two years before in a construction job accident, Christie now works for Casey Reardon of the District Attorney’s Squad. En route to a big LSD drug bust, Christie arrests Murray Rogoff for indecent exposure while riding on the NYC subway. She sets off a chain of events that brings her back to clash with Murray under far darker circumstances. Three young ladies have been strangled, and Murray becomes the prime suspect.
I like Ms. Uhnak’s characterization, the precise mannerisms and pitch perfect dialogue she uses. She also injects enough gritty on-the-job realism to her cop tale without going overboard or bogging it down. The scenes showing the cops’ interactions feel natural and smooth. Banter and humor surface even when setting a trap with Christie offering herself as “the bait” for the murderous psychopath Murray. Christie strikes up a romantic interest with Reardon, a married man with a reputation for having affairs. I don’t remember how all that shakes out through the rest of the Opara trilogy.
Murray also wears special glasses to protect his lashless eyes and keep them moist. Ms. Uhnak told me she based his character on a real life perp she arrested who wore such special glasses. The perp left his lasting impression on her. She said she’d searched the police archives to hunt down his old arrest record.
I bought my paperback copy of The Bait from a used bookstore for $1.50. I thought our library system still shelved most of her books, but my online check just revealed all but one title have been culled. Within five years of her death, her books have disappeared. What a pity. She was a first-rate crime fiction writer and one of the pioneer lady authors working in the police procedural subgenre. At any rate, I suspect her used and ex-libris books are readily available for a mere few bucks.
This review first appeared on Patti Abbott's FRIDAY'S FOROGOTTEN BOOKS.
The Bait won the 1969 Edgar Award for the best first novel, and Anthony Boucher praised it in his New York Times review column. It introduced her character Detective Second Grade Christie Opara (the surname is Czech) who went on to appear in two subsequent novels: The Witness (1969) and The Ledger (1970). Christie was based on Ms. Uhnak’s own fourteen-year career as a twice-decorated detective with the New York City Transit Police. Christie is a 26-year-old widow living with her small son Mickey and mother-in-law Nora.
After her husband died two years before in a construction job accident, Christie now works for Casey Reardon of the District Attorney’s Squad. En route to a big LSD drug bust, Christie arrests Murray Rogoff for indecent exposure while riding on the NYC subway. She sets off a chain of events that brings her back to clash with Murray under far darker circumstances. Three young ladies have been strangled, and Murray becomes the prime suspect.
I like Ms. Uhnak’s characterization, the precise mannerisms and pitch perfect dialogue she uses. She also injects enough gritty on-the-job realism to her cop tale without going overboard or bogging it down. The scenes showing the cops’ interactions feel natural and smooth. Banter and humor surface even when setting a trap with Christie offering herself as “the bait” for the murderous psychopath Murray. Christie strikes up a romantic interest with Reardon, a married man with a reputation for having affairs. I don’t remember how all that shakes out through the rest of the Opara trilogy.
Murray also wears special glasses to protect his lashless eyes and keep them moist. Ms. Uhnak told me she based his character on a real life perp she arrested who wore such special glasses. The perp left his lasting impression on her. She said she’d searched the police archives to hunt down his old arrest record.
I bought my paperback copy of The Bait from a used bookstore for $1.50. I thought our library system still shelved most of her books, but my online check just revealed all but one title have been culled. Within five years of her death, her books have disappeared. What a pity. She was a first-rate crime fiction writer and one of the pioneer lady authors working in the police procedural subgenre. At any rate, I suspect her used and ex-libris books are readily available for a mere few bucks.
This review first appeared on Patti Abbott's FRIDAY'S FOROGOTTEN BOOKS.
December 3, 2019
Awash in pervasive sexism and brimming with nascent feminism, The Bait nevertheless manages to capture a vitality and honesty missing in a lot of modern crime fiction. A lot of it can be hard to read, originating primarily from Reardon's wildly inappropriate behavior with his subordinate, but also from the creative depiction of a rape and murder from the viewpoint of the aggressor and other sundry little elements scattered throughout.
The book only includes two scenes of violence and both are over quickly and without many gory details. The second scene of violence is in fact even more dreamlike than the first. Both scenes are constructed deliberately and neither includes many details or a clear sequence of concrete events, instead focusing on the mindset of the villain in the first and the protagonist in the second. Delusions, fear, and trauma suffuse both scenes in a way that is not gratuitous, but which can feel decidedly disappointing for those in need of details and structure in order to truly understand a scene. Both scenes are clarified in subsequent chapters, but there is a little part in the back of my brain that was disappointed at the rear-view the climax required to fully conceptualize.
It only really suffers today due to the nagging feeling that Christie Opara herself is unable to extricate herself from the institutional sexism that surrounds her, and in fact participates in it and perpetuates it almost eagerly at times, embracing her subordinate and protected status. But it also feels like a lived experience, if perhaps an exaggerated one.
Solidly a product of its time and its author, the Bait is nevertheless a clear milestone. It may not have been the first novel to feature a female detective, but it is an obviously important marker in crime fiction given its popularity and the wide reach of its adaptations.
If I wasn't afraid of where the relationship with Reardon is clearly going, I'd eagerly jump on the other books in the series because Christie herself is a complex and intriguing character.
The book only includes two scenes of violence and both are over quickly and without many gory details. The second scene of violence is in fact even more dreamlike than the first. Both scenes are constructed deliberately and neither includes many details or a clear sequence of concrete events, instead focusing on the mindset of the villain in the first and the protagonist in the second. Delusions, fear, and trauma suffuse both scenes in a way that is not gratuitous, but which can feel decidedly disappointing for those in need of details and structure in order to truly understand a scene. Both scenes are clarified in subsequent chapters, but there is a little part in the back of my brain that was disappointed at the rear-view the climax required to fully conceptualize.
It only really suffers today due to the nagging feeling that Christie Opara herself is unable to extricate herself from the institutional sexism that surrounds her, and in fact participates in it and perpetuates it almost eagerly at times, embracing her subordinate and protected status. But it also feels like a lived experience, if perhaps an exaggerated one.
Solidly a product of its time and its author, the Bait is nevertheless a clear milestone. It may not have been the first novel to feature a female detective, but it is an obviously important marker in crime fiction given its popularity and the wide reach of its adaptations.
If I wasn't afraid of where the relationship with Reardon is clearly going, I'd eagerly jump on the other books in the series because Christie herself is a complex and intriguing character.
May 7, 2015
I wish I could remember how I came across this book. Perhaps I stumbled across it while I was reading (and reading about) Dorothy Salisbury Davis's Julie Hayes mysteries. Like Julie, Christie Opara was born (and by that, I mean published) in the late 1960s, and like Julie, she lives in New York. But Julie is what I think is called an amateur sleuth, while Christie is an NYPD detective, based on the author Uhnak's own experiences. The basic storyline: Christie is used as bait to catch a serial killer. I don't want to say more than that, because every element of the way the story unfolds is quite clever. There's a reason this book won an Edgar for best first novel. Some aspects are of their time: that slippery POV shifting so common in the late 1960s/early 1970s. An author could never get away with it now, which is a shame. I like the fluidity. But this particular novel also has a timelessness about it, and that's because of Christie's authenticity. This woman felt incredibly real to me - she has some wonderful moments alone with her own insecurities and fears. Uhnak doesn't shy away from back story and motive for all of her characters, while at the same time she knows how to keep the suspense tight.
October 25, 2015
A rather unpleasant police procedural about a female detective serving as bait for a serial rapist and killer. The killer is truly creepy, with no hair, a dream-like manner, and a feeling that he can judge women better than anyone else. Christie seems to be based to a certain extent on the author who has the cop jargon down, as well as a very masculine style, almost lovingly dwelling over one of the rapes. I preferred the author's nonfiction writing
January 1, 2025
This is a great story about a policewoman who, along with the rest of her team, must figure out the pattern of a unknown killer, then find a way to stop him. Many other things are going on during this time, and hard choices must be made. Great story, with very likable characters!!!
June 9, 2015
A Bit tame by modern standards, but at the time a move in the right direction, must surely been one of the first crime novels to f3eature a Lady detective. What I did find particulary interesting was the amount of time the police actually wasted trying to type up reports on dilapidated typewriters!
June 4, 2010
RATING: 3.75
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December 27, 2015Slow
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December 31, 2018Synopsis: dedicated cop Christie Opara arrests a man for indecent exposure. Soon he's out and pursuing her.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews