Dope Sara Gran Atlantic Books, 243pp, £7.99 ISBN 1843544822
Ex-junkie Josephine "Joe" Flannigan - the heroine of this convincing Chandleresque thriller - barely scrapes a living "boosting jewellery". And so she doesn't think twice when a well-to-do family offers her a thousand bucks to find their daughter Nadine, a good girl turned addict. Being no stranger to the pushers, pimps and lowlifes who populate the streets of 1950s New York, Joe assumes it will be easy money. But all is not as it seems.
As the search progresses, the lurid details of Joe's own history are fleshed out. Having started "turning tricks" when she was just a kid, she thinks she knows the "dope city" like the back of her hand. But underneath her tough, cynical exterior we begin to discover someone who is vulnerable and lonely.
Temptation hums unsettlingly in the back of her mind: Joe's "cells" still crave the drug she has forsaken. And as her efforts to find Nadine pull her deeper into the shady realm of organised crime, it becomes increasingly unclear whom she can trust.
Sara Gran's slick, terse, edgy narrative brilliantly mirrors the shifty underworld it portrays. She is sometimes guilty of lazy stereotyping, and you may not be kept guessing until the last page. But Dope is none the less a smart, polished and entertaining read.
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