Rush [Hardcover]

Kim Wozencraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 1990

Written by a former undercover narcotics officer in Texas, the central character in this novel is a woman police officer, Kristen Cates. Together with her lover and partner she becomes a drug user in order to mix undercover with addicts, with devastating consequences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With an unquestionably authoritative narrative voice, first novelist Wozencraft commands readers into her harrowing story of a young narcotics agent's descent into a hell of chemical dependency and moral ambiguity. While a part-time college student, 21-year-old Kristen Cates is recruited to work in an undercover drug operation with the Pasadena, Tex., police. She's "a natural," insists her partner Jim Raynor, a captain who assures her that she, like him and others before her, can stay "cool" even though she must learn to smoke, swallow or shoot up dope in order to make the buys that will convict the dealers. She and Jim become lovers and move to another operation in Beaumont in an effort to bring in a drug charge against a well-known, well-protected local pornographer, an attempt that will backfire and bring them to trial instead. This action proceeds with suspense and smooth complexity; the real conflict, however, occurs within Kristen as, watching Jim deny the extent of his addiction, she acknowledges her dependency even while compiling evidence against the people about whom she realizes: "The difference between them and me was that I understood there was no difference." In total command of her material, its language and procedures, and without resort to sensationalism, Wozencraft, a former undercover cop, writes of a world in which pain--physical, emotional and spiritual--is nearly palpable. Major/ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Lacking cohesion and slow moving to begin with, this story of drug addiction, police corruption, and attempted murder becomes almost painfully intense. Even before attending police academy, Kristen Cates works as an undercover narcotics agent in Pasadena, Texas, falls in love with detective Jim Raynor, and learns to do drugs. Much of the book details the couple's debilitating, pressured routine of hanging out, making buys, gathering (and fabricating) evidence, and ultimately testifying in court against their "friends." Wozencraft's first novel is convincing and realistic, and although it is sometimes a mite heavy-handed, it is always disturbing. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/89.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (November 26, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0434878146
• ISBN-13: 978-0434878147
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,626,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real thing--and I should know, April 25, 2007

By 

D-con "D-con" (Baton Rouge,, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rush (Hardcover)

Like Kim Wozencraft, I too am an ex-cop and an ex-con, . There are two things I can comment on. One is how authentic it is, how well it portrays the life of a cop with a drug habit. The second is how well it's written. For authenticity, all I can tell you is that I was also a cop with a drug habit and it doesn't get any more real than Ms. Wozencraft's book. If you want to vicariously experience something that no sane person would want to go through in real life, read this book. Read this book. As far as how well it's written, no big complaints there. It was a bestseller, as well as being made into a pretty popular movie. That should tell you what the general public thinks. As far as the critics, they seem to have liked the book as well. If there were any new-writer mistakes in the book that would have normally drawn the scorn of the critics, they were lost in the grit, which the critics admired. They liked the book because it was real. I don't much like the book anymore for the same reason. I lived that life too. I recently tried to re-read the book and it gave me night sweats. It was too nerve-wracking for me. That's how authentic it is. If what you want is--as the critics love to say--gritty reality, this is your book. Get the book. It'll be money well-spent.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intense and Fascinating, November 28, 2004

By 

A Discerning Reader (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rush (Paperback)

What a disturbing little read this was! Wozencraft exposes us to a world most of us never knew or even imagined--the blurry lines between the good guys and the bad guys in the war on drugs.

What makes this novel so disturbing is its ring of authenticity; its truthtelling grows until they final pages, when the moral of the story is exposed: 1) situational ethics applies in settings where it is morally wrong yet sanctioned by the law; 2) life is often not fair, and the evil often prosper.

Her writing skills are excellent, and her ability to write expertly about these complex situations in the first person makes the novel intense and almost too painful to continue. She has real ability, although I'm not sure I want to read about such a depressing and sordid world about which she writes so capably.

4.0 out of 5 stars Delineation Between Narc and Pusher is Invisible, May 1, 2009

By 

Bonnie Brody "Book Lover and Knitter" (Port St. Lucie, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This is a powerful novel about under cover narcotics operations and of the often
invisible, non-existent delineation between narc and pusher. "I played both
roles, I was both sided. I comprehended their longing, I shared their needs.
And I despised us all. The difference between them and me was that I under-
stood there was no difference." (p. 175).

The relationship between Kristen and Jim, the two police officers and lovers is
so horrifyingly destructive that it is difficult to read about.

It is a first novel so it tended to be spotty in places but it was the most evocative
true to life depiction of addiction, need and desperation that I've ever read.
Speed, cocaine and need are put into words as I've never read them before.

Entwined into the depiction of undercover narcotics operations is the depiction
of police corruption and the stupidity of the war on drugs. Also, we are horri-
fied to realize that bureaucratic and societal corruption extends to every level.