Taken from Gillian Flynn's "favorite books list" on B&N, this seedy, meaty, riveting little histoire noir set in early 1950's NYC has made me a fan of author Sara Gran. If Gran had provided the reader with just a smidgen more emotional payoff, I would have given this rather aloof story another star, but maybe that's just the genre. I didn't feel quite invested in any of the characters, not even the heroine (not heroin), Josephine. ( )

If you like your heroin lit. with a dash of noir, this is your book. Sleazy con artists, pimps, prostitutes and a pretty sister color this imaginative novel about an ex-junkie on the hunt for a missing girl. Gran’s book is like having a friend blindfold you and walk you carefully down the sidewalk before she gives you a rough spin and a push into oncoming traffic. It’s good like that.
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Dope is set in 1950 in the sleazier parts of New York; its heroine, Josephine Flannigan, is an ex-junkie-whore; and its plot involves Josephine searching for a young woman who has disappeared into the New York underworld. This is my first noir and I must say I really liked it.
Despite its title, Dope is mostly about the search for the missing girl, but it is also about Joe's exploration of people from her own troubled past as she sifts through the city for clues. We meet the usual assortment of characters from New York's underbelly--madams, pushers, impostors, flophouse junkies, park-bench warmers, worn-out prostitutes, owners of bars for those with "alternative lifestyles," slick coppers, and the like.
The plot is perfectly twisted, keeping the reader enthralled and a bit mystified. The ugliness of the junkie scene, linked as it is to prostitution, theft, and murder, is vividly depicted. Sara Gran’s ability to bring the sad reality of addiction and its societal consequences to readers with such insight is outstanding. In only 243 pages, Gran packs a powerful tale with a far-from-perfect heroine who I ended up rooting for and wow what an ending. I will be looking for more by Gran and thank you Jude for the recommendation. ( )

After reading Sara Gran’s Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead--a smart, alternative noir mystery--I was left craving for more. Dope, an earlier novel with some of the same gritty vibe, is set in the petty thieving underworld of 1950’s New York, a place that in no way resembles anything from Happy Days. Josephine, a former addict, straight for two years, is just getting by picking pockets and shoplifting jewelry when she is paid a colossal pile of cash by a distraught couple who wants her to locate their drug addicted, college drop-out daughter. Using all her former drug connections and street smarts, Josephine is closing in when she discovers she has been betrayed by someone who must know her well, but who? Dope winds around, filled with twists and reversals, right down to its startling culmination. ( )

The best stories are the kind that linger in your mind long after you've finished them. For me, DOPE by Sara Gran was that kind of story.

Josephine "Joe" Flannigan is just the girl next door--if you happen to live in Hell's Kitchen, that is. Joe grew up there under the not-so-watchful eye of a single mother, so it was up to Joe to look after herself and her kid sister, Shelley. Both girls end up falling in with the wrong crowd and getting addicted to heroin, but pulling themselves out of "the life" in very different ways. When the story begins, it's 1950 and Joe is making a living picking pockets and "boosting" (to use the parlance of that time) jewelry and other valuables from stores. Shelley has become a successful model and aspiring actress.

When a suburban couple hires Joe to find their wayward daughter in the streets from which she came, it looks like easy money. But the investigation turns out to be a lot more complicated than she expects. And the further Joe delves into the matter, the more trouble she unwittingly creates for herself.

Read entire review at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2008/07/straight-dope-from-sara-gran.html ( )