Dorothy Uhnak was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist.

Biography

Uhnak was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. She attended City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

 and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice is a senior college of the City University of New York in Midtown Manhattan, New York City and is the only liberal arts college with a criminal justice and forensic focus in the United States. The college offers programs in Forensic Science and Forensic...

.

Uhnak worked for 14 years as a detective for the New York City Transit Police

New York City Transit Police

The New York City Transit Police Department was a law enforcement agency in New York City that existed from 1953 to 1995. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia authorized the hiring of Special Patrolmen for the New York City Subway system...

 Department.

Uhnak's debut book, The Bait (1968), received a 1969 Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 from the Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....

 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

The Bait

The Bait is a television crime thriller movie about police officer Tracy Fleming, who is out to catch a serial killer preying on women in Los Angeles. Filmed in 1971 and made in 1973, it stars Donna Mills. The film was based on a novel by former police officer Dorothy Uhnak, who was embarrassed...

. It was followed by The Witness and The Ledger, which was adapted for the TV-movie and series Get Christie Love!

Get Christie Love!

Get Christie Love! is a 1974 made-for-television film starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female police detective who is determined to overthrow a drug ring. This film is based on Dorothy Uhnak's crime-thriller novel, The Ledger...

starring Teresa Graves

Teresa Graves

Teresa Graves was an American actress and singer. As the star of Get Christie Love!, Graves is credited as being the first African American woman to star in her own hour long drama television series....

. All three novels featured Christie Opara, an NYPD detective assigned to the Manhattan District Attorney

New York County District Attorney

The New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....

 Office, where Uhnak herself was assigned for many years.

After the Opara trilogy

Trilogy

A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...

, Ms. Uhnak branched out into longer, more ambitious police novels such as Law and Order, which became a TV-movie starring Darren McGavin

Darren McGavin

Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears...

, The Investigation, which was adapted into a TV-movie featuring Telly Savalas

Telly Savalas

Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...

 as Kojak

Kojak

Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...

, and Victims, which seemed to fictionalize the Kitty Genovese

Kitty Genovese

Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese , was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York on March 13, 1964....

 murder. Several of her later novels were bestseller

Bestseller

A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...

s.

Uhnak died in Greenport, New York

Greenport, New York

Greenport, New York may refer to:*Greenport, Columbia County, New York*Greenport, Suffolk County, New York...

, reportedly of a deliberate drug overdose.