Working Vice: The Gritty True Story of Lt. Lucie J. Duvall

When Duvall joined the Cleveland Police Department in 1973, 50 years after the first woman had been hired, change was in the wind and women were assigned to patrolling, an innovation. But Duvall, who won over skeptical and even hostile male officers to an appreciation of her dedication, candor and fairness, was headed for bigger things, show the authors. She worked in vice and, like most female vice officers, posed as a prostitute to entrap johns, although the authors rationalize away the notion that the practice was a form of entrapment. So successful was Duvall in dealing wtih rape victims and abused children that she became the head of the department's vice squad, a first for women in the U.S. She was chosen to attend the FBI Academy and then named to lead the CPD's new sex-crimes unit. Hosansky ( Your Children Shoud Know ) and freelancer Sparling do a fine job of chronicling the rise of a woman who has done much to expand the horizons of America's women police officers. (July)