Outside In by Nanisi Barrett D’Arnuk

Realistic prose, graphic sex, and complex plotting mark the debut of this talented newcomer. Lesbian policewoman Cameron ‘Cam’ Andrews, known for her heroic antidrug stance, surprises everyone when she steals evidence in a drug case. Sent to women’s prison, she faces both physical and mental hardship but takes advantage of her position to expose drug dealing and capture a murderer?perfect cover for CIA-trained Cam. While D’Arnuk’s gutsy narrative should find a ready audience among fans of thrillers, her descriptions of sexual bondage may offend a few.

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Major drugs are moving through Maryland’s Hagerville State Correctional Facility, and the DEA needs a woman inside. Their choice is Cameron Andrews, a decorated Baltimore cop whose hatred of drugs goes back to her brother’s fatal overdose, and whose lesbianism makes her a natural candidate to infiltrate the tight- knit prison “family” that’s directing the traffic. Before she can go undercover at Hagerville, though, Cam has to be drilled, hardened, and discredited, and tearing her apart brings out first-novelist D’Arnuk’s real passion. In a long, long flashback, Cam undergoes a rigorous psychological indoctrination that makes Marine boot camp look like Camp Fire Girls, and learns to enjoy getting cuffed for sex by her shapely martial-arts instructor Michael Gauchet. It’s knowledge that’ll prove unexpectedly useful when Cam’s finally shipped off to Hagerville and finds that sleeping with a serious masochist is her quickest route to the cocaine that flows through the prison as easily as dishwater. But the story lags when Cam, unsatisfied with a lower-level bust that’s put her in the hospital, insists on going back into Hagerville to nab the faceless lady at the top of the food chain. The scenes of Cam’s training and prison life shout tough, tough, tough. Once she gets down to undercover detection, though, Cam seems all stripped down with nowhere to go. — Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved