Kim Wozencraft is a former undercover narcotics agent. She and her partner's
exploits while employed by the Tyler, Texas Police Department are the inspiration behind her book, "Rush". Both Kim and her
partner were eventually convicted of Federal civil rights crimes for making false drug cases against a number of people in
Tyler. Both spent time in federal prison. Prior to going to prison in 1982, she and her partner (Craig Matthews) were married.
Kim Wozencraft is the author
of Rush, The Devil's Backbone, Wanted, Notes from the Country Club and The Catch: A Novel.
Publishers Weekly said of Rush,
“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.”
Publishers Weekly said of Wanted,
“At New York's Sundown prison, two cell mates, convicted political activist Gail Rubin and former Bolton, Tex.,
police officer Diane Wellman, discover a mutual interest in absolution and escape. In this nimbly written nail-biter, Wozencraft
(Rush) explores the boundaries separating—and the bonds uniting—those who break the law and those who enforce
it. Gail has spent 18 years in the can for being a member of Free Now, a fringe group whose Philadelphia bank robbery resulted
in several deaths. After her request for parole is denied, 44-year-old Gail faces 12 more years behind bars. Diane, a 24-year-old
police officer, was framed for drug possession after objecting to the bogus murder conviction of a local drug addict, now
sitting on death row. A former undercover narcotics officer, Wozencraft is known for her gritty characters and razor-sharp
prose. She's a champ at suspense, too: tensions run high after a daring jailbreak, as fleet-footed fugitives Gail and
Diane test the boundaries of trust. With the help of folks from Gail's revolutionary days, the pair manages to remain
one step ahead of the law. While Gail sets her mind to the straight-and-narrow, Diane is determined to settle old scores in
Texas. The loose ends of Wozencraft's plot may tie up a bit too easily, but her knack for nonstop action will keep readers
engaged from the very first page.”
Kirkus reviews said of The
Devil's Backbone, “Victimized exotic dancer seeks payback through stripping. In Kit Metcalf's
mind, it goes like this: When she writhes, wriggles and wraps herself erotically around a pole, tantalizing the covey of slavering
males safely caged in their reinforced-glass spectator booths, it's a form of vengeance, the stuff of power. "She
could make them feel, if not exactly as she had that night-the night that would not go away-at least something of the way
she had felt. . . . She could make them helpless." Kit can certainly do drama queen with the best of them, but her occasional
scenery-chewing here seems justified by the explosive subject matter. It's not just the brutality of that long-ago rape
that has Kit smoldering. Something even more hurtful lurks relentlessly among her memories of childhood. What's most insidiously
disturbing and traumatizing about it is that it's something she can't be sure actually happened; Kit's subconscious
is first-rate at keeping secrets. Real or chimerical, a pervasive ugliness has poisoned her mind, jaundiced the way she views
her family and the world around her and sent her in desperation to psychiatrist Emily Wolfe's couch-a place somebody obviously
doesn't want her to be. Wolfe's office is ransacked, Kit's file stolen, the psychiatrist herself is attacked and
seriously hurt. Is it a ruthless intent to end this particular doctor-patient relationship? Why? What is it that must remain
buried? What does the murder of Kit's sister have to do with it? These questions, disturbing enough, are nothing to the
answers that, when they come, will leave Kit shattered and perhaps permanently scarred. A deftly plotted, briskly paced psychological
thriller: solid storytelling in the dependable Wozencraft manner.”
The Library Journal said of The
Catch: A Novel, “Focusing on territory she knows best from her days as an undercover narcotics cop, Wozencraft
(Rush, LJ 4/1/90) again engulfs readers in the dangerous world of drugs. The plot clings to one family's involvement in
marijuana smuggling. The former coke-addict wife needs her husband to come clean for their children's sake but secretly
misses the days when she worked with him, the husband continues to promise his family and himself he will get out but seems
obsessed with the thrill, and the DEA agent on the case has conflicting motives that create most of the suspense. As a thriller,
The Catch holds its own, but the story works better as a character study, specifically of a woman dealing with her past addiction,
her menacing present, and her intolerable future. She runs the gamut from supporter to observer to survivor, and her painful
emotions bleed onto the page.”
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