Once Through the Heart

An undercover narcotics cop tells how he caught his own daughter selling drugs and how his shattered family faced the crisis and came out stronger in the end. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

New York Times crime reporter Blumenthal ( Last Days of the Sicilians ) begins this chronicle near the end of the 1980s, on the day NYPD narcotics officer Pat DiGregorio discovered that his daughter Mary Anne was dealing drugs. He proceeds to reconstruct the family's history, detailing DiGregorio's youth and young adulthood; his first marriage (to Mary Anne's mother, who was an alcoholic); his son's death, at age six, of heart disease; his career in the police department and the difficulties he and his second wife, Barbara--also a cop--were having with teenage Mary Anne. DiGregorio gets Mary Anne to enroll in a rehab program; she sticks with it and after two years graduates with her high school class, and later becomes a beautician. Blumenthal's thorough research reveals this family's anguish and examines important issues faced by other parents. But the DeGregorios' story remains curiously encapsulated and somewhat defeatist, as it suggests that the events described were inevitable. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Parade magazine; movie rights to RHI Entertainment.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The central irony in this account of the personal and professional life of New York City Narcotics Detective Pat DeGregorio is that he stumbled upon his own 16-year-old daughter selling drugs. While Blumenthal vividly depicts the danger and exhilaration of working undercover, the heart of this book lies in DeGregorio's family drama--his growing estrangement and eventual divorce from his alcoholic first wife after the death of their six-year-old son, his remarriage to a dynamic woman cop, his daughter's involvement with drugs, and her successful treatment in a drug rehabilitation center. It is this last segment that is the most affecting, detailing Mary Anne's initial resistance to the strict discipline of APPLE (A Program Planned for Life Enhancement), her gradual recognition of her problems, and her eventual recovery. Blumenthal succeeds in portraying the DeGregorios as complex, three-dimensional people confronting common life problems with courage and dignity. Once Through the Heart is an unusual police account that is recommended for general collections.
- Ben Harrison, East Orange P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.