Chameleon

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Born to a prostitute mother and a ne'er-do-well father, the pseudonymous Proctor survived a childhood filled with sexual horrors almost from infancy (``I grew up thinking a penis was a teat''). She became a prostitute at 13, spent time in prison, worked in a heroin factory in Harlem and then became a runner, transporting cargo, usually drugs, for the Mafia. Her career in crime took her all over the U.S. and Canada until finally her disgust with her involvement with the drug trade caused her to join the Canadian Mounties to fight crime. Her unusual mixed heritage (African American, Native American, English, French, Scottish) enabled her to pass as a black, a Caucasian or an Asian; and she claims to have played a major role in breaking up Chinese, Jamaican and Europe-to-Canada drug-smuggling rings and exposing corrupt Mounties. Proctor's suspenseful autobiography, written with Hofstra University journalism professor Rosen, is absorbing, especially once the reader gets past the appalling perversions she encountered in her early years. (Jan.)