The Panic in Needle Park

"This is excellent reportage which says all that needs to be said in the best and simplest way possible." — Kirkus

James Mills, a reporter for Life magazine, drew upon his firsthand experience of New York City's junkie underworld to create this harrowing, fictionalized account of the tragic love affair between two junkies. Mills spent months with Bobby, a small-time street hustler, and Helen, a middle-class Midwesterner reduced to prostitution. Mills's observations of their desperate struggle to score heroin during a shortage provide an extraordinarily intimate view of drug addiction. The acclaimed film adaptation, written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, starred Al Pacino in his first lead role.

"One of the ten best novels of the year." — The Philadelphia Inquirer

James Mills wrote two New York Times bestsellers: the novel Report to the Commissioner and The Underground Empire, a study of international narcotics trafficking that led to his expert testimony before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. His books The Panic in Needle Park and Report to the Commissioner were made into major motion pictures.