Third and Indiana is a novel written by Steve Lopez about the experiences of several people connected to 14-year-old Gabriel Santoro, while living in the dangerous gang-controlled streets of the Badlands section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The novel gave notoriety to Third Street and Indiana Avenue, a real-life intersection in the Fairhill area known for the prevalence of drug dealers.

"[4] Lopez said that the novel was, as paraphrased by Douglas J. Keating of the Philadelphia Inquirer, "essentially the story of a parent in search of a child in danger.

"[10] Yagoda argued that "[o]ne never shakes the feeling that" the "hard to credit" characters "are stand-ins for the author, notebook-wielding observers of a poor, crime-riddled neighborhood rather than real participants in its daily life" with Gabriel being the "worst" example.

[12] Toby Zinman of Philadelphia City Paper said that in the play version "the caricatures rather than characters pander to every prejudice in the audience; the Italians are ridiculous cartoons, the African Americans are either vicious or victims, and every crucial scene of emotional or moral crisis is broken by a laugh line, effectively trivializing the characters and their ordeals.

[20] Posner traveled to North Philadelphia to talk to community leaders and residents on several occasions while he was writing the play.

[15] Wynne said that "Mr. Lopez's book doesn't match ‘’Clockers ‘ panoramic scope or its intense preoccupation with the social forces that drive the illicit drug ‘executive’ and his sales crew of street kids.

"[15] Carl Sessions Stepp of the American Journalism Review said that "The story alone is a true page-turner, but Lopez aims higher, and succeeds.

"[22][23] In a 1994 review Ben Yagoda of The New York Times said that "the novel is by no means a failure" but that it "flirts too recklessly with the outlandish and the hackneyed to be counted a success.

"[11] Publishers Weekly said that in the "tough, compelling novel" the author "doesn't preach" and instead "with brutal honesty, he alternates scenes of despair with glimmerings of hope and, even when detailing matter-of-fact violence, he writes with compassion about those trapped in a world where men like Diablo make the rules and are the arbiters of life and death.

"[3] Dwight Garner of the Washington Post argued that the misplaced "heart" or "profound sentimentality" means that Lopez "clogs its narrative arteries; the book is pretty much dead on arrival.

'"[15] Wynne said that Lopez "keeps most of the action rumbling efficiently along to its explosive conclusion" but that the subplot involving Ofelia and the priest was "half-hearted" and "lows down the pace without adding much to the story.

"[11] Stepp said that, through Gabriel, Eddie, and Diablo, Lopez "manages to juxtapose a thickly meditative study of evil with improbable subplots worthy of Elmore Leonard.

"[4] Bob Nocek of Times Leader said, regarding the play version, "What makes "Third and Indiana" work is that it's not afraid to show us that sometimes hope isn't enough.