“Like Richard Price and the late, great Elmore Leonard, Matt Burgess is one of those cool, quick and funny writers who can turn a seemingly routine crime caper into something special.”
– Carl Hiaasen, bestselling author of Bad Monkey and Strip Tease
“Uncle Janice is a lowdown masterful contribution to Urban American lit, charismatically written with terrific sly humor and a joyous dead-on ear. An addictive read, one of those books you wish would never end.”
– Richard Price, bestselling author of Lush Life and Clockers
“Smart, funny, big-hearted, and utterly entertaining—this is an apt description of both Uncle Janice the novel, and Janice Itwaru the character. Matt Burgess is a gifted and generous storyteller; Uncle Janice is a triumph.”
– Scott Smith, bestselling author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins
“Uncle Janice is that mythical sixth season of The Wire for which we have all been pining. Yeah, that good. The daily trials and tribulations of one Janice Itwaru—undercover drug officer, fallen daughter, all around wrong way gal—in that mythic, urban kingdom known as Queens, make for that rarest of reading experiences: at once comic and enthralling, always surprising, and unexpectedly touching. The eye, ear, voice and heart of this novel are bulletproof. Whoever the hell Matt Burgess is, dude does not sleep for one sentence. Neither will you.”
– Charles Bock, bestselling author of Beautiful Children
“This is a terrific novel, because Janice is terrific, a brilliantly realized character. She’s strong, vulnerable, funny, maddening—human, and just great.”
– Roddy Doyle, bestselling author of The Guts and winner of the Booker Prize for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
“[P]ungently uproarious… Less a conventionally plotted procedural than an anecdotal stream of harrowing encounters, scatological slapstick and polychromatic repartee, this is a multitextured chronicle of coming-of-age, or perhaps more precisely, coming to terms with what it means to be a responsible grown-up struggling for truth, justice, love and value in a post-millennial urban universe where once-familiar boundary lines get blurrier every day. Is it possible that Burgess is doing for Queens what Junot Diaz is doing for New Jersey? No easy answer just yet, but this novel will make you wait for one to show up.”
–Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
“[G]ripping, well-written book set on the mean streets of contemporary Queens…. Burgess…has a finely honed eye and a gift for rendering street-smart dialogue that is both credible and comic.”
- Publishers Weekly
“[A] vivid portrayal of life on the streets, which swings from funny to gut-tighteningly suspenseful… a tour-de-force.”
- Booklist
“[O]utstanding…. This fresh take on the cop novel genre retains the madcap energy of Elmore Leonard’s best fiction while introducing the most irresistible police precinct this side of Joseph Wambaugh’s Hollywood Station.”
- Library Journal
[H]ilariously told. Author Matt Burgess knows cops, knows Queens and most of all knows how to riotously spin a story… The hurly-burly of the streets and the grit of the buys are both vibrantly portrayed, while the suspense embedded in those covert ops is integral to the story.”
– New York Daily News
“Matt Burgess has claimed a slice of New York City as his own… Uncle Janice is an agile copy story with a disarming main character, a sophisticated understanding of police work and a bracingly specific sense of time and place… a confident and convincing novel.”
– Star Tribune
“[A] credible and comic look at undercover police work on the mean streets of Queens, N.Y.”
– The Columbus Dispatch
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