Uncle Janice (Thorndike Press Large Print Core) - Hardcover

"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 "
"[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
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"[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"

24 year-old Janice Itwaru is an "Uncle"--NYPD lingo for an undercover narcotics officer--and the heroine of the most exuberant and original cop novel in years.
On any given day, Janice Itwaru might be found trolling the streets of Queens for drugs. Janice is an "uncle"--an undercover narcotics officer--trying to meet the impossibly high quota of drug busts needed to make detective, or be sent back down to uniformed patrol. So Janice is out there in her secondhand hoochie skirt, trying to get potential drug dealers--criminals, addicts, dumb kids, whomever--to commit a felony on her behalf. Other days are spent in the "Rumpus Room" at the precinct, trying to keep up with the bantering lies and inventively cruel pranks of her fellow uncles while coping with the insane demands of the big bosses. With an ailing mother at home, her cover nearly blown, four more buys to get her gold shield and rumors circulating that Internal Affairs has her unit under surveillance, Janice is running very short on luck as her quota deadline approaches. Now she has to decide which evil to confront: the faceless bureaucrats at One Police Plaza, or the violent drug dealers who may already be onto her identity. Bursting with the glorious chaos of the streets of New York, "Uncle Janice" is an uproariously funny portrait of how undercover cops really talk and act, and a compelling story of their crazy, dangerous and often nonsensical lives.