Overview

The Sopranos meets Six Feet Under in this thrilling debut crime novel about the killing of a hitman-for-hire, his daughter who wants revenge, and a priest who accidentally witnessed everything Gerry Sass is not who he appears to be. On the surface, he is the proud owner of a local country music station outside of Mystic, Iowa. Beneath it, he's a mob-connected hitman-for-hire who launders money through the station WIOA. One morning in 1986, his life of crime catches up to him when two men march him out into the woods and shoot him in the back of the head. Plunged into purgatory, he's doomed to a painful examination of his life. Unbeknownst to the assassins, Gerry's closest friend, a Catholic priest named Father Dan, witnesses his execution yet does nothing to stop it. Meanwhile, Gerry's daughter, Early, jumps into his prized Mustang with a thirst for revenge. On her adrenaline-fueled hunt, she comes to realize that she's more like Gerry than she ever chose to admit. Alternating between the voices of a grieving and adrenaline-fueled daughter, a guilt-ridden priest with no one he can trust, and the voice of a dead killer not quite yet gone, My Name Was Gerry Sass exposes the complicated natures of family, grief, and God in this propulsive and darkly funny novel.

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9780802167057

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Reviews

Praise for My Name Was Gerry Sass: ""Tiffany Hanssen's debut novel, My Name was Gerry Sass, packs a wallop and pulls no punches. We have a faithless priest, a determined daughter, and a protagonist who is haunted--but not all that bothered--by the decisions he has made in his life. My Name was Gerry Sass is fueled by a rare mixture of momentum, wit, and depth, and charges like a Mustang.""--Henry Wise, Edgar Award-winning author of Holy City ""The aftermath of a mob hit evolves into a meditation on life and death in Hanssen's incredible debut. I was fascinated by this interpretation of purgatory that collapses time into a construct and leaves only the connections we forge and the choices that either save or doom us. Hypnotic, gritty, and unflinching, Gerry Sass will stay with you long after he's buried.""--Mindy Mejia, USA Today bestselling author of To Catch a Storm and The Whisper Place

Praise for My Name Was Gerry Sass: ""From its opening pages, public radio host Hanssen's knockout debut, which orbits around the death of a genteel hit man in the 1980s Midwest, hums with suppressed menace. Fast, funny, and emotionally complex, Hanssen's thriller suggests that guilt and family trauma will catch up to even the craftiest evaders. It's an auspicious first outing.""--Publishers Weekly (starred review) ""Set in the 1980s, the story has a grittiness, and it is easy to draw comparisons between Gerry and Tony Soprano . . . There is a dark humor to the book, as Hanssen weaves complicated family dynamics with a complex relationship with God, and this engrossing crime novel hints at more possibilities ahead.""--Booklist ""Alternating the high-speed narrative among her three well-drawn protagonists, WNYC on-air host Hanssen makes a kickass debut with this darkly funny, beautifully written, and highly original tale of murder, revenge, and family ties. Most importantly, she has written a moving story about the love between a father and a daughter that abides even after death.""--Wendy Williams, firstClue Reviews ""Tiffany Hanssen's debut novel, My Name was Gerry Sass, packs a wallop and pulls no punches. We have a faithless priest, a determined daughter, and a protagonist who is haunted--but not all that bothered--by the decisions he has made in his life. My Name was Gerry Sass is fueled by a rare mixture of momentum, wit, and depth, and charges like a Mustang.""--Henry Wise, Edgar Award-winning author of Holy City ""The aftermath of a mob hit evolves into a meditation on life and death in Hanssen's incredible debut. I was fascinated by this interpretation of purgatory that collapses time into a construct and leaves only the connections we forge and the choices that either save or doom us. Hypnotic, gritty, and unflinching, Gerry Sass will stay with you long after he's buried.""--Mindy Mejia, USA Today bestselling author of To Catch a Storm and The Whisper Place ""My Name Was Gerry Sass is a gripping midwestern noir in the tradition of Fargo and A Simple Plan--fast, blisteringly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt. Highly recommended!""--Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

Author Information

Tiffany Hanssen is an on-air host at public radio station WNYC in New York City. During her decades-long career in broadcasting, she has produced award-winning national programs and worked at stations from Las Vegas to Washington D.C. She is also a screenwriter and mom to two boys. And although she was born in Iowa and spent many years in Minnesota, she currently lives in Manhattan.

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