Uncle Janice

Written by Matt Burgess

Narrated by Rachel Fulginiti

24 year-old Janice Itwaru is an quot;Unclequot;--NYPD lingo for an undercover narcotics officer--and the heroine of the most exuberant and original cop novel in years.#160; On any given day, Janice Itwaru might be found trolling the streets of Queens for drugs. Janice is an quot;unclequot;--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, and dumb kids, whomever--to commit a felony on her behalf. Other days are spent in the quot;Rumpus Roomquot; at the precinct, trying to#160;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 sheild 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.#160;

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Jan 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781622316090

Reviews for Uncle Janice

[brookeott · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story was middle of the road and has been reviewed by other reviewers below. As such, I've chosen to review the audiobook version that I listened to. I enjoyed the narrator's performance very much when it was just descriptive. Her accents, however, were very odd. The only one that sounded authentic was a very short passage by a Caribbean woman. Janice and her mother and father had accents that were impossible to place. Janice's may have had some authentic NY to it though I couldn't really place it as one I had heard before. Her mother (as far as I could glean a white American) sounded Russian and her father (from Guyana) was completely unrecognizable. This impaired my enjoyment of the story.

[missizicks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was expecting a guns'n'glory police procedural set on the mean streets of Queens all wise-cracking action peopled with cops with hearts of gold. Instead I got a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life. I was transported to the world of Janice Itwaru. Janice lives with her mother, who has early onset dementia. Her sister drops in and out of her life, causing havoc. She is estranged from her father, a recovering alcoholic who once beat her mother so badly she was hospitalised. From an early age, Janice wanted to be a spy. Now she works for NYPD Narcotics as an undercover cop, an Uncle. The book charts the last month of her contract, before her fabled elevation to Detective. I found it very revealing about the discrimination against non-white police, against women, both of which are treated as matter of fact by everyone in the 115 Narcotics team. It was also an unglamorous portrayal of life as an undercover officer, and riveting as a result. Alongside the grind of her working life, we're given an insight into Janice's personal life. I wanted to be her friend, make her a cup of tea, sit her down and work out how we could make things better. I think she needed a friend. Someone who wasn't a colleague. Matt Burgess portrays life in Queens with an affectionate honesty, and describes his characters with a quiet skill.

[vnesting-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Janice Itwaru is an undercover cop (or "uncle") in Queens. While Janice works toward her detective badge, the pressure increases both at home and at work. Burgess effectively conveys the humor and frustrations of the undercover cop’s life as the story veers between gripping drama to comedy. The narrator for this audiobook was well chosen, making this an enjoyable listen.

[bekilynn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the min character, a new police woman whose goal in life is to become a detective. She is a minority and a woman so she is constantly harangued by her peers but stands up to almost all of it with dignity and fortitude. But I felt the storyline lacked, it was hard to stick with it to the end,. I didn't like the other characters and so I had nothing much invested in the story. Also the bits of humor tried to hard. I did finish it and the conclusion was satisfactory. I would like to see a sequel better developed.

[jgoto_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received the audiobook of Uncle Janice from the Librarything Early Reviewer program. It is the story of Janice Itwaro, an undercover narcotics agent. The first half of the novel was not particularly exciting - it followed Janice in her day to day work, with no apparent plot. By the second half of the story however, suspense began to build. Janice was involved in some illegal activities and Internal Affairs became involved. Unfortunately, on the sixth CD out of eight, the quality of the recording faltered, and the track that promised to be the most entertaining didn't work at all. It happened again on the seventh CD and again on the eighth, essentially eliminating the climax of the book. I have to say that I don't feel compelled to get a replacement copy because the characters and the story just didn't interest me enough.

[shellyup47 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I tried hard to get into Uncle Janice by Matt Burgess but without success. Unfortunately, I found myself waiting and waiting for something exciting to happen to the main character but it never seemed to come to fruition. I kept hoping for an exciting plot I could get absorbed in but instead the author would digress about the many weird characters in the novel. There were a few funny parts but not enough to make the book memorable.

[wdwilson3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

To me, this book seemed like a host of weird characters searching for a plot. I have the feeling that the author was searching for a Janet Evanovich-like kooky, crazy mystery, but this seemed like a collection of short stories with tenuous linkage. A disappointment.

[carolee888 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Before I review Uncle Janice by Matt Burgess (audio version), I want to say that the reader, Rachel Fulginiti did a magnificent job with the voices of different sexes, ages and accents. I applaud her.This is not a crime mystery but more a crime comedy and a realistic look at the lives of Uncles and Ghosts in the New York City police department. Janice Itwaru is an undercover narcotic officer. She is trying to survive the 18 month term so that she can be eligible for detective. She is half black and half West Indian. An uncle is the undercover person trying to make the drug buys to trap the dealers and the ghosts are the undercovers who sit in the car and observe and record what is going on. This is not a safe job. She learns some ways of avoiding putting herself in danger and she later learns that that the Police Department has its own brand of corruptness. She is not only trying to make it through each day at the job but she lives with her mother who has dementia. She has no real social life. By the time she gets home she had been through so much that there is not much to enjoy. Yet she sees plenty of humor in everything. There is humor in the dangerous situations, humor in the boredom, and humor of living with her mother. Her father used to beat up her mother and drink a lot and he wants to have some kind of father and daughter relationship with her. He sees her as going down the path of alcohol and wants to stop her.Her mother is very caring even to strangers and off course cannot remember things to save her life.This is very gritty, there is some rough language, but a lot of perceptive statements and so very funny. I will miss my daily listening session with Uncle Janice Itwaru.I received this audio book as a win from LibraryThing from the publishers but that in no way influenced the thoughts and ideas in my review.

[cherylefisher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I won this audiobook from the Early Reviewers. This could be a good story, but I can hardly force myself to listen to it. The story is about a woman who works undercover in New York in the drugs department. The story line is more retelling of other peoples experiences as they tell them to Janice. What would work better for me would be Janice's experiences as how she relates to others in her department. Don't think I can make it all the way through this one.

[leshardin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

1st audio book I've listened to. Very good characters and storyline. I enjoyed it very much.

[enemyanniemae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. It was not at all what I expected and it kept me a little off balance the whole time. What starts out feeling like a Janet Evanovich knock-off turns really dark at times. Don't get me wrong. This story of an undercover narcotics officer trying to make her buy quota so she will qualify for her detective shield is funny as hell. At times. But then you throw in a mother with Alzheimers, a father with whom our girl has no love, buys gone wrong and other assorted ugliness... and you stop laughing. Watching Janice try to cope with all of the insanity in her life while maintaining her own sense of self is like watching a train wreck. You simply cannot look away. This story brought out so many emotions in me that I did not know whether to giggle madly, cry buckets or be furious. I definitely did not want the book to end. And boy what an ending. Seriously good.I was fortunate enough to be chosen for an Early Reviewers copy of the audiobook version of this novel. The narration is excellent! Rachel Fulginiti is an accomplished actress and breathes life into every single character. Her narration was a pleasure to listen to. This is another audiobook for which I would happily recommend for those who love to get a glimpse into a subculture far removed from themselves. This is an audiobook I would recommend for those who don't shy away from their emotions while reading. This is an audiobook I would recommend to anyone who loves a good story and great narration. I think I am going to have to go back and listen to that last disc a few more times. I really loved that ending. Seriously.

[lilac_lily01 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like police thriller and I especially like police thriller with a strong female protagonist. "Uncle Janice" is a very authentic story about a female undercover officer who is trying to work her way up in the narcotics department. Janice is far from perfect with many flaws but that makes her a more real and a very likable character. This book is not a traditional action packed police thriller, it moves at a slower pace which is nice. It allows for full development of the characters and setting. The author brings the Queens borough to life with his words. I enjoyed it and it made me care more about Janice and her story. I will definitely look for more books by Matt Burgess.

[amyrph · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow, what a great story. I thought it was just going to be another detective story but I found this story to be captivating. It was very humorous and had a story-line I didn't expect. I loved the main character and her mother, they were very descriptive and I could picture the characters. Once I started I could hardly put this book down.