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.

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)

"[A] delightfully audacious debut. Gerry Sass is a genteel hit man who launders money through his Iowa radio station. When he's killed, it ignites a moral dilemma for his Catholic priest friend and makes his adult daughter thirsty for revenge. All that, and it's funny! Hanssen proves remarkably adept at blending influences, from the Coen brothers to A Prairie Home Companion."--Publishers Weekly, "Summer Reads 2026"

"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

"Concise and to the point, the story unfolds in a swift and satisfying manner, and the protagonists never wear out their welcome. . . The kind of book that can be read in one sitting, it offers a cinematic plot and fast pace that seem destined for the screen."--Library Journal

"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."--Willy Williams, firstClue

"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

Publisher: Atlantic Crime

Pub date: 2026-05-12

Length: 224 pages