Jack Viertel To Release Debut Novel THE GLASS This Month

Tony Award winner Jack Viertel is releasing his first thriller, The Glass Eel, on Tuesday, September 9, co-written with his son Josh and published under the pseudonym J.J. Viertel. The novel will be celebrated with a public launch party on Wednesday, September 10 at 6:00 PM at Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren Street).

The book follows Jeanette King, a middle-aged cancer survivor and crab picker who stumbles upon her ex-husband’s stash of baby eels, thrusting her into a violent world of smuggling, corruption, and ecological exploitation. With help from a local cop and an Indigenous activist, Jeanette’s journey uncovers not only the smugglers but the deeper systems of injustice around them.

Published by Penzler Publishers/The Mysterious Press, The Glass Eel (384 pages) is a vivid and timely crime novel that blends ecological urgency, Indigenous sovereignty, and crime drama. For more information, visit jjviertel.com.

“My son Josh, who is mainly an environmentalist, came up with the idea,” said Viertel. “We’ve always loved a lot of the same things, and one day, it was finished. It was a thrilling experience, and we’ve already started work on our next book.”

The pseudonym J.J. Viertel reflects the father-son writing team’s combined backgrounds: Josh, a farmer and activist who led Slow Food USA and co-founded the Yale Sustainable Food Project, and Jack, longtime Broadway dramaturg and producer whose credits include The Piano Lesson, The Producers, Book of Mormon, Smokey Joe’s Café, After Midnight, and The Prom.

Together, the Viertels have created a gripping debut that Publishers Weekly has described as “a crime novel with heart, urgency, and razor-sharp wit.”