Jodie Adams Kirshner is a research professor at New York University. Previously on the law faculty at Cambridge University, she also teaches
bankruptcy law at Columbia Law School. She is a member of the American Law Institute, past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and technical advisor to the Bank for International Settlements.
Kirshner received a prestigious multi-year grant from the Kresge Foundation to research her new book,
Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises.
At LitHub she tagged
six novels set in Detroit that capture the feeling of the city’s present and past. One title on the list:
Stephen Mack Jones, August Snow
In this classic noir detective mystery, a mixed-race, former Detroit cop flush with settlement money from a wrongful 
dismissal suit against the city returns to his childhood home and begins to investigate a crime, as he simultaneously tries to turn around his neighborhood. The Detroit setting distinguishes the book from other examples of the genre. In Mack Jones’s writing, the city becomes a character of its own. His portrayal of the Mexicantown neighborhood—its restaurants and its long-time residents—brings to life the vitality and pride simmering in so many of the city’s neighborhoods, and his detective acts at the intersection of the city’s politics, culture, and history. Though the plot veers towards the ridiculous, involving international money laundering and assassins, the book provides a fun and educational read.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
bankruptcy law at Columbia Law School. She is a member of the American Law Institute, past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and technical advisor to the Bank for International Settlements.
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