"Sitting Shiva" is the first novel of Elliot Feldman's "Detroit Trilogy. " It is a gritty yet introspective look at a son coming to grips with the death of his father, a small-time Detroit gangster.

In 1976 Morris Fish is found dead in a sleazy motel room. Did gamblers holding his "markers" murder him, or did his psycho mistress and her family murder him? Or did he kill himself?

Charlie Fish, his 30-year-old ne'er-do-well son, grieves for him and a father-son relationship that never was. For the seven tradi- tional days of Jewish mourning, "shiva," he doesn't stay at his invalid mother's home and grieve with friends and family. Instead, he searches the city for answers. In his quest, he relives painful moments from his past and reunites with shadowy figures who once terrorized him, finding out as much about himself as his "black sheep" father.

"Sitting Shiva" is not only an exploration of Jewish-American life from the Baby Boomer perspective; it also explores the uni- versal subject of a parent's death and a child's grieving process.

Elliot Feldman has created a novel of superb contradictions. "Sitting Shiva" is savagely funny, deeply tragic, terrifying, myste- rious, and heartfelt.

Elliot Feldman calls himself an "unreconstructed old Detroit freak transplanted to San Diego, the heart of the military-indus- trial complex." He's been a cartoonist since the sixties; his comics appearing in some of the very first alternative newspapers, includ- ing Detroit's "The Fifth Estate. " At other times of his life, he's been a meatpacking house "shlep," a city of Detroit urban planning department employee, and a telephone boiler-room salesman. He's also worked for 20 years in Hollywood, creating one-liners and games for TV producers like Mark Goodson. He currently works as a Senior Writer for Verant Interactive, an online com- puter game company.