“I worked as an undercover
narcotics buyer,” Jerry B.
Jenkins says in his usual
matter-of-fact way.
The statement might cause some to pause
when they look at the soft-spoken author of
nearly 200 books, including the best-selling
Left Behind series. But you wouldn’t be as
surprised if you knew Jerry’s two brothers
were cops and his father a police chief. “It
was just before I married in 1971,” Jerry
says. “Very dangerous, scary work. That was
enough for me.”
Despite the “blue blood” running in his
family, Jerry has been a writer since before
he could drive. Maybe he didn’t get the law
enforcement gene, but that hasn’t kept him
from writing about cops. His novel The
Brotherhood delves deep into the personal
and professional life of Chicago cop Boone
Drake. “He’s mostly fictitious,” Jenkins says,
“but many of the police episodes are based on
stories from my dad and brothers and other
relatives who have been cops. Whenever Dad
came for show-and-tell at school or spoke in
uniform at church, I basked in his stardom.
I loved it. I was proud of my dad.”
The first in a trilogy, The Brotherhood takes
readers inside the Chicago police and gang
wars—but Jenkins is a
master at capturing the
gritty without dragging
readers through the
gutter. “I have always
believed you can evoke
the darker side of life
without smashing it into
someone’s face,” Jenkins
says. “They know what
you’re talking about. I
can write that a character
swore without quoting
language that would distract the reader from
the story.”—C.J. Darlington