Steve Peacock, author of the memoir Hotel Dick, on April 11 will be one of the featured speakers at the popular “River Read” series of author presentations. He will read from his book as well as discuss the history of hotel detectives (known as “hotel dicks”) in literature, movies, and music.
Peacock, who once worked as a hotel detective of the Helmsley Palace (now known as the New York Palace), reveals in Hotel Dick what went on behind the closed doors of New York City’s former playground of the rich and famous. Peacock will read passages from his book, which he describes as “unique five-year peek into the lives of the wealthy, the powerful, and the ‘lower’ classes that serviced their every desire.”
“That experience was a rare chance to become immersed in the subculture of the privileged,” Peacock says. “I protected the pampered Palace guests as they spent vast sums of money on decadent pleasures. I literally served as a buffer between the so-called elite and the hookers, thieves, and street people who were drawn to this midtown Manhattan landmark.”
Peacock now works as a special-education English teacher at a charter school in Trenton. On the literary front, currently he is working on a screenplay as well as a book of poetry. His poetry is forthcoming in the fall edition of the Edison Literary Review. Peacock also is a former Washington, DC-based investigative reporter whose work has appeared in the Tampa Tribune, Communications Daily, Drug Enforcement Report, and Corrections Journal.
The River Read series is being held at The Dublin House (2nd floor), 30 Monmouth Street, Red Bank. Peacock will share the stage April 11 with writer Timothy Gager, author of Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions. The event begins at 2 p.m.
