One 2026 resolution: Spread the gospel about the books I love. The first one I jumped into this morning is Richard Russo’s EVERYBODY’S FOOL. It’s great for many reasons, but I particularly love that it turns into a stone crime thriller about two-thirds in.

Happy Halfway Through the Baseball Offseason to those who observe.

Resolution for 2026: Reclaiming this hair.

Resolution for 2026: Studying at length the distinctions between a “banger” and a “slapper.”

Resolution for 2026: Arguing that soup is a sandwich.

Resolution for 2026: Making no distinction whatsoever between what I like and what is great.

Resolution for 2026: Starting arguments over what does and what doesn’t constitute an Arbor Day movie.

Happy Noir Year to those who observe. (Kingston, Washington)

The John Rector touch. “This isn’t the first time I’ve been jumped, and since I don’t see a gun, I figure everything will be okay. A few bruises, wallet gone, nothing I can’t walk away from. “Then I see the bolt cutters.”

Few things are more life-affirming and soul-satisfying than exchanging a glance and a grin with someone else who knows just when to do the five handclaps any time “Take The Money and Run” comes on over the supermarket sound system.

We wish you a shreddy Christmas.

Night and the Kitty.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

After Dark, My Street.

I really have enjoyed my stay, but I must be moving on. (Port Angeles, Washington)

Proud of my anthology of Seattle-centric crime fiction, THE KILLING RAIN, and especially its afterlife—three of its stories were chosen for best-of collections. (Congratulations, Tod Goldberg, Robert J. Binney and John Bosworth—and thank you, Steph Cha, Don Winslow, Michael Bracken and Matt Coyle.)

“Living with the Space Needle on the other side of Queen Anne Hill was rather like having to put up with a black-velvet portrait of Jesus on one’s living room wall.”

“The more I declined to share in somebody else’s cocaine, the more popular I became.”

“I don't trust Bugs Meany any further than I could throw a cheesecake under water,' Encyclopedia said.”

“Bugs hated having Encyclopedia outsmart him all the time. He longed to knock the boy detective colder than the paint on an icehouse floor.”

“You could see why we would want a seat at the table. If you’re not at the table, you’ll be served up on the table.” @shaunmcmichael.bsky.social

“I’d like to catch Brian out in the yard so I could get into a little kickass with him, to be quite frank.” — Van Dyke Parks

“Musicians have to learn to listen before they can begin to learn to play. I think it’s the hardest part, the listening part. Probably why so many people involved in music are attracted to pot smoking, it helps one to listen.”

“The Mafia doesn’t like killing people. Well, they like killing some people.”

Nightmare Alley. (Walla Walla, Washington)

Seattle mariner.

Anthony Geary caused me much teen anguish. I watched the whole Luke-and-Laura story because the girls of the neighborhood were into it, and I was into the girls of the neighborhood. Only the girls of the neighborhood were only into the kind of guys who wouldn’t be caught dead watching a soap opera.

“Without hearing a sample of our music, he agreed to be our producer for $500 and a lamb-chop dinner.”

Says the least manly man in the solar system.

I see this all over, where I live. Kids in my day went the opposite way — puffy ski coats with the lift tag(s) ostentatiously displayed.

Have a novella? Crime? No? Not a problem. (re)Introduce One Eye Press. We're looking for good stories in an itty bitty living space. 8k - 30k words. We're not alone, either. Tough Crime publisher @rustybarnes23.bsky.social is joining the team. submissions.shotgunhoney.com/publication/...

A funny thing happened after I wrote my essay on my favorite crime fiction of 2025 in early November: I started/completed several novels I would have added to the list. A new essay coming soon. This one features works by @louberney.bsky.social, @meganabbott.bsky.social, Ken Jaworowski and others.

The wait is over. Jacks Fork is here. @maybejed.bsky.social @dosomedamage.bsky.social @jimthomsen.bsky.social www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

My latest, Jacks Fork, was only available three weeks before Down and Out went Under. Now it's back! Get you some, Jack @dosomedamage.bsky.social @jimthomsen.bsky.social www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

“I’m starting to think Thoreau might have been full of shit. If we aren’t living for others, maybe we aren’t really living.”

This feels like the first chapter of a Stephen King novel.

Norman mailer.

“There was a time I wouldn’t have gotten pleasure from being undesirable, but now I saw it as a superpower.”

“If you’re a woman sitting alone in a bar, it’s always best to look occupied, even if you’re faking it. Most men think they’re doing you a favor, keeping you company, curing you of the shame of being alone in public.”

“I made a very strong mental note to start behaving normally.”

Shoulder-wound waiver granted. “He didn’t step back. I could see him thinking of ways out of this, and I didn’t need him thinking, so I shot him in the shoulder. He stepped back then.”

“I’m not a man, and when a man isn’t a man he’s nobody. And the only way not to be nobody is to do something. So I can either kill myself or kill someone else. Get it?”

Use postal metaphors, like postal materials, carefully. More carefully than this. “Thomas dispatched the two Negronis with the relief of a man chucking a couple of overdue thank-you letters through the slit of a postbox.”

Raymondcarverville. (Port Angeles, Washington)

Jack Reacher, copy editor. “In general Reacher didn’t care for the corruption of written language. U for you, EZ for easy, hi for high, lo for low. He had spent many years in school learning to read and spell and he wanted to feel that there had been some point to it.”

High noirn.

The ideal crime fiction hero. “I am definitely not someone suited to handle this situation. I have no special skills or talents, and nobody, ever, has put me in charge of anything.”

“It must be exhausting to have so many strong opinions. I only have mild preferences, and usually not even that.”

“Everyone’s life needed an organizing principle, and relentless forward motion was Reacher’s.”

Mail performance.