“Do you have any idea what it was like back then to meet someone who read books? He made me wet as a sea sponge.”

“He sat on a log, looked over the water of Puget Sound, and thought about how his life had collapsed, and how his lifelong project of forming a literary career had not come to fruition. He couldn’t write.”

“He’s an editor. Some New York publishing house. Got great big circles under his eyes. He walks up and down, talking to himself.”

When celebrated authors write terrible similes. “Martine has a way with a hedge trimmer, leaving ‘flowers mounded on the lawn like Ukrainian corpses in Bucha’ after she tackles the landscaping.”

“There is nothing more embarrassing the next morning than reading one of your own suicide notes.”

A Quinn Martin Production. Act I.

Still Life With Cellphone.

Stiletto Alley. (Port Angeles, Washington)

Gotta joke for you. Guy walks into a singles bar ….

In line at the coffee shop, the sound system starts in on the piano coda from “Layla,” and the guy ahead of me turns to the woman with him and says: “When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy.”

Dr. Richard Kimble, Chief of Oncology. #noir

"In the world of Jim Thompson, Deputy Barney Fife is a raving psychotic who darkens Thelma Lou's bedroom doorway at 3 a.m. with a liquor bottle, a single bullet and a jittery smile." — Stephen King

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.”