I’ve been named Chairman of the Wichita, Kansas Big Read. Here’s a lecture I prepared about Dashiell Hammett and American Crime Fiction. In 1929 Samuel Dashiell Hammett was thirty-five years old, tubercular to the point that he was often racked by coughing spells brought…
Jack’s Boy was a difficult book to write and when I was finished with the first draft I could barely stand to revise it. I only hope that a kid somewhere will read it and realize he or she isn’t alone; or, that a parent might…
I am pleased and happy that The Moon When Water Freezes is now available to young readers as an e-book. I think the novel could appeal to readers of all ages, however. Many of the people and events relate to people and events that I’ve…
The Swarming Stage is different—a dystopian science fiction novel that is also a deeply engaging crime novel, and a love story as well. Where did it all come from? I’m posting set of notes about the novel today that goes some way towards telling the…
I am pleased to announce that two new Jack Kilgore novels are now available as e-books exclusively on Kindle Select. After finishing five major crime novels between the years 1995-2006, I took a break from full-time writing to travel and develop ideas for a new…
I’m very pleased to announce the publication of what I call my “five major crime novels” as e-books. During the period 1994-2005, I published these novels at St. Martin’s Press. The books garnered widespread critical acclaim. I was privileged to do readings in New York City and at…
I got the lousy news on NPR that Charles Bowden died in his sleep on August 30, 2014. I loved his books. I loved in particular Blue Desert, the first book of his I read. I liked hearing that he was rambling alone on foot…
A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka You know, I’ve often wondered whether Kafka meant the books he read or the books he wrote. For most of us it is the books we read. But for…
Perhaps, in tune with Henry Miller’s intuition that he was an artist long before he became one, some of us are readers and writers long before we become so. It is, thus, this notion of springing into existence, of “getting started” on the way…
Harrison, Jim. The Great Leader, Grove Press, New York, 2011 (329pp.$24) Though he’d forgive us saying it, and probably emit a chuckle, the great novelist Jim Harrison is a tad bit daffy. Maybe he always was, or maybe Americans ociety and culture, now gone entirely…