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The Mule sez: Get ready for another gritty Ed Earl Burch saga�

HUUUUUUUUUGE! BIGGER THAN LIFE, ITS OWNSEF! Your old pal, Honest Jim, just finished the draft of the third Ed Earl Burch thriller. Now comes the hard work of editing, chopping, reshuffling and reglazing.

Expect a Spotted Mule Press release in late spring. Plenty of time to buy my first two Ed Earl thrillers, THE LAST SECOND CHANCE and THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER, to get caught up. or

Another screed from The Mule on writing�

Just read an article about it not being easy for writers of hard-boiled crime fiction to avoid imitating Raymond Chandler and recycling some of his signature flourishes and time-honored story-telling devices.

I revere Chandler as one of the founders of the hard-boiled detective genre and learned a lot about driving a story with characters and dialogue by reading his novels and short stories. The main things I learned from Chandler was that the story has to be rooted in realism, plot is secondary to characters and dialogue and you aren’t bound by somebody’s checklist of what a hard-boiled crime story should and shouldn’t be. You’re free to have your characters talk about politics, music, the eternal dance of mutual misunderstanding between men and women and the banality of American culture � long as you’re telling a rip-roaring crime story to boot.

A lot of writers have influenced my work, including�

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Ed Earl’s naughty, not nice. And you like that, pilgrim.

HARD-BOILED STEAL � From now through Christmas, pick up either one of my gritty and relentless Ed Earl Burch crime thrillers for $2 off the regular paperback price. This holiday season, give the gift of Ed Earl. Boy, howdy � it’s noir at its very finest. or

Another Mule screed on writing�

Here’s the thing: Facts are a fiction writer’s friend. The more you know, the more facts you gather up in research and travel, the firmer the foundation of your writing. It’s counter-intuitive, but true. You’re not gathering to regurgitate � that would be stenography. But your expanded knowledge will give strength and authenticity to your writing. It will also let you fly farther in your writing.

Here’s the other thing: If you don’t get the facts right, if your ignorance about something causes you to write a bone-headed error, it will take away from the authenticity of your writing and damage your story. It can be a small factoid error that stops a reader cold and causes them to drop your book and never pick up another one of your deathless prose sagas.

Case in point: I was watching the first episode of a Netflix series � Damnation. Early�

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The Mule sez: You need a little Ed Earl Burch in your life.

COWBOY NOIR FOR THE CARTEL ERA. Gritty, graphic and relentless, THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER is a uniquely old-school, hard-boiled crime thriller that captures the essence of a classic Western. $2 off the regular paperback price at or

Finebaum digs Ed Earl Burch.

My old friend Paul Finebaum knows more than just football. Check out what he has to say about my second Ed Earl Burch novel:

“Jim Nesbitt’s latest hard-boiled Texas thriller is another masterpiece. THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER has everything to keep the reader turning the page � vivid characters, stark Texas landscape, non-stop action and a classic American anti-hero in Ed Earl Burch, Nesbitt’s battered but dogged Dallas PI. Buckle up and brace yourself for another wild ride.�

� Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst, author, host of The Paul Finebaum Show

Grab a copy of THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER for $2 off the regular paperback price at or

Check out The Mule’s latest book review�

Check out my review of KNIFE’S TELL, Daniel Dark’s wildly unique take on Jack the Ripper:

When an author tackles as well-known and morbidly fascinating a subject as Jack the Ripper, they face the daunting task of covering very familiar territory in a compelling and unique way.

In Knife’s Tell, author Daniel Dark, who is steeped in Victorian-era culture and cuisine, does exactly that, exploring the intriguing question of the psychological motivations that propel a successful London doctor into murderous madness.

Dark’s story takes place before the infamous string of unsolved murders of women started in April 1888, before Jack the Ripper earned his name by targeting and mutilating prostitutes in the Whitechapel district of London’s impoverished and crime-infested East End.

The good doctor, who specializes in treating women, is snobbish and domineering. He craves control, is at ease in the clubby environs of the upper class and is a�

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The Mule sez you need to grab this gritty Texas hard-boiled crime thriller. Right now.

“Cowboy noir for the cartel era � THE LAST SECOND CHANCE is a gripping read with a cathartic ending, and it takes you places you’ve likely never been.�

� Jeannette Cooperman, author of A CIRCUMSTANCE OF BLOOD

Grab some hard-boiled Texas crime thriller goodness for $2 off the regular paperback price.

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The Mule sez: Writer Girl is way cool�

Browsing through the reviews of THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER and found this five-star jewel from a very discerning reader who goes by the nom de plume Writer Girl:

“Shove those other books off your nightstand and make room for Ed Earl. You know everything in Texas is bigger. After reading THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER, I know in Nesbitt’s Texas, everything is also BETTER. If “better� means characters that leap off the pages and hold a cold muzzle to your neck, settings that read so true you’ll be squinting into the sunset and downing water to slake your thirst. I never knew hard-boiled noir could be disguised as a gritty action-packed western. I’m sold and I’m coming back for more.�

To see if she’s right, check out both my hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers at or

The Mule sez: Hunnert percent.

Photo credit: The Associated Press

The sentence I hear most from well-meaning, conservative friends since President Trump’s election is this: “We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.�

Fair enough. Let’s take a look.

The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.

General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $8o billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.

While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.

Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

He drew down the number�

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