Chicago Noir

The book isn't even published yet, and I've already got it on my Powell's wishlist.

In addition to a request for avoiding all references to "Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and deep-dish pizza," Pollack asked the writers not to turn in a "bunch of stories about cops pushing perps against buildings and beating them up." As an absentee editor, the Austin, Texas, resident--who once wrote the "Petty Crime" column for the Chicago Reader--was more interested in highly textured tales about "boxers, jazz musicians, junkies and cab drivers" than the TV cops who populate such procedurals as "Law & Order" and "CSI."

Bless you, Neal.