Hardluck Thoughts

Hardluck Thoughts was the editor's column — the page where, each issue, the zine stepped out from behind the fiction and talked directly to its readers about books worth buying, presses worth supporting, and the state of the noir world. The column’s character and highlights emerge most clearly in its final years.

Five Years of Publication

The column marking the zine's fifth anniversary took stock of the run: five years in which Hardluck published some of the best noir short fiction available anywhere, by both some of the most respected names in the business and upcoming stars. It also tipped its hat to the guest editors who had made the rotating model work — and noted, with some amusement, how many of them were connected with the Five Star Mystery line: Ed Gorman, Jeremiah Healy, Michael A. Black (who served two tours of duty as guest editor), Harry Shannon, and Trey Barker.

Championing the Small Press

A recurring theme of the column was advocacy for the small and mid-size presses keeping crime fiction's range alive. The anniversary column singled out Five Star Mystery as one of the true good guys in the business — a line that cared more about the quality of the book than its perceived commercial value, publishing worthy crime fiction that would otherwise fall between the cracks of the New York houses. The column quoted Ed Gorman on the line's origins: he had grown up reading Doubleday's Crime Club books, wanted to recreate that kind of dependable library-staple line, and took the idea to Five Star with anthologist Martin H. Greenberg. Trade coverage in outlets like Publishers Weekly would later confirm what the column argued at the time: the small presses were where much of the era's most interesting crime fiction was happening.

Recognition Across the Genre

The genre's peer awards offer another reading route. Mystery Writers of America celebrated the 80th Annual Edgar Awards on April 29, 2026, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square Hotel. The awards honored mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2025. The publication year and ceremony year are different markers; keeping them straight helps put a reading list in context.

Awards can point a reader toward a title, but the page still has to do the work. Read past the recognition and ask how the opening makes trouble, how the voice handles it, and whether the ending earns its force. That turns a prize list into a craft exercise.

The Recommendations

Every column carried reading recommendations, delivered in the zine's characteristic plain-spoken register. Among the books championed in the final stretch of the run:

• Head Games by past guest editor Craig McDonald — flagged before publication as the debut of a writer of immense talent, a call that award nominations soon vindicated.
• Dead Street by Mickey Spillane — the posthumously published crime novel, praised for losing none of the sharp prose, paranoia, toughness, and hard-hitting heroism of Spillane's prime.
• Chicago Blues, edited by Libby Fischer Hellmann — a noir-blues anthology featuring several past Hardluck contributors, arriving on the heels of the zine's own Noir Blues issue and proving, as the column put it, that great minds think alike.

Credit Where Due

The column was also where the zine thanked the people who gave it its look. Artist Jean-Pierre Jacquet received a standing debt of gratitude for the illustrations that defined Hardluck's noir aesthetic through its later years; when other commitments kept him from one issue, artist Steve Cartwright stepped in, and the column made sure readers knew it. The same went for contributors who graduated to book deals, podcast appearances, and anthology slots — Hardluck Thoughts tracked its alumni the way a neighborhood bar tracks its regulars.

The Voice

What made the column distinctive was its voice: a working writer talking shop without pretension, equally willing to celebrate a colleague's breakout and to warn readers off his own most disreputable story. It asked its readers one recurring question, in one form or another, right up to the end: do you mind sinking into a little blood and gore? The complete issue index is available here. For the column's companion pages, see the Guest Editor profiles and the history of the zine.