"Rick Ollerman's detailed critical essays, written about both modern and classic crime writers, have an electric-charged verve so brilliant the modern reader is compelled to develop a new understanding, a new appreciation, even a new witnessing of the writers and their most important and influential works. The context is always truthful to the era of creation, but it is fully developed with a modern understanding that brings new revelation to seemingly old topics. Which is a hard way of saying, Mr. Ollerman writes about crime fiction and its crafters brilliantly."--Benjamin Boulden, critic/essayist

"There are few people, if any, who know as much about the noir genre as Rick Ollerman. It is a deep and convincing knowledge that is always expressed in the brilliant essays he pens. I've had the pleasure of sharing email exchanges that are almost as brilliant, but what Rick puts to paper is nothing short of the best kind of writing (i.e., educational and entertaining)."--Charlie Stella, author