As I’m editing and rewriting the fourth book in my Hollywood Mystery series I am also reading my usual four or five books a month. But when I’m working on one of my books I’m a lot more discriminate in what authors I read. Right now I’m reading the mystery thriller Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz. He is arguably far and away the most skilled writer of murder, mayhem, and action than any other writer. His writing is so good that he shames me into searching my manuscript for better ways of describing my characters, to dig deeper into why they he have as they do, to eliminate cliches, to be more clever in my dialogue, and make certain the structure of the mystery holds together. Mystery and detective writing is difficult. Loose ends have to be covered, clues, not too obvious, must be given to the reader, the unexpected needs to explode on the scene from time to time. No one does any of that better than Gregg Hurwitz. He is the master. I read him to learn to be a better writer, and to enjoy.