A RIVER RED WITH BLOOD

5 stars out of 5

There’s always a touch of the netherworld in this series, but this time, it’s more of a smack in the face. Who are Charlie Parker and his friends Louis and Angel? How are they able to see and speak with his dead daughter Jennifer, and what is she trying to tell them?

I won’t say I’m any closer to the answers to these questions after reading this, the 23^rd book in the series, but I sure did have a great time traveling through it. The story begins when Charlie, a private investigator, is asked by the attorney for Ward Vose, who’s in jail, to look into the death of Ward’s son Scott Theriault. The body of the young man, who’d been put by his parents in a school for incorrigible youth, was found near Maine’s Kennebec River. His death was determined to be an accident that happened when he ran away from the school (not for the first time). His father, though, is convinced the boy was murdered and wants Charlie to prove it. Concurrently, 19-year old Mallory Norton went missing – and by some accounts, she and Scott may have been an “item.”

A second storyline kicks in as a small group of grown men gather every three years to participate in what they call the Game – a sort of cat-and-mouse affair with serious consequences for person chosen to be the rodent. But the Game has strict rules, and it appears at least one member of the group has stepped out of line – a transgression that must be dealt with.

Of course, early on I suspected there may be some kind of connection between the young man and woman and the Game players, but if so, what is it? And over the course of the book, I learn whether or not that’s true. And no, I can’t share the details; that’s for other readers to learn just as I did. I will say it’s quite an adventure – one that, like previous books, ends with almost as many questions as answers. Overall, it’s another winner in my book – and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing another wild ride by way of a pre-release copy. Well done once again!

A River Red With Blood by John Connolly (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, June 2026); 416 pp.

MURDER BY DESIGN

5 stars out of 5

Now that I’ve chuckled my way through this book, I’m really hoping it’s the first of a series. Both characters – former LAPD detective Edison Bixby turned insurance fraud investigator and his sidekick and story narrator Wally Nash – are nothing short of a hoot. UPDATE: Just as I was starting to write this review, my hopes were confirmed by way of a Facebook post by the author saying he’s in Singapore researching the next book. Hallelujah!

Bixby, you see, was a top-notch detective, at least until he got shot in the face. While it didn’t kill him, it did kill his ability to control what comes out of his mouth; and his often rude utterings don’t tend to sit well with other people around him. He’s managed to turn his experiences into a big payday and is a multi-millionaire and really doesn’t need to work, but he’s so good at being a detective that he willingly works for the insurance company. Still, that unruly mouth needs tempering; so it is that he needs an “assistant” to smooth things over when he crosses the verbal line of social acceptability (which is rather often).

Such assistants have come and gone, but the most recent is Wally Nash, a character actor wannabe who’s looking for that big break while landing a few similar jobs in B-level (or lower) commercials. Nash isn’t quite sure how or if he’ll be able to handle Bixby’s quirkiness, but he’s willing to try – and as narrator of this story, he lays out all his experiences for readers in often hilarious detail.

The duo start with a couple “warm-up” cases in which Nash marvels at Bixby’s amazing ability to solve cases in a short time by seeing details others miss – thus solidifying his belief that he’s the right person to partner with Bixby (well, that and a few perks offered by filthy-rich Bixby). That leads to one of their biggest cases; determining whether a woman’s death in an under-construction shopping mall was an accident or something more sinister. Bixby, you see, is a proponent of the theory that architectural design is, well, kind of alive; done wrong (or correctly, depending on who did the designing and why) can be a killer. Whoa – was that what happened here?

How all that turns out is a journey filled with chuckles, at least for me (yes, I’ve got a rather quirky sense of humor) – and both Bixby and Nash complement each other perfectly in that department. This also is where I call it quits for this review – the details are not for me to reveal. All I’ll do is repeat what I said at the beginning: when the next book in this series is available, I’ll try my darndest to be the first one in line. Oh, and I’ll say a ton of thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me a few hours of delight by way of a pre-release copy.

Murder by Design by Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer, June 2026); 239 pp.

WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY

4 stars out of 5

I enjoyed this book – no doubt about it – but my feelings are mixed. The writing is almost exquisite – no doubt about that, either – but I spent way too much time, well, yawning. Simply put, no matter how important descriptions of scenery and events are to the story – and they certainly are – I’m used to mysteries and thrillers with nonstop action, and that doesn’t happen here.

As a child, Abby was found running from her farmhouse on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – a home consumed by flames. She’s picked up by a couple who know her, and she’s sent to live with relatives because her mother perished in the fire. All Abby can remember is that when she was found, she had a book of matches in her hand with a few missing.

Haunted by that memory and desperately seeking the truth (especially about that book of matches), Abby returns to her roots a decade later, in part to put her keen interest in the great outdoors to use helping her uncle, who has a grant to map and study trees and forests in a nearby area. Shortly after she returns, her best friend Brew invites her to a party and she meets an intriguing girl named Seda, whose behavior seems to range from confused to mental illness. Abby makes it her life’s work to protect Seda, keeping her fed and housed in an abandoned cabin, well away from all her friends and worrying when she disappears from time to time – and their encounters are written about in great detail.

As a reader, I, too, wondered about those matches and who really set the fire. I also wondered why, given Seda’s behavior, Abby would even want to be around her (I’d have given her the boot at her first transgression). The rest of the story leads up to learning the truth about both, mostly filled with descriptions of scenery, events and memories from an angst-filled Abby. As I said earlier, the writing is wonderful, the story itself seems to go nowhere fast, though resolution to the matches issue and Seda’s strangeness are a bit of a surprise (one totally satisfying and the other crossing a bit over the line of credibility). But overall, I must say that while it’s not an edge-of-seat chiller thriller (perhaps best read by a cozy fire with a glass of wine nearby), I definitely recommend the book and thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy.

Where the Water Meets the Sky by Diane Les Becquets (Simon & Schuster, May 2026); 320 pp.

TOM CLANCY RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

5 stars out of 5

Ever since The Hunt for Red October, I’ve been a fan of Tom Clancy books. Honestly, a couple of installments into the series, it became a bit of a chore to wade through Stephen King-length novels, so I skipped a few. Then when Clancy died in 2013, I was hesitant to try a “substitute” author just because, well, it wasn’t the original guy.

In more recent years – prompted, I admit, by shorter book lengths – I returned to the series and, happily, fell in love all over again. And as expected, this one did not disappoint – starting with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who was killed in a plane crash in Turkey under suspicious circumstances. He was returning home from a conference with a few other passengers, but it turns out one of them was a spy who’d become a U.S. asset and was being extracted by the CIA.

U.S. President Jack Ryan mourns the death of his good friend, but he’s also determined to find out what really happened and why. His daughter Katie, an accomplished Navy lieutenant commander, gets the call to head to Turkey and take a look. As she and her team begin to investigate, they learn something quite strange: although the plane’s manifest lists 16 passengers, only 15 bodies have been found. So what in the world happened to the other one?

As usual, there’s a secondary plot – this one involving a former Russian bigwig close to the Russian president who for all intents and purposes has retired. Problem is, what he’s doing now somehow seems to be more of a threat to the free world than what he did for his old boss. But what is it, exactly, and is the guy really retired or working clandestinely with his former boss?

As things progress, the action gets hot and heavy, involving the usual cast of characters that readers have come to know and love; heck, even Katie’s brother Kyle, a top programmer at a secret U.S. agency, is called in to contribute his special expertise. And for those who might be wary of being confused, the author serves up the background required to ensure that the story stands alone.

It’s no spoiler to say the super-capable Ryan family and the loyal government officers save the day in the end – with no shortage of pats on the back all-around (well, maybe not for public consumption). The devil, of course, is in the details, which other readers will just have to learn for themselves. It short, it’s another edge-of-your-seat adventure, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for sharing it with me by way of a pre-release copy. Excellent!

Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement by Ward Larsen (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, May 2026); 448 pp.

IRONWOOD

5 stars out of 5

I first met Detective Sergeant Stilwell – first name not revealed – in “Ironwood,” the first of what is now a series of two books. Despite my misgivings about that lack of name (hmmm, what is he hiding?), I took a liking to him; so when I got the chance to read the follow-up, courtesy of a pre-release review copy from NetGalley, I didn’t hesitate. That proved to be a sound decision, and now I’m looking forward to reading the next installment.

“Stil,” as he’s known, lives and works on Catalina Island; banished there by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after irritating the powers-that-be to the point that they sent him to a place where all the department “misfits” go. Most of the time, that keeps Stil out of their hair, other times, like now, the two locations get a bit tangled up. As the story begins, Stil and his troops are watching a suspicious plane land on a remote island airstrip. As a duffel bag of drugs is dropped as expected and Stil’s team advances, but then everything falls apart. The drop-off guy runs and disappears into the mountains, shots are fired from somewhere and someone catches a deadly bullet.

Despite being told by his superiors he’s off the case, Stil keeps up the investigation without their knowledge. As he digs around in his own turf, he finds a backpack still in evidence that hasn’t been claimed. Curious, he learns it belongs to a woman who went missing on the island four years ago while hiking. Not surprising in and of itself, but the backpack was recovered just two months earlier. More curiosity leads him off the island to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and (surprise!) a character familiar from another series by this author, Detective Rene Ballard. Turns out they’re something of a match made in heaven; it’s a team I hope we’ll see again soon.

The rest of the book focuses on that investigation, but Stil being Stil, he can’t back off that runway shooting case despite warnings from his superiors. Both cases get resolved, but it is the latter that brings serious ramifications for Stil and hints at the direction of the next book in the series. Can we see it soon, please? Meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to immerse myself in another enjoyable mystery by way of a pre-release copy. Another one well done!

Ironwood by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Co., May 2026); 336 pp.

THE ANNIVERSARY

5 stars out of 5

At its heart, this book has a familiar theme: two young people from entirely different lifestyles – one from the “wrong side of the tracks” and the other the quintessential prom queen. Though their lives took very different paths, both are searching for answers. Quinn Riley is trying to find out who murdered his mother years earlier. Jules Delaney is trying to learn the identity of the community’s “May Day” serial killer (so dubbed because he does his dirty deeds on May 1) and why he captured her long ago but ultimately let her live. Their stories parallel each other, complete with flashbacks, until (as readers will suspect) they come together and the two learn they have much more in common than they ever thought.

On that date back in 1992 when both were in high school Quinn’s attempt to break up a fight went awry, resulting in his being arrested and sent to prison. That same night, Jules’ situation took an awful turn as well when she was attacked by the person she assumed was the May Day killer. She was physically assaulted and released, but her attacker warned her not to speak of the incident if she wanted to keep her family safe – even though she never saw the man’s face. The two knew each other, but their lives didn’t often intersect because they came from such different backgrounds.

Years later, Quinn is released from jail hoping to dig up evidence about his mother’s unexplained death years ago, but with few other options for survival, heads for the Army recruiting office. After that, he returns home to become a private investigator – still with an eye on finding who killed his mother. Jules, meanwhile, has been sashaying her way up the runway to become a top model – one still haunted by the awful memories of that May 1 encounter. Finally, an FBI agent finds Jules and convinces her to open up about what happened to her; to her surprise, other survivors have been found as well.

The story follows a decade in their lives as both try to grapple with the awful events of their younger years, with chapters revealing how the past impacts the present, the progress of their investigations and, ultimately, how each is resolved. Overall, it’s quite an adventure – one that certainly kept me turning pages as fast as I could all the way to the end. Definitely worth reading, as are all the books I’ve read by this talented author, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Well done!

The Anniversary by Alex Finlay (Minotaur Books, May 2026); 336 pp.

JUDGE STONE

5 stars out of 5

Within minutes of starting to read this book, I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going. Within a few minutes more, though, I knew I wouldn’t want to stop till I got to the end.

Let me explain. This story takes place in the Deep South – super small town Union Springs, Alabama, in fact. Mary Stone, a Black judge – elected by voters – presides over the local county court, and there’s a trial with more than a hint of To Kill a Mockingbird flavor. Bottom line, then, is that it’s almost a given that the defendant won’t be the only victim in this case. Add the fact that it relates to a woman’s right to control her own body (Alabama, the story notes, has the “toughest abortion law in the country”), and I know from the outset that my own emotions will run strong.

No time is wasted triggering them as 13-year-old Nova Jones is brought to the local doctor’s office during off hours by her school nurse. The girl is pregnant, in pain and showing other symptoms of severe distress that could threaten her life. She begs both women to not tell her mother, who would be, let’s say, less than sympathetic. The doctor, Bria Gaines, sees no other choice than to perform a medical abortion – but given the legal consequences, no one is supposed to know about it.

But luck isn’t in Nova or Bria’s corner; soon thereafter, the first-year teenager develops serious complications from the procedure – not uncommon in girls that young – sending her to the hospital, where doctors learn she’d had an abortion and are obligated to pass that information on to the proper authorities.

Well, surprise – the case lands in front of Judge Stone, who’s got a reputation for following the law, fairness and not putting up with BS from attorneys on either side. For reasons readers will learn, though, this trial will test those qualities to their limits (and then some) as well as turn the whole town on its head and put lives at stake. In short, it’s a don’t-miss story, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy. Outstanding!

Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson (Little, Brown and Co., March 2026); 425 pp.