A River Red with Blood by John Connolly

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on June 2, 2026

Horror fiction and crime fiction are a natural fit — at least when the crimes are horrific — but I am not a great fan of supernatural explanations for evil, common through they are in the world of crime fiction. I am nevertheless a great fan of John Connolly, if only because his prose is on a higher level than most crime novelists can reach. My ambivalence about infusing a ghost story into a crime novel has never impaired my enjoyment of Connolly’s work.

Readers who follow the Charlie Parker series know that his daughter Jennifer died with her mother in 1998. Jennifer often appears to Charlie. Lately she’s been appearing to warn him of a danger from the beyond. Jennifer makes brief appearances in A River Red with Blood and a small part of the story concerns a contract for a hit on Parker that seems to have been offered by a spirit. I am pleased to report that the balance of crime fiction and supernatural/horror story tips substantially in favor of crime.

The crime that engages Parker’s interest is the murder of Scott Theriault. Scott was a seventeen-year-old student at the Spero School in the Kennebec Valley. Spero is a private school that specializes in correcting the behavior of troubled youth with strict rules and harsh discipline. Scott supposedly ran away from the school, got drunk in the woods on stolen liquor, and accidentally drowned.

Scott’s father believes his troubled son was killed. Scott’s father is in prison. Perhaps he feels guilty for not giving his son a better life, but he needs to know the truth about his son’s death. His lawyer contacts Moxie Castin, a lawyer who often hires Parker to conduct investigations. Moxie convinces Parker to talk to Scott’s father. Parker suspects Scott died an accidental death but agrees to poke around.

At about the time Scott died, a young woman named Mallory Norton disappeared. Since Mallory lives in the same part of the state, Parker suspects a connection between the two cases.

Other crimes of consequence are committed by a group of serial killers. Four men, operating in teams of two, abduct young women and take turns raping and torturing them before disposing of their bodies. They operate under strict rules, including limiting their hobby to one abduction per year, always at an untraceable location far from home. Some of the men seem to have a connection to Spero and at least one of them hasn’t adhered to the rules that keep them safe.

Connolly always tells an engaging story. The four villains are creeps but Connolly gives them complete lives, replete with the ordinariness that allows their criminal personas to go undetected. They try to victimize women whose disappearance won’t be noticed, but their lives begin to unravel when two of them kidnap the wrong woman.

Series fans will enjoy Parker’s banter with his friends Lewis and Angel, two hard men who blend sensitivity and love with loyalty and merciless judgment. While the plot is carefully constructed, I’m not sure readers who haven’t followed the series will find value in another story of serial killers that has too many predictable elements.

Fortunately, the story isn’t entirely predictable. I believe this is the first novel I’ve read that imagines a ghost hiring a hitman. Still, I was underwhelmed by the novel’s ending as Parker and his friends decide to confront the supernatural being that wants them all dead.

As a Connolly fan, I recommend the novel to other Connolly fans. To crime fiction fans who haven’t followed Connolly, I recommend starting at the beginning and working your way through the series. A River Red with Blood isn’t the best Charlie Parker novel, but a familiarity with the characters will likely enhance appreciation of Parker’s latest brush with violent criminals and supernatural entities.

RECOMMENDED

The Brothers McKay by Craig Johnson

Published by Viking on May 26, 2026

It’s been a minute since I read a Walt Longmire novel. Longmire seems to have gotten into trouble with some Russians. An old friend of Longmire named Ruth One Heart is being held captive in Russia. A Russian named Maxim Sidorov who once tried to kill Longmire might now help him rescue Ruth. That subplot would have meant more to me if I had kept up with the series, but it has little to do with the plot that drives the story. That’s fortunate for me and for readers who want to enjoy The Brothers McKay as a standalone.

The main plot is a murder mystery. Longmire’s undersheriff explains the difference between a murder mystery and a thriller. In a murder mystery, the obvious killer is the last person the reader would suspect. In a thriller, “we’d know who it was in chapter two and then have five-hundred pages of chase.” Craig Johnson adds some thrills as the story nears its climax but substitutes a forest fire for a chase.

Pepper McKay is found dead in a river where was fishing. He got drunk for breakfast and may have slipped and hit his head on a rock but an extra set of footprints in the river suggests that someone might have clobbered him. Since everyone hated McKay, the list of suspects is long. The list begins with his biological sons — David, Ian, and Alan — and a young man named Manx Henenoka, who (rumor has it) is his illegitimate son.

Pepper owned a ranch where Manx is the head wrangler. David is the son of Pepper’s first wife and has already squandered his mother’s inheritance on gambling and women (like father, like son). Ian is a journalist and Alan is a monk at Wyoming’s Saint Benedict Monastery. Shortly before Pepper died, Pepper and his sons had a family meeting that didn’t go well. All the kids are accordingly suspects.

Pepper and David were both sleeping with Paetra Agirra, as were some other men. She was sneaking in and out of the house regularly and might have been there on the morning of Pepper’s death, so she is among the suspects. Paetra’s uncle, a notable Wyoming thug named Boris, made the suspect list by repeatedly threatening to kill Pepper for shagging his niece.

Other suspects include ranch foreman Gary Lyman and his wife Lynn, who were largely responsible for raising Manx; David’s fiancée (or possibly ex) Katherine Verkhov; Michael Rakin, a novice at the monastery who, together with Elder Zebrowski and abbot deputy Brian Schiffer, was visiting Alan; Bob Erlichman, who resented Pepper’s interference with his planned wind farm; and “neighbors in all directions” who had their own Wyoming-style reasons for wanting Pepper dead.

The title is an allusion to The Brothers Karamazov, a book that characters in The Brothers McKay discuss at some length. The murder mystery in Dostoevsky’s novel is unsolved (characters speculate about the reveal Dostoevsky would have penned if he had lived long enough to turn the novel into trilogy), so familiarity with the Russian masterpiece won’t provide much of a clue to Longmire’s mystery.

A reader might as well throw darts at the novel and hope one lands on the murderer, but Craig Johnson plants real and false clues, giving the reader at least some chance of guessing the reveal. I give Johnson enormous credit for crafting a credible mystery, which is something of a lost art in the modern world of crime novels and their endless chase scenes.

Longmire gets an assist from his friend and series regular Henry Standing Bear and Sidorov helps Longmire get a handle on The Brothers Karamazov. Both are interesting characters, but the star of the show is a mule named Borax.

The novel creates palpable tension as it nears the end. Longmire is surrounded by a wildfire but, in heroic fashion, tries to save a character who seems intent on committing suicide by fire. For some time, it’s an open question whether Longmire will save the stubborn Borax or whether Borax will save him.

Longmire novels are always impressive. Johnson keeps the story moving at a steady clip, creates amusing characters, surrounds them with authentic atmosphere (a smoke-filled atmosphere in this novel), and avoids the nonsense that permeates Wyoming politics. The result is a strong entry in a series that rarely disappoints.

RECOMMENDED

Happy Memorial Day!

Ghalen by Walter Mosley

Published by Amistad on May 26, 2026

Walter Mosley is on my laminated list of America's three best crime novelists. Ghalen isn’t a crime novel, but Mosley brings the same sense of time and place, deep characterization, and storytelling ability to this coming-of-age story. Mosley is not just one of America’s best crime novelists; he’s one of the country’s best writers.

The story begins when Jamilah Fenestra meets Robert Horton at a farmer’s market in Santa Monica. Jamilah is studying for a PhD and an M.D. Robert works in a vegan restaurant and aspires to own a restaurant that serves healing foods. Robert explains that his mother has been in the crazy house since shooting a boyfriend. Robert’s “mother wasn’t even sure of who his father was. It was between two guys named William and one named Talib.” Jamilah and Robert are obviously from different worlds, but Robert — who has no problem finding women who want to shag — is drawn to Jamilah because she makes him feel brave.

Jamilah and Robert fall in love and seem to have an ideal relationship, but Jamilah’s mother Pristine instantly dislikes Robert. Because he is slow and deliberate when he answers her questions, she describes him using the R-word.

The extent to which Robert is developmentally disabled is unclear. He thrives in a familiar routine but doesn’t cope well with anything new. He didn’t excel in school because “I can’t know something unless I see it. I have to see and touch things in order to learn ’em.”

Jamilah sees beyond Robert’s limitations. She loves him for his decency and for how he makes her feel. She admires his ability to see the world as it is rather than seeing what he wants to see. “She had accepted him for what he was before she even knew what he was.” It doesn’t hurt that Robert is exceptionally good in the sack.

The first quarter of the novel develops an unusual and exceptionally moving love story, but it is not a story that is free from pain. Unlike Jamilah, Pristine is never willing to accept Robert. After Jamilah becomes pregnant and marries Robert, Pristine announces that she wants Jamilah “out of my house, out of my life, out of my will, out of everything.”

Robert and Jamilah name their son Ghalen Romeo Horton. The rest of the novel follows Ghalen’s life through his late teens. Although Ghalen is an excellent student, he finds himself playing the role of primary caregiver for his father during much of his young life. When others disparage his father’s lack of intelligence, Ghalen retorts that he’s “smarter than most people when it comes to what’s right and what’s not right.” That might be the most important form of intelligence, one that too many "smart" people lack.

The family drama is altered by the arrival of Night Farr, Ghalen’s grandfather on his mother’s side. The family thought that Night died in the Vietnam War, but Night made a simple life for himself in Vietnam before returning to America. He stayed with a young Vietnamese woman because “it felt like the first time ever that somebody didn’t treat me like a empty bag of rice.” The importance of treating people with respect and of feeling respected is a theme in many of Mosley’s novels.

The story includes moments that will be familiar to Mosley’s fans, including a pivotal scene in which Robert sustains a head injury after being tackled by the police because he’s walking to work through a white neighborhood at three in the morning. Robert easily loses focus after his brain is injured, reinforcing Ghalen’s commitment to caring for his father.

Ghalen experiences the usual conflicts that kids endure as they grow up, although his teenage sex life might be healthier than most. He’s long had a thing for his childhood friend Lovely but gets in trouble with his childhood friend Bruno when Lovely becomes Bruno’s girlfriend. An encounter with Bruno leaves Ghalen with a brain injury of his own. The injury makes him prone to moments of darkness and a rage that he struggles to control.

Freedom is one of the novel’s strongest themes. Freedom from captivity imposed by others and by ourselves. “I guess it always seems like you’re locked in somewhere,” Ghalen says — a job or a schedule or a prison cell. When we’re locked into a relationship or responsibilities that we can’t shirk, we need to understand that we have the freedom to love and that choosing love represents freedom’s embrace, not its surrender.

Another theme is the duality of human nature. Head injuries might unlock the impulse to commit violent acts but only because the potential for violence is there to unlock. People blend good and evil in their lives. They might not recognize their own evil. Those who do may struggle to overcome it, but they are really working to overcome bad parenting, the hardships of poverty, trauma, or other forces that shaped their lives in ways they aren’t equipped to understand.

The subculture of the street is another theme that will be familiar to Mosley’s fans. As Robert explains, “when the street gets ahold’a you it just, it just twists you up inside till your heart is all strangled up with your gut.”

The harm caused by judging people we don’t know might be the story’s most powerful theme. Mosley usually illustrates that harm in the context of racial stereotypes, but Ghalen explores the evil of seeing others as “simple” — of using the R-word to describe them — despite their ability to enrich the world with their love.

The story takes a dark turn but has a hopeful ending. Like all lives, Ghalen’s might go in many directions, depending on the choices he makes. He needs to get a handle on his unpredictable impulses toward violence. But Ghalen has the support of caring friends and family (if you don’t count Pristine). He learns the importance of making his own choices, of pursuing an education on his own terms and in his own time, rather than “getting a degree that is there to make you seem like everybody else. It’s a fancy way of learning how to do what people tell you to do.” The path Ghalen will eventually choose is unclear (the novel ends before he reaches adulthood), but Mosley makes clear that children can be empowered to overcome hardship when they are raised with love.

RECOMMENDED

Storm Warning by James Byrne

Published by Minotaur Books on May 26, 2026

Storm Warning is the newest entry in the Dez Limerick series. I’m a fan. Most fictional tough guys engage in tough talk before they use their superheroic toughness to beat up or shoot their adversaries — including anyone who doesn’t adhere to their sense of proper behavior. Dez is tough, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He laughs, smiles, jokes, and has a sunny disposition. He jests with the people who want him dead. He spares lives that other tough guy thriller heroes would take. He’s driven by love and a connection to the human race rather than malice or a hatred of anyone defined as the enemy. He’s also considerably brighter than the average tough guy, but he doesn’t flaunt his intelligence. What’s not to like?

Dez is particularly talented in opening doors, a skill he acquired while training as a “gatekeeper” in the military. He’s invited to contribute his skills to a group that includes Trisha Jean Jackson, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department, and Rusty Townsend, Trisha’s Secret Service bodyguard, as well as an FBI hostage rescue team.

The rescuers are traveling to the Fuchs Underground Neutrino Collector in a remote part of Canada. The Neutrino Collector is on the deepest level of the underground facility. Three of the top four levels are devoted to a “green” mining operation, but the miners are on strike and have gone elsewhere until the dispute is resolved. The scientists at the facility work on the top and bottom levels. They’ve been out of contact for some time, having apparently turned off their means of communication.

The authorities need Dez to help them enter the facility if the uncommunicative scientists are unable to open the door. Dez is in a casual relationship with more than one woman, including Petra Alexandris, the CEO of Triton Industries, a company that is financing the mining operation. Dez accepts the invitation when he learns that Petra is behind the closed door.

The story starts about eighteen months earlier, when Dez thwarts an assassination attempt in Paris. One of the assassins is a small woman named Ash. She’s helpless after taking a blow to the head before Dez confronts her. He disarms her but allows her to live because she’s not a threat to him. Ash understands that Dez is a killer but needs to think about his ability to choose not to kill. Maybe he can teach her something.

Posing as Elisabet LeCroix, a representative of Canada’s National Research Council, Ash joins the rescue team. She has changed her hair and is no longer covered in dust as she was when Dez saw her in Paris so he doesn’t recognize her. Why an assassin is being sent to the Neutrino Collector isn’t immediately clear to the reader.

Before leaving for the facility, a group of thugs try to bribe and then bully Dez to smuggle them onto the plane. When that plan fails, Dez is on his way to the frozen tundra in a plane carrying Trisha, Rusty, and Ash. A storm prevents the plane carrying the hostage rescue team from joining them.

Some occupants of the town in which the facility is located have been killed and the survivors believe that Russians are responsible. Dez soon discovers that not all the townspeople are who they appear to be. The organization that provided the thugs appropriates a plane and chases after Dez with the intent to kill everyone and be the first into the facility.

With that setup, Dez embarks on a typical Dez Limerick adventure. He opens doors, improvises bombs, outfights larger men, cracks jokes, screws Petra, and generally has a good time. He will, of course, eventually realize that Ash is also not who she appears to be.

The story is fun and surprising. Why have the scientists gone silent? What are the bad guys trying to acquire? Are the competing sets of bad guys pursuing the same goal? The novel delivers its biggest surprise well into the second half. Dez responds to it by saying, ““Hand t’god: That, I did not see comin’.” That makes two of us.

James Byrne makes the arctic setting seem authentic. While the action scenes are familiar, Byrne frames them in ways that make them seem fresh. The story’s pace contributes to its excitement, but Byrne takes time to develop Ash and the story’s villains in satisfactory depth. Every Dez Limerick novel has been a joy to read. Storm Warning is no exception.

RECOMMENDED