Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: London Station: A Novel by David McCloskey

 

The fifth book about CIA agent Artemis Aphrodite Procter, London Station (Norton, September 2026) by David McCloskey is plainly inspired by recent events in the United States. There’s a new president in the White House, who it was rumored intended to lower the boom on the CIA. His pick for CIA director was an unconventional one. Bobby Jerome started a home building company with three employees and now it has more than 15,000 personnel. He has vowed to bring a business perspective to the running of the agency, despite his complete lack of knowledge or experience in the field, and reduce the budget which he considered bloated. To do so, he brought several of the senior managers of his corporation to fill the upper level slots, all as clueless as he is.

One of Jerome’s first acts is to examine how much money the CIA is spending to support its fellow agencies in other countries and sees the balance is heavily weighted on the U.S. side. He unfortunately decides to withdraw support from the British Secret Intelligence Service to better balance the relationship financially, leaving some of their agents dead as a result. The SIS is in an uproar and, after Jerome offends the chief of SIS in a meeting, he fires the CIA’s head of London Station because he is too supportive of the British. In his place Jerome appoints Artemis, despite her disinterest, and tells her she is in charge of rebalancing the relationship.

Artemis is an espionage agent to the core and she knows that all intelligence agencies work together to assess threat and defend against it. After a few more demented instructions from Jerome and his buddies, she decides she has to find a way to aggressively protect the U.S.-British relationship and its agents while she protects herself.

In the meantime the abruptly terminated former head of London Station, whose pension is being threatened by Jerome, has gone to work for a private intelligence agency run by an eccentric billionaire for a purpose as yet unclear. The former CIA chief of station still has an active Rolodex and he can draw on internal sources to help him in his new work.

Artemis has her work cut out for her in this galloping story of boots-on-the-ground tradecraft and political maneuvers punctuated with wisecracks. One of Jerome’s henchmen annoys her so severely she establishes a swear jar every time she’s tempted to smack him. By the time the book ends, she’s graduated to a large wastebasket that is overflowing with cash. McCloskey’s background in the agency and his first-hand knowledge of the work show in every scene. A very good read. Especially for fans of espionage thrillers.

 

 

·         Publisher‏: W. W. Norton & Company

·         Publication date:‎ September 29, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎432 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1324123214

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1324123217

 

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Scholars by MacKenzie Common

 

The Scholars (Headline, September 2026) by Canadian author MacKenzie Common is a dark academic mystery set in Oxford. Unlike any other academic mystery I have read, I don’t know quite what to think of it.

Every year five outstanding candidates from Britain, the Commonwealth, and the United States are selected to become the year’s Shepherd Scholars. The notable program was endowed by a Victorian plantation owner who made his fortune in India. He was a graduate of Frideswide College, one of the oldest colleges at Oxford, which hosts the students during their stay. They each receive a full scholarship for postgraduate study at Oxford, and they are expected to use their experience to accomplish great things on the world stage, as their predecessors have done.

In 2024 the five included a young woman with a large social media following and who is constantly recording content, a young man who is developing an artificial intelligence program to provide instantly available grief counseling, a young woman who has established humanitarian projects in India, a Yale graduate studying mass violence and its origins, and the son of the current Minister of Higher Education who was working in Asian Studies.

All of their backgrounds were impressive on paper but a little research showed none of them were exactly who or what they claimed to be. The research unfortunately was not conducted until after one of their number fell five stories from the Frideswide College roof. The police and the university preferred to believe the death was an accident but rumors quickly swirled around campus and on social media that the victim had been pushed.

Told from the perspectives of each of the five students, all of whom are unreliable narrators, the story describes the anxiety of continuing to work under the load of suspicion and outright anger from the university populace and the accusations from social media. Their attempts to cope with the public revelations about their pasts take them away from the work at hand and prove to be deeply distracting. The credibility of these prestigious award programs is also questioned.

Oxford is omnipresent. Its authority, history, and architecture are gloriously portrayed. The usefulness and the dangers of social media are also strongly shown. The ending is unexpected and leaves a number of questions unanswered. Fans of noir will enjoy this book. Academic mystery lovers may not like it as much.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Headline

·         Publication date: ‎September 24, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎352 pages

·         ISBN-13: 9781035426140

 

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night. 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: A Murmuration of Starlings: A Birder Murder Mystery by Steve Burrows

A Murmuration of Starlings (Durndurn Press, September 2026) is the tenth book in the Birder Murder Mysteries by Canadian Steve Burrows. The first title, A Siege of Bitterns, won the Crime Writers of Canada award for Best First Novel and was selected as one of the Globe & Mail’s top 100 books of the year. Burrows has pursued his birdwatching interest on eight continents so far and has published articles on travel and environmental issues around the world.

In this newest story with a multi-layered approach Detective Chief Inspector Dominic Jejeune visits a former superior, Detective Chief Superintendent Colleen Shepherd, now in the Australian outback, to discuss his future career and becomes enmeshed in the kidnapping and death of the Environmental Compliance Officer of a large mining firm. Meanwhile his team back in Norfolk has the sudden death of the CEO of the largest lithium battery production facility in the country to investigate. It could have been an accident but the timing was entirely too convenient for some people not to suspect foul play.

Relationships are in high focus in this story, both personal and professional, and the outcome of both cases lead to major turning points for several of the characters. What is even more prominent is the discussion of present-day Australian environmental concerns, their history, current impact, and possible solutions. An aboriginal elder adds a strand of mysticism to the narrative. The descriptions of the Australian landscape, the animals, and of course the birds are wonderful and make the book worth reading for the travelogue alone.

Usually I have no trouble collecting enough back story to understand the context of a mid-series title but just identifying the location of action, Norfolk or Australia, wasn’t always clear in this book. This is not the right place to start the series. Environmentalists and nature lovers will likely already know this author, but if not, they definitely should. Police procedural fans will enjoy the complex plot and the careful work of both the Norfolk and the Australian investigation teams to unravel the mystery. Recommended. 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Dundurn Press

·         Publication date: ‎September 22, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎360 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1459756592

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1459756595

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Songs of Saigon by Ed Teja

 

Ed Teja is a versatile guy. In his own words, he has been a magazine writer and editor in several countries. He lived for years as a Caribbean boat bum and blues musician. He is a member of The Short Mystery Fiction Society, was a finalist for the Shamus Award for short PI fiction in 2025, and his stories appear frequently in magazines and anthologies.

His newest book is an appealing historical crime thriller with an unusual setting. Most World War II thrillers focus on the European front although the very good Secret War of Julia Child by Diana Chambers (2024) looks at Child’s work for the OSS in China, India, and Ceylon. Teja sets his story in 1943 Vietnam, where the collaborationist Vichy French government co-managed with Japan, which had overrun Southeast Asia by spring 1942.

Cole Miller joined the small OSS office in Saigon about a year ago. Their assignment is to destabilize Japan’s hold on the region wherever and however they can while going through the motions of a shipping business. Miller is delivering arms to a group of Vietnamese insurgents in the jungle when the book opens. The Japanese ambushed them, killing a number of the rebels and leaving Miller to wonder who had betrayed them. When he returns to Saigon, his boss Major Fred Olson tells him via a note left at his hotel to meet him at their usual café. When Miller reports as scheduled, a group of snipers sprays the cafe with bullets and Olson’s body is found among the victims. It’s clear to investigators that Olson was dead before the café shooting. A local member of the Vichy France government who dislikes Miller pushes the police to arrest him. Miller has two jobs, to find who actually did kill Olson and to identify the traitor who is feeding information about OSS activities to the Japanese.

While the plot is straightforward enough, the setting is anything but. Vietnam with its significant natural resources was a valuable asset to both sides of the war, creating a complex political tug-of-war over a small nation about the size of New Mexico. Vietnam was a French colony before the war and the French intended to maintain its control after the war ended. In the meantime Japan had asserted dominion over the entire region. The Free French were also present, trying to dislodge the Vichy collaborationists. The Allies had established a presence via U.S. and Great Britain intelligence groups, working to undermine the Japanese. Behind the scenes Ho Chi Minh had established the Communist party in Vietnam, tapping into the great desire of the Vietnamese people for freedom from external rule. In short the country was seething with political tensions and barely contained hostility, creating a powder keg with a very short fuse.

I found the time and the place as described fascinating. The Vietnamese people were hard-working, resourceful, and far more intelligent than invading forces believed. It is easy to see why and how the armed conflict in the country during the 1950s and 1960s broke out. Miller is a credible character with series potential; it will be interesting to see if Teja brings him back.

Readers who enjoy modern historical crime fiction, especially World War II and espionage fans, will want to add this book to their TBR stacks. Recommended.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Float Street Press

·         Publication date: ‎September 1, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎318 pages

·         ISBN-13: ‎979-8994688823

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Ninth Circle: A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery by James R. Benn

The 21^st appearance of Billy Boyle is scheduled for 1 September 2026. How is it possible this series has trundled along for 21 books? A book a year consistently since the introduction of Billy and his colleagues in 2006. With publishers dropping outstanding authors and wonderful series right, left, and center, James Benn continues to turn out solidly researched, strongly plotted, and beautifully written historical crime fiction and wonder of wonders, Soho Press stands back and lets him do it! Readers everywhere owe Soho their gratitude.

The Ninth Circle (Soho, September 2026) is the latest outing of Billy, part of a large Boston cop family and cousin by marriage to General Eisenhower. Only months before Germany surrenders, Billy and his sidekick Lieutenant Piotr Kazimierz go to Havana where ostensibly Billy is to liaison with the Cuban Army and Piotr is a business man seeking to establish himself in the busy capital city. Really they are to investigate the death of Lieutenant Commander Hugh Sinclair of the Royal Navy, who was shot while outside drinking his morning coffee. Someone is suspicious of them even with the plausible cover stories, as within days of their arrival a bomb is set off in a bar where they are waiting for an informant. While they escape, their informant is not so lucky, turning their job into a double homicide investigation.

Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, crime boss Meyer Lansky, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor all appear in the story, as do increasingly desperate German spies. Fleming is anxious to capture one of the new German U-boats before the Russians can, conscious of the respect he would earn by doing so. Lansky has established a popular and profitable casino in Havana and has targeted Bermuda as a potential extension of operations, even though gambling is illegal there. The Duke was appointed governor of Bermuda during the war, where he and the Duchess were relatively safe.

Billy ends up working with the local thugs and Lansky himself before the homicides are resolved. Lansky assures him that he is as committed to the Allies as anyone and demonstrates that loyalty, even as he maneuvers to expand his gambling empire. Billy isn’t sure if Fleming is help or hindrance at first; he turns out to be a bit of both.

The Havana setting and its people are vividly described with historical details worked invisibly into the narrative. Faultless research, I always appreciate the author’s notes at the end. Another very good entry in the series. Historical crime fiction fans will want to add this title to their reading lists. Recommended.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Soho Crime

·         Publication date: ‎September 1, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎400 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1641297484

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1641297486

 

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Deception: A Joseph Gunner Thriller by Alan Parks

Deception (Pegasus Crime, 1 September 2026) by Alan Parks is the second book in the World War II thriller series about Joseph Gunner, late of the Glasgow police, seriously wounded on the front lines in France in the early days of the war. This story shifts location from Glasgow to New York during the week leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

At the end of the first book Gunner meets Nickerson, part of the espionage machine in the UK. Knowing his injuries are severe enough to confine his police work to a desk, Gunner accepted a job working for Nickerson to undermine the America First movement and to sway public opinion toward entering the war. A similar publicity campaign by German sympathizers seeks to reinforce isolationism, doing their best to keep the sleeping U.S. giant out of Europe.

Gunner and Nickerson are not above blackmail to achieve their aims. The opening chapter finds Gunner sending a beautiful young woman to maneuver a young Joe Kennedy into a hotel room, where a photographer can take compromising photographs. It works, Kennedy is willing to do anything to keep his father from seeing photos that might damage the senior Kennedy’s plans for his son. A day or two later, the young woman’s body is found in the river. Her death is ruled an accident but Gunner is convinced it was murder. He works an investigation into his duties.

Beside the Kennedys, Charles Lindbergh, jazz musician Charlie Parker, and Arthur Fellig, known for his photographs of New York City and crime scenes are among the real people who appear in the book.

While Nickerson meets with ambassadors and other diplomats to persuade them toward war and Gunner plants overly positive stories in the U.S. newspapers, they learn that a highly placed German spy has arrived in New York to sow dissension and plant a few bombs. They begin searching for him before he can do much damage.

The book is aptly named. Few of the people are who they say they are. Some change sides as they find it convenient. Gunner does not know who he can trust including Nickerson, with whom Gunner has an uneasy relationship. Nickerson comes from an elite social circle and Gunner has caught him in more than one untruth. But he knows there is nothing for him in Glasgow, so he stays with Nickerson out of financial necessity.

I am a huge fan of anything Alan Parks writes and Deception is not an exception. A complicated and fascinating and likely realistic portrayal of activities in the last days before the U.S. entered the war. For another look at the activities of the pro-war faction in the U.S. after Germany invaded Poland and before Pearl Harbor, see The Wealth of Shadows (Random House, 2024) by Graham Moore.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Pegasus Crime

·         Publication date: ‎September 1, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎352 pages

·         ISBN-13: ‎979-8897101566

 

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Not a Word: A Novel by Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay’s newest domestic thriller will be released by Morrow on 25 August in the U.S. and in September in the U.K. It takes place in an upscale suburb west of Toronto, where Reece Chartwell decided to visit his parents and talk to his father Brent about possible career options. His job with the news division of a Canadian television network recently ended as part of a major reduction in force, and Reece does not know what his next role might look like. He did not expect find his parents dead in bed with a gun on the floor near his father and blood everywhere. While he knew his parents had developed separate interests over the years, Reece never dreamed one or the other was this unhappy. He is understandably shocked beyond words.

What initially seemed to the investigating detective to be a straightforward murder-suicide began to look a bit odd as she collected more details at the scene. When she asked more questions about the victims, their relationships, and their history, Brent Chartwell’s long-ago association with a large pharma corporation began to assume more importance.

The story flips back and forth in time from the present to some twenty years earlier when Chartwell was working for Wiffel-Smith, producer of a controversial opioid. Barclay often incorporates tense family dynamics in his books, exploring the different ways individual members of a family experience the impact of a crime. Here, as in Trust Your Eyes (2012), two brothers growing up in the same house have turned out to be very different people in maturity, and they find they need to redefine and re-negotiate their relationship after the death of their parents.

There is no shortage of plot twists here. This is Barclay’s 29^th book. His ability to structure a fast-moving story with suspense and create deeply human characters is outstanding. Barclay’s fans will not be disappointed. Readers new to his work will find this book a good place to start. An absorbing read for anyone looking for a new thriller.

 

·         Publisher: ‎William Morrow

·         Publication date: ‎August 25, 2026

·         Language: English

·         Print length: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0063276380

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0063276383

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Freight: A Novel by Ryan Lowell

  

Ryan Lowell worked in the trucking industry for more than 10 years and he turned to his knowledge of the work and the people for the context of his debut novel. Freight (Little, Brown, August 2026) is a dynamic piece of noir, set in an anonymous Maine long distance trucking company and told from the perspective of multiple employees. Lowell doesn’t believe in back story, the reader is plunged headlong into the life of Billy Trask, an amoral piece of work always on the make. He complains early that the lady who’d cut his hair for 16 years had selfishly died and left him to the mercies of someone he doesn’t like. Trask has decided moving illicit drugs by the box isn’t generating income fast enough and plans to steal a truck full of pills from a Canadian pharmaceutical company. He enlists the assistance of another truck driver named Jimmy, who simply follows Trask without questioning.

Curtis, the night shift dispatcher, is juggling his job responsibilities just barely well enough to keep his paycheck. Curtis wants to be a writer and tries to crank out a few pages at night when things are quiet but they rarely are. Phil is broke and bitter after a divorce and is driving to stay busy. Theo is having an affair and hopes his wife Lauren doesn’t find out. He takes Sarah along with him on his trip, against company policy, and he hopes the company doesn’t find out. Sarah is her own kind of crazy which is well concealed until she’s backed into a corner. People underestimate Sarah at their peril. Sarah does not tell anyone she will be away for a few days when she leaves with Theo, and her family and coworkers search for her frantically, believing she is in danger.

The quick changes of speakers and perspectives give the overall narrative a scattered feeling. They also offer fascinating insight into the logistics that move our consumables from factory to distributor. With a riveting theft that seems all too realistic, this original debut is a thought-provoking read.

·         Publisher: ‎Little, Brown and Company

·         Publication date: ‎August 11, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎224 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0316596515

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0316596510

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Amateur: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian

The Amateur (Doubleday, 4 August 2026) is the latest crackerjack thriller from critically acclaimed author Chris Bohjalian. Set in the 1970s in the posh suburb of Tallmadge in Westchester County, New York, where everyone who is anyone is a member of the country club, the story is a memoir told by Mira Winston in later life and with the benefit of considerable hindsight.

Mira fell in love with the game of golf as a tween and became notably proficient, practicing relentlessly and working with a coach to the point she’s won a few regional tournaments. Now upon graduation from high school she’s been promised a place on the golf team at Yale, where she expects to begin classes in a month. On an ordinary summer day she’s at the club, driving golf balls into the practice net one after another. The net breaks with the force of her swing and the sphere weighing an ounce and a half becomes a lethal weapon as it strikes the temple of one of the high school students working as a caddy that day.

At first the practice net seemed to be faulty, and the manufacturer was the focus of attention, then upon closer investigation Mira took the brunt of the blame, as a secret affair with a married man 30 years older was made public and some of her impulsive acts from the past were spun as indicators of instability and viciousness. The entire town turned against her; she eventually was charged with involuntary manslaughter. While she waited for trial, she was targeted in every way possible by acquaintances and neighbors. The stress of false accusations and societal disapproval hit the heretofore privileged teenager like an anvil falling from the sky.

A strikingly good book, with complex characterizations, a carefully layered plot, and a flawless duplication of the 1970s social code. Mira was subjected to societal censure that from the vantage point of 2026 belonged somewhere else and it is agonizing to read. Along with toxic social issues, the mechanics surrounding the failure of the net was examined from all aspects. Considering the damages likely to be awarded the dead boy’s family in a civil lawsuit, the manufacturer, the country club, and Mira’s family all pointed at each other. The real cause of failure was a last-minute surprise I should have seen coming but of course I didn’t.

Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. A riveting read, highly recommended!

 

·         Publisher: ‎Doubleday

·         Publication date: ‎August 4, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎336 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0385551290

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0385551298

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Deadly Odds 9.0 by Allen Wyler

Allen Wyler is a retired neurosurgeon who lives in Seattle. He’s taken up writing thrillers as a second career, first publishing seven medical thrillers and then using the technology-rich environment of Seattle as the basis for the Deadly Odds series about a reformed computer hacker named Arnold Gold. Three titles in the series have been finalists for Best Thriller awards, www.bestthrillers.com. The ninth book Deadly Odds 9.0 was released in mid-July.

Gold has established a strong reputation as a trusted IT security specialist for the most sensitive of systems. He and his small team are booked for weeks to come, often for security testing of crucial networks and data centers. The most challenging of this kind of testing is to determine how easy the network in question is to break into, both digitally and physically, and to formulate recommendations for strengthening the system’s defenses. In the background the artificial intelligence network Gold developed privately is always working, monitoring financial markets and assessing political threats.

A terrorist cell Gold helped take down years ago has revitalized. Its members have learned about Gold’s powerful AI tool and they are determined to acquire it as well as take revenge against Gold himself. Gold juggles the workload of his company to maintain its public status while collecting data on the terrorist organization to hand off to law enforcement and bolstering his AI network against theft. The latter includes dismantling his back-up network in Hawaii and shipping it to Seattle for establishment in a safe location.

A fast-moving techno-thriller with geopolitical overtones. The story is replete with technological references, as should be expected, with concise explanations of more obscure aspects that are worked smoothly into the narrative flow. The occasional references to character ethnicity, although within the context of terrorism, can be jarring. Readers who enjoy political thrillers or technology-driven plots will want to consider this series for their reading lists. In particular fans of the Monkeewrench novels, 11 books about another group of technology gurus set in Minneapolis by P. J. Tracy, will want to look at these stories.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Stairway Press

·         Publication date: ‎July 14, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎264 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1960405713

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1960405715

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Haul: A Heist Novel by Gary Phillips

 

Los Angeles native Gary Phillips has been called the hardest-working man in crime fiction. He has written novels, comics, novellas, and short stories. He’s been a contributing columnist to the Los Angeles Times, LA Watts Times, Rap Pages, the San Francisco Examiner, CrimeReads, and Black Scholar. He edited the Anthony-winning anthology The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Almost thirty years after its publication, his debut, Violent Spring (West Coast Crime, 1994), his first book about PI Ivan Monk set in the aftermath of the 1992 riots, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer and co-producer on Snowfall, a show that streamed on Hulu for 60 episodes. Taking place mostly in the 1980s, it describes the first crack epidemic in Los Angeles and its impact, particularly in South Central where Phillips grew up.

Phillips generally takes his readers to Los Angeles in mid to late 20^th century with its uncontrolled growth and social upheaval. I can always count on seeing references to the LA music scene, some of the performers who made the national stage I recognize but others are unknown to me because they remained local gems. Some of the same places and events emerge often in his work, which reminds me of the fiction of Rabbi Chaim Potok whose Depression-era childhood consistently appears in his early novels.

In The Haul (Soho, July 2026), the newest book from Phillips, O’Conner, the professional thief who first appeared in The Warlord of Willow Ridge (Dafina Books, 2012) is back, settled into a quiet middle-class life with Gwen who knows his criminal past and doesn’t particularly object. He thinks he’s retired and then someone asks him to plan the theft of several million dollars from an unscrupulous tech bro who can spare it. In his methodical planning and scheduling O’Conner reminded me of mercenary Cat Shannon as he prepared to take over a third-world country in The Dogs of War (Hutchinson & Co., 1974) by Frederick Forsyth.

With flashbacks to O’Conner’s childhood on the streets of LA, it’s easy to see how the adult O’Conner took shape. Of course plenty of mentions of LA night clubs and jazz performers sprinkled throughout the pages. There’s even a quick, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Harry Ingram from One-Shot Harry, Phillips’ historical crime story published in 2022 and its sequel Ash Dark as Night, (Soho, 2024).

In the afterword Phillips gives credit to Donald Westlake and Westlake’s professional thief Parker for the inspiration for this suspense-filled takedown of an apparently impenetrable facility with a sizable payday at the end. I always loved the Parker books so of course I enjoyed this one.

A Los Angeles Times Best Summer Read and a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

·         Publisher: ‎Soho Crime

·         Publication date: ‎July 14, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎304 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎164129664X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1641296649

 

 

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: McKenna's Guy by Mike Lawson

 

Mike Lawson is a consistently good author whom I wish were better known. His stories have been shortlisted for Edgar, Barry, and Shamus awards. His political thrillers with unofficial fixer Joe DeMarco skewers the Washington establishment thoroughly while giving his resourceful hero yet one more problem to solve. Lawson branches out into a stand-alone in his newest book, McKenna’s Guy, scheduled for release by Blackstone in early July 2026.

Roger Smith is a retirement age widower living quietly in a modest neighborhood in Washington, DC. He is closing in on a pension from his civil service job, the only job he’s had in his adult life. Smith has one daughter who is married with a child of her own. Predictable and inoffensive to the point of dullness. So why a masked man dressed in black should break into Smith’s house one night and attempt to kill him is a mystery to everyone, especially Smith. Had Smith still been asleep, he would not have survived, as the assassin fired four or five bullets into the bed. Smith fortunately heard the intruder break in and had time to find a baseball bat and retreat behind the bedroom door before the killer entered the room shooting. Then Smith hit the man as hard as he could with the bat, knocking him to the floor. Fear bolstered Smith’s swing, the single blow killed the intruder.

Even in his shock Smith knew he needed a lawyer despite acting in self-defense. He called his friend John McKenna, who had an extensive network, and asked for help, then he called the police. Detective Grace Lillinthal of Homicide was sent to the scene. She assumed she was dealing with a home invasion until she learned that the lawyer that showed up was referred by McKenna, when all her antennae went straight up. McKenna had a reputation as a criminal middleman. No matter what devious or illicit act someone might need assistance with, McKenna knew a guy who could help. That Smith thought to call McKenna first made his entire story suspect in Lillinthal’s mind.

While she relentlessly sought to establish the illicit connection between the two, Smith was trying to find out who cared enough about him to hire a professional hitman and why.

This is another fast-moving, well-written thriller with a unique spin, great characters, and a clever resolution. Readers unfamiliar with Lawson’s work might find this book a good place to start. Recommended!

Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Blackstone Publishing, Inc.

·         Publication date: ‎July 7, 2026

·         Edition‏: ‎Hardcover

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎272 pages

·         ISBN-13: ‎979-8228358188

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4oR3k0j

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.