Featuring: Andrew Lewis Conn, Ron Currie, Charles Cumming, Patrick deWitt, Carey Dunne, Susan Fox, Chrystia Freeland, Paul Grimstad, Anne Meredith, Tore C. Olsson, Meredith Mileti, Louise Willder
Ron Currie
Upcoming: WE WILL SEE YOU BLEED by Ron Currie (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne was the first novel by Ron Currie that I read, and it was an excellent introduction to his work: it was a gripping mystery overlying sharp and empathetic social commentary, populated by engaging and three-dimensional characters. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to learn that the author is returning to the setting, Little Canada, in his next novel: We Will See You Bleed, due out next summer. Definitely one of my now-most-anticipated novels of 2026. Here’s the synopsis:
It’s late summer 1984, and Babs Dionne’s hometown of Waterville, Maine is on the verge of collapse. A strike at the paper mill has dragged on for a year, pitting neighbor against neighbor, leaving everyone broke and exhausted.
As head of the union local, Babs has presided over Little Canada’s decline. She’s sworn off violence since killing a man when she was a teenager, and has stuck to this vow even as it’s become clear that only violence can save their community. When Babs’ best friend Rita returns home after five years away, she is shocked by the state of things. And as the strike comes to a head, Rita notices something else: the men may be broken, but the women are furious, ready to do whatever necessary to take back Little Canada.
They just need Babs to be the fearless woman who emerged from the woods fifteen years ago, drenched in blood. They need Babs to face what she already knows: that the only way to fix things is to assume control. Completely. Mercilessly.
Ron Currie’s We Will See You Bleed is due to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in North America, on July 7th, 2026. (No UK publisher at the time of writing, but the first book was published by Atlantic Books.)
Also on CR: Review of The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne
Quick Review: THE SAVAGE, NOBLE DEATH OF BABS DIONNE by Ron Currie (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)
A fantastic tale of identity, crime, and the long tail of violence
Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance.
Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction.
When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs’s youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn’t seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.
This is the first novel by Ron Currie that I’ve read. It is at once the story of the Dionne family, and simultaneously an examination of the long tail of violence that can change individuals and communities. Currie’s prose quickly hooked me, and the story kept me reading well into the night. This is a really, really good novel. Continue reading
New Books (July-August)
Featuring: David Baldacci, Sash Bischoff, Ron Currie, Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry, Amy Gamerman, Lev Grossman, Bella Mackie, Brittany Newell, Robin Niblett, Gail Simone, Elissa R. Sloan, Maggie Su
Civilian Reader 