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
A high-flying financier learns he’s working for crooks. Everything goes wrong. Eventually.
Next month, 
In February, 
Early next year, 
Travis Devine gets an unusual babysitting assignment, which (of course) ends up being far more dangerous than expected…
I’ve been a big fan of Kyle Mills‘s novels since I stumbled across his Mark Beamon series in, I think, 2002 (I’ve decided to re-read these over the summer, too). At the time, I lived in the UK and his books were strangely difficult to find in stores — I still preferred buying from stores, rather than online, and because I was splitting my time between Cambridge and Durham, I had so very many bookshops to choose from, all within a 10-30 minute walks. I think the events of 9/11 briefly increased British readers’ interest in US political thrillers and, as a result, Mills’s and some others’ books became a little more widely available (e.g., Vince Flynn, Brad Thor). The Beamon novels were gripping, so whenever I popped over the Atlantic to the US, I’d pick up any new novel(s) he’d written.
Next week (July 17th), 
Later this year, readers will get a new book from Don Winslow! The Final Score is a collection of six never-before-published, all-new short novels. Learning about this book was a very nice surprise, because I had been under the impression that Winslow had retired from writing, after the publication of his 
I hadn’t heard about the second novel from Mason Coile, Exiles, until the publisher reached out about it a couple of weeks ago. Coile is a pseudonym for acclaimed, best-selling Canadian horror author 
Civilian Reader 