Paradox by Douglas Preston and Aletheia Preston
They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. For proof of that, look no further than #1 bestselling author Doug Preston who teamed with his daughter Aletheia to pen the pitch-perfect Paradox.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frankie Cash returns, accompanied once again by Sheriff Jim Colcord, fresh off their hair-raising experiences in last year’s exhilarating Extinction. This time out, the similarly speculative thriller serves up a smorgasbord of science, cults and alien artifacts. The action whipsaws between our two leads as they search for the conspiratorial roots behind bizarre and apparently random events, as well as UAP’s (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). There’s plenty of those packed into a story that somehow weaves ritual murder into a plot laden with UFO obsession. After the brutal killing of a reclusive outdoorsman, Cash and Colcord may think they’re looking for a Hannibal Lecter wannabe, but the truth proves much worse.
Paradox is thriller writing of the highest order, a riveting and relentless read from a father-daughter team that finds its stride early and never slows up. Certain to be appear on any number of “Best of 2026 Lists” and the perfect summer read.
The Fourth Option by Jack Carr and M.P. Woodward
Speaking of great pairings, look no further than Jack Carr and M.P Woodward whose debut effort The Fourth Option is as good as it gets when it comes to the contemporary western.
Toward that end, former Navy SEAL and CIA operator Chris Walker starts out as the typical burned-out gunfighter with a few too many notches on his belt. He’s lost his purpose in life when the wife of a fallen teammate gives it back to him after opioids claim her son’s life. Instead of a horse, he rides an old, weapons-laden camper that like him has a lot of miles on it but still runs great. And instead of a sidekick he’s got a Belgian Malinois. Suffice it to say his riding into town does not bode well for those whose nefarious drug operation is certain to claim more lives.
Walker is more conscience-stricken but just as ruthless as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, the literary archetype for this kind of dark, badass hero. The Fourth Option is a storytelling masterpiece, featuring the perfect blend of form and function, as well as style and substance. Imagine a hitchhiking Reacher joining Walker in his dilapidated van, two men who wear their intentions on their sleeves. Now there’s a pairing that would be one for the ages.
Red Verdict by James Comey
James Comey is back with his fourth mystery-thriller, Red Verdict, once again writing what he knows extraordinary well with series stalwart Nora Carleton flawlessly handling the heavy lifting.
This time out, both Comey and Nora spread their wings a bit as the series takes a sharp turn into espionage played out on an international stage, instead of a local one. But another highlight is watching how art imitates life, given how Nora’s efforts as a deputy U.S. Attorney run her afoul of powerful forces determined to take her down. Those efforts, for which she’s joined again by FBI agent Benny Dogan, involve the murder of a major drone manufacturer at the hands of Russian strongmen, potentially implicating American traitors as well.
At its best, which is pretty much all the time, Red Verdict has the feel of the terrific TV show The Americans, but it also reminded me a bit of the William Goldman classic Marathon Man in how a single figure finds themselves up against massively powerful forces. This is Comey’s best and most polished effort in the series so far, a seminal, seismic quake of a thriller that is not to be missed.
A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper
Jordan Harper’s Everybody Knows was my favorite book of 2024 and his latest, A Violent Masterpiece, just might be my favorite of 2026. It, and he, are that good.
Once again, the setting is the dark underbelly of Hollywood and Los Angeles, where the rich and powerful treat the world like their private playground, while others exist on the periphery of the luridness hoping to hang onto their dignity. This time out, they include influencer wannabe Jake Deal, down-on-his-luck lawyer Doug Gibson who finds himself defending an irredeemable former mogul, and Kara Delgado who’s kind of a female Ray Donovan-minus-the-baseball-bat fixer. This insipid trio is brought together both by the victims of a serial killer known as the LA Ripper and the crass nobility that defines them. The book is peppered with a level of Hollywood low-lifes and grotesques straight out Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust.
As in that classic novel, Tinsel Town is like a bomb forever waiting for the fuse to burn down. And the fun in A Violent Masterpiece is watching characters better equipped to hold the match, wielding the hose instead. This isn’t just a terrific thriller, it’s also a great novel with staccato prose sharp enough to prick your fingers when turning the pages. It’s violent all right, but also a masterpiece.
Hawaii Rage by Tori Eldridge
Tori Eldridge has risen to the tops of the thriller ranks with a series set in her native Hawaii, spectacularly capturing that state’s beauty, mystery and contradictions all in the same breath in Hawaii Rage.
Interpretive Ranger Makalani Pahukula’s need for some quiet time and space brings her to a ranch where she can be spared the ugliness she can’t escape amid the beauty around her. Except the ugliness follows her in the form of family secrets both old and new, an accidental death she believes was murder, and A Long Day’s Journey into Night supporting cast trying to outdo each other in terms of moral wretchedness. Along the way, Makalani comes to accept it is her fate to sort through messes left by other people and find her own peace within that reality.
Eldridge owns Hawaii the way Carl Hiaasen does Florida, Robert Parker did Boston, and James Lee Burke always will Louisiana. She has turned her backyard into a playground of mystery where it’s left to Makalani to keep the state’s inner beauty on par with the outer. You get the feeling the world she knew and loved is slipping away, but it’s not going to happen on her watch. Hawaii Rage is like a beautifully drawn tapestry with Eldridge’s brush strokes coming courtesy of the keyboard, an artist of words.
The Delivery by Gregg Hurwitz
Gregg Hurwitz takes a break from the Orphan X series to venture into the world of AI with the devilishly entertaining The Delivery, which is small in size but big in story.
That’s hardly a surprise coming from a writer who has proven himself time and time again with exquisitely conceived and crafted thrillers. But this time out, he ventures into the world of near future science fiction, when Rebecca and Mark Higgins bring an AI assistant/companion into their household. They’re dealing with a lot at the time, and this seems like the solution to their problems. What could go wrong, right? Well, plenty as it turns out. “Mr. Man” proves to be a godsend in every way, except for the rash of inexplicable tragedies that befall the neighborhood.
The Delivery reminded me a bit of Michael Crichton’s Terminal Man with just a hint of The Terminator thrown in for good measure. And don’t let the sci-fi label scare you, because this departure is just as accessible as Hurwitz’s Orphan X series. It’s also just as good, in its own cutting-edge way, illustrating that sometimes great things really do come in small packages.
Murder by Design by Lee Goldberg
Speaking of new and different, Lee Goldberg gives us both in his latest mystery Murder by Design which features a Monk-like detective whose odd, quirky behavior turns him into one of the most original and refreshing crime fiction characters in recent memory.
A traumatic brain injury leaves Edison Bixby able to see the clues others mix, while at the same making him pretty much of, well, an asshole. Since he’s rich, solving impossible crimes is a passion, as opposed to profession, for him. The primary case covered here is a woman’s tragic death in a shopping mall when she tumbles down a flight of stairs. The whole incident was captured on security video, so there shouldn’t be much investigation involved at all. That is, until Edison gets involved and realizes things are not as they seem or the recording indicates.
At its heart, the bold and bracing Murder by Design reminded me in all the right ways of television shows like Columbo, Banacek, and even the lesser known Burke’s Law, which Goldberg will know thanks to his considerable background in television. His latest is reading entertainment of the highest order, an absolute blast, and I hope we see a lot more of Edison Bixby.
Storm Warning by James Byrne
Speaking of seeing more of, the shadowy Dez Limerick is back in James Byrne’s Storm Warning, still one of the most original and innovative characters in the thriller genre, thanks to his status as a Gatekeeper.
Dez never saw a door he couldn’t get through, while preventing others from following. This time out, though, the door in question accesses a secretive scientific lab that has gone offline with no one able to get in or out. Since a good friend is one of those locked inside, Dez is more than happy to gain entry on behalf of the State Department. Obviously, they’re not telling him the truth about the location or what top secret project the lab was working on. The problem lies with a villainous cabal as determined to keep Dez out as he is about getting in.
Even though this doesn’t straddle the horror-thriller line, it reminded me a bit of classic tales of something monstrous emerging from a secret lab, like Stephen King’s The Mist. But infiltration has been a classic thriller trope since the genre’s inception, thanks to books like Alistair MacLean’s The Guns of Navarone, and nobody does it better than Byrne. Storm Warning threatens to blow us away with its stark originality and terrific storytelling from the first page to the last.
