Welcome to September, everyone. Fall is just around the corner, and while summer was an incredible season for thrillers, there’s a bunch of other great books set to come out in the coming weeks and months.
Below are my five favorite thrillers set to come out this month, a strong group headlined by Mitch Rapp, the most lethal character the genre has to offer. Whether you’re looking for action, suspense, or a wicked-good mystery, there’s something for everyone—but don’t blow your whole book-buying budget just yet, because October is going to be another strong month for new releases. More on that in a few weeks. In the meantime, happy reading!
All out War by Sean Parnell
Release Date: September 3 (William Morrow)
Yesterday it was a job. Now it’s personal.
Set just a few months after Man of War, Eric Steele is starting to get back in shape, though he’s still badly in need of some time off from the risks his job presents before getting back into action.
One of several “Alphas,” the most hardened and seasoned badasses the United States military has to offer, Eric’s job is to go to the most dangerous places on earth, under the most grueling of circumstances, to take on the most impossible missions.
So far, he’s pitching a perfect game, but the stress and demands of the job have cost him in more ways than one. Even so, he’s always been able to go home and rest up, get his mind and body right, then head back out. Sadly, all that changes when trouble follows him back to Pennsylvania for the first time, endangering Steele and his loved ones.
Moments after sitting down to dine on a couple of steaks with his mother, explosions rock the front of Steele’s home. As teams of unidentified Russian commandos storm his compound, Steele coaches his mother through what to do, while simultaneously engaging the gunmen, dropping them one by one before escaping in his ’67 GTO.
The getaway turns tragic, though, when the bad guys follow Steele and, in the process, gravely wound his mother, who is later placed in an intensive care unit, barely clinging to life. Filled with both rage and guilt, Steele makes peace with the fact that there’s nothing he can do for his mom in her current state, and promptly turns his attention to the attackers. Seeking revenge, Eric goes after those responsible, only to realize that he’s now part of a far bigger, more sinister plot.
As it turns out, a high-profile terrorist named Aleksandr Zakayev has escaped from Black Dolphin, Russia’s maximum-security prison, and met up with Hassan Sitta, who had been incarcerated in an off-the-books facility located onboard a massive ship floating down the Northern Sea Route. On their own, each man is bad enough, but together, they pose an even greater threat to the safety of the United States . . . and when whispers surface that Sitta has assembled a bomb someplace in the Middle East and is targeting world leaders, all bets are off as Steele tries yet again to save the day.
After a long career in the military, much of which was covered in his New York Times bestselling memoir Outlaw Platoon, Sean Parnell knows combat intimately, and that realism bleeds through each and every page of All Out War. Much like his first Eric Steele novel, the follow-up is fast-paced and well-plotted, and the story is unique and structured so that there’s never a dull moment. That said, Parnell’s calling card is still the riveting action sequences he somehow pieces together, which are some of the biggest, boldest rapid-fire scenes in print today.
As for Eric Steele, Parnell continues to develop his hero, who is fast becoming one of the more formidable leads in an action series, by showing a new side to him here. The opening scene where the gunmen descend upon his home is a work of genius, and the dialogue between son and mother is spot-on, adding the kind of heart-warming touch that’s rarely seen in these types of thrillers.
Sean Parnell continues to impress with his second novel, All Out War, a timely action thriller that brings the pain in a big way.
Robert B. Parker’s The Bitterest Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman
Release Date: September 10 (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
In this 18th installment of Robert B. Parker’s New York Times bestselling series, the opioid crisis finally reaches the small town of Paradise, where police chief Jesse Stone is waiting to bring down those supplying the drugs and bringing them into Massachusetts.
Though no stranger to crime in general, Paradise has largely avoided the opioid epidemic, that is until people suddenly begin overdosing on heroin. One of the victims, a high school senior named Heather Mackey, died after taking a lethal combination that also included fentanyl, raising the stakes for top cop Jesse Stone. With the town reeling from the loss of the hometown teen beauty queen, Stone sets his sights on Heather’s supplier—fellow teen Chris Grimm.
Grimm, a high school student himself, sold Heather the drugs that killed her, but as Jesse knows, Chris is nowhere near the top of the food chain. Somebody else had to supply him with the drugs to sell, and that is who Stone wants. Problem is, Arakel Sarkassian, the bad guy behind the local supply chain, has Chris scooped up and killed before he can talk, leaving Jesse with little to work with in the form of promising leads.
Short on clues, but driven by the growing number of helpless addicts and unfortunate deaths, Jesse begins looking through Heather’s life, interviewing everyone from her parents to her friends in hopes of finding a thread to follow. Eventually, he does, and the book’s best twist comes when one of the major players is finally revealed . . . leaving Stone, and the reader, both shocked.
It cannot be overstated enough just how great Reed Farrel Coleman has been for this franchise. By now, it’s well documented that his style and prose is significantly different than Parker’s, but often times too big a deal is made of that fact. The reality is, much like different directors helming separate films within a single movie franchise—take Mission: Impossible, for example—it’s obvious that Coleman’s take on the universe is his own, and yet the characters still read true to who Parker created. That’s really what matters most, and for what it’s worth, Coleman’s hard-boiled style suits these characters, and this universe, perfectly.
As for the story, this is probably Coleman’s best Stone book to date. Last year’s Colorblind was really good as well, but some of the stuff from that book—speaking specifically about Jesse’s personal life and certain revelation (which we’ll omit here for spoiler purposes)—allowed for a continued pay off here as the police chief is left dealing with those things. Throwing those personal issues into the mix, on top of a timely and powerful story about drugs and how they can affect society, leads to a suspense-filled plot that moves pretty quick, building steam as it chugs along towards a surprise ending that longtime fans of this series will appreciate.
Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson
Release Date: September 17 (Viking)
Picking up after the war he waged in Mexico (During Johnson’s 2018 book, Depth of Winter) after taking on a powerful drug lord named Tomas Bidarte, Walt is a broken man both physically and mentally.
Now back in Wyoming, the sheriff is recovering, but the healing is slow going. More than ever, Walt finds himself questioning whether or not he’s up to the task of being Absaroka County’s top lawman–that is, until a sheep is found dead, and both Walt and his deputy, Vic Moretti, suspect that a wolf who’s already caused a stir is to blame.
The sheep, it turns out, was owned by Abarrane Extepare, one of the wealthiest men in Absaroka, who hired multiple migrant workers to help out on his ranch. But things take a dark turn when one of the men is found dead in an apparent suicide. Or is it?
The man, Miguel Hernandez, was found hanged to death, but Walt isn’t convinced he did so under his own power. The sheriff even finds evidence to suggest foul play, like the fact that someone or something removed all the flesh from his feet, and begins poking around to see if anyone around Miguel had the motive to kill him off. As it turns out, not everyone is in favor of Walt asking questions, and when he stumbles onto secrets from the Extepare family’s past, more trouble slowly emerges . . . and if Longmire isn’t careful, he might just find himself hanging from a rope, too.
While Depths of Winter was a solid book that tied up several huge story arcs, Craig Johnson returns his bestselling series to its roots with Land of Wolves, which is much more of a traditional mystery than an action-packed tale of revenge. Personally, I like this one more, and along with 2017’s The Western Star, I think it’s Johnson’s best work in over a decade. Not only is the writing sharp and the dialogue witty, but the plotting is on point and, though there are a few slow points, it’s nice to see all the fan-favorite characters return in meaningful ways. That includes Vic, Henry Standing Bear, Dog, and others—with each receiving plenty of screen-time. Henry, more so than Vic or Walt, has an eye-raising theory about the vicious wolf, and as the two main plot threads begin to merge together, Johnson does a great job keeping readers in suspense until the very end.
Sheriff Walt Longmire might be beaten up, exhausted, and getting up there in age, but he’s still one of the best characters in the genre . . . and Craig Johnson knows how to spin a mystery better than just about anyone.
Lethal Agent by Kyle Mills
Release Date: September 24 (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)
A couple of books back, at the end of Enemy of the State (2017), Mitch Rapp happened across a cavern filled with high-ranking members of ISIS in Northern Iraq, including Mullah Sayid Halabi, their leader and the most wanted terrorist on the planet. After throwing a grenade into the cave, Rapp managed to kill nearly everyone present—and almost himself—after bringing rock and debris down on top of everyone.
Now, new intelligence suggests that Halabi somehow survived, and when readers meet back up with Rapp in this one, the CIA man is in Yemen, bear crawling through another cave in hopes of finishing the job once and for all. Instead, Halabi proves too elusive yet again, and manages to once again escape unscathed. That miss proves more damaging when a brilliant French microbiologist is later kidnapped, with all the evidence pointing towards Halabi—who secretly forces the scientist to weaponize a form of anthrax that he intends to use in an attack on American soil.
While focusing on the looming threat from Halabi, CIA Director Irene Kennedy is also forced to deal with an arrogant politician who intends to make enemies of both her and Rapp, further complicating matters at the worst possible time.
Senator Christine Barnett, her party’s frontrunner for the upcoming presidential election, which is quickly proving to be the most divisive in recent memory, is no fan of the CIA. Kennedy, along with everyone else in Washington, knows that her time as director is coming to a close if Barnett wins the Oval Office, and as things stand, there is no peaceful transfer of power on the horizon. Realizing they’re working on borrowed time, Kennedy tasks Rapp with finding Halabi at all costs, and stopping whatever he has planned, before it’s too late.
From the caves of Yemen to the political underbelly in Washington, D.C., to war-torn Somalia and the cartel-infested jungles of Southern Mexico, Mitch Rapp races around the world in pursuit of the man looking to emerge from the shadows with a bang—and all bets are off when Rapp realizes they’ve been duped and that something much more sinister is lurking, ready to strike a blow to the United States like never before . . .
Now five books in, Kyle Mills has done an amazing job filling in for series creator Vince Flynn, who passed away in 2013. With the focus much more on Rapp in this book than Red War, Mills dials up the action, throwing Mitch into one impossible situation after another, constantly raising the stakes with each turning page. Even if you think you know how this one will end, it’s still a ton of fun watching Mitch Rapp do Mitch Rapp things, and several scenes—including one involving him picking a lock—will have readers talking long after turning the last page.
With longtime fans of this series begging for a throwback style novel from the early days of Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills delivers just that . . . and seeing Mitch Rapp take on politicians, terrorists, and the first biothreat of his career, is about as good as it gets for those seeking a high-powered, unputdownable thriller that’ll have you flipping pages well into the night.
Trained to Hunt by Simon Gervais
Release Date: September 24 (Thomas & Mercer)
After introducing readers to former Army Ranger turned Special DEA Agent Pierce Hunt in last year’s Hunt Them Down, Simon Gervais brings back his ass-kicking hero for another go-around and tons more action.
Picking up several months after the events of the last book, the smoke has finally cleared and with it comes a whole bunch of changes for Hunt. For starters, Pierce is no longer officially with the DEA, a direct result of the carnage he caused by locking horns with the Black Toska cartel. Instead, he’s now working as a contractor and, after a lead causes him to walk right into an operation being run by the Central Intelligence Agency, Pierce joins forces with the CIA to form an elite unit of hunter-killers.
Meanwhile, Hunt’s lover, Anna Garcia, the current head of the Garcia crime family, vows to legitimize her enterprise. But going straight has its own challenges, and when a new drug begins spreading across the country—killing teens and other victims at an alarming rate—the DEA pegs Garcia’s Miami-based cartel as the distributers behind the deadly new PED. For Hunt, the problem is deeply personal for two reasons. For starters, he doesn’t believe Anna is capable of the charges levied against her. Secondly, and more tragically, perhaps, is the fact that his daughter’s boyfriend is one of many athletes who died after ingesting the drug.
Leila, Pierce’s daughter, was a major focal point in the last book, and her physical and mental recovery takes a serious hit when her boyfriend dies. Vowing to avenge her loss, while simultaneously hoping to clear Garcia, Hunt sets out to do what he does best—collect clues, find the bad guys, and kill ’em all before any more damage can be done. But as things unfold, Pierce is forced to question everything, and ultimately, he realizes that nobody is worth trusting. With time tunning out and bad guys moving into position all around him, Hunt once again finds himself severely outgunned . . . and this time, he’ll have to find a way to turn the tables and fight back if he has any hope of making it out alive.
From New Orleans to South America, Asia, and Miami, Simon Gervais takes readers on a hard-hitting world tour—delivering blow after blow, and twist after twist. While heavy emphasis is placed on the action—as it should be, considering his deep background in law enforcement that includes stops with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and later, a career as a federal agent—Gervais continues to flesh out his cast, doing a fine job developing them in between the gunfights and explosions. Likewise, he’s found ways to mix in more eye-popping descriptions that really help transplant readers to whatever setting Hunt is operating in at that moment, adding a little more sizzle to his fantastic sequel.
Bottom line: Gervais has grown leaps and bounds since his debut, The Thin Black Line, dropped in 2015, and now, after two lights-out books, he stands among some of the best action-thriller novelists in the game today.
