Here is a quartet of new books to watch out for in 2026

Don Winslow is one of our great crime novelists. A couple of years ago he published what was supposedly his final novel as he announced he was retiring. I was impressed because he was going out at the top of his game, he had never been more popular. I also didn’t believe he was really going to do it because how do you walk away from something that has been driving you for decades. Fortunately, I was right. Don Winslow did not close down after all. This new collection of six novellas reveal that he is just as good as ever. Welcome back, Don. It is like you never left.

“The Chosen and the Damned - Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States” by David J. Silverman, Feb. 10

The author believes that when Europeans arrived in North America and encountered Native Americans they had no concept yet they were “Whites” and the indigenous people were “Indians.” As the struggle for dominance and possession of this continent got underway, as they began confiscating these lands from the inhabitants they encountered, this became an assertion of racial superiority additionally motivated by the desire to spread Christianity as they exterminated those unbelievers who got in the way.

“The Delivery” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, March 24

Book two in the Mercury Carter series of thrillers is just as good as the blazing debut from last year. I read an advance copy and what a page turner this is. Carter is a courier who has never failed to make a delivery. If you have the misfortune of getting in his way you will pay a heavy price. He seems so non-threatening. The bad guys can never believe it when they encounter Carter and end up zip tied on the ground or worse.

“The Secret War Against Hate - American Resistance to Anti-Semitism and White Supremacy” by Steven J. Ross, April 28

Many of us no doubt think that after the defeat of Germany in WWII racism and anti-semitism had suffered a huge defeat and was in decline. The historian Steven Ross believes otherwise. In this new study he shows how during those wartime years between 1940 and 1946 the number of organized hate groups in the U.S. actually doubled. He explains that the four main leaders of those organizations, Emory Burke, J.B. Stoner, James Madole, and George Lincoln Rockwell, then actually worked together after the war to “finish the job Hitler had begun.”