Here it is!

Maybe you’ve already seen it, but if not: here’s the cover for my next book, ROBERT B. PARKER’S BIG SHOT, the latest Jesse Stone novel, out February 10, 2026.

One more time, here’s what it’s about:

And of course, you can beat the rush at the bookstore in February and preorder it now.

The Holiday Gift Guide

“But Chris,” you say to me, “I need to buy books now for all my friends and family.”

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

• First, we have everyone’s favorite person Tod Goldberg’s new bestseller, ONLY WAY OUT, which is the closest thing I’ve read to Elmore Leonard since the master departed this world. It’s a twisty, funny, and violent trip into the secrets of some bad people and the cops and crooks who are trying to profit from them. Plus, there was one moment that flat-out took my breath away. I am always happy when Tod comes out with a new book because I always get to see him pull off the literary equivalent of a Simone Biles Yurchenko double-pike vault at least once.

I’ve already mentioned a lot of friends and well-wishers you should be reading in previous newsletters. But here’s a quick list of books I enjoyed this year, and I think anyone would be happy to get one as a gift:

• Lee Goldberg’s FALLEN STAR. An excellent, propulsive novel that’s the latest in Lee’s Eve Ronin series, about an LA Sheriff’s detective working in Calabasas. In this case, Eve has to find the people behind the murder of a key suspect in a bribery case, while also dealing with the fame that comes from having a TV series about her life. Lee and I talked about the book at the Calabasas Library for its launch back in October if you want to check it out here.

• Ivy Pochoda’s ECSTASY. Ivy turns Greek myth into modern horror about a seaside resort troubled by a cult-like group squatting on its private beach.

• Boyd & Beth Morrison’s THE WHITE FORTRESS. The third medieval thriller in the Lawless Land series, about roaming knight Gerard Fox and his wife Willa unraveling the secrets of Marco Polo.

• Daryl Gregory’s WHEN WE WERE REAL. A brilliant, beautiful novel that reveals we’re living in a simulation, and then asks what happens next. A magnificent roadtrip through a world that feels real even though it isn’t.

• John Rember’s JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS, a series of incisive and thoughtful essays written when the end of the world seemed much closer than any zombie movie.

• Stefanie Leder’s LOVE, COFFEE & REVOLUTION, a very funny and sharp rom-com about idealism meeting reality set in the world of Costa Rica’s coffee plantations.

• Adrian Tchaikovsky’s TERRIBLE WORLDS: REVOLUTIONS. A collection of compelling and inventive novellas about what happens after the dystopia arrives.

• Joe R. Lansdale’s HATCHET GIRLS. The latest Hap & Leonard book. The boys get entangled with a violent cult of women following an even more violent leader.

• Nick Harkaway’s SLEEPER BEACH. The second in the Cal Sounder series about a PI working in a near-future world where a wonder drug has made the rich and powerful literal titans — bigger, stronger, and nearly immortal. Cal is summoned to a dying town to solve a murder, or possibly cover it up.

• John Connolly’s THE CHILDREN OF EVE, the latest in the Charlie Parker series. Parker searches for an artist’s boyfriend, who has fled in the wake of the kidnapping of four children connected to a drug cartel — and something else, very powerful and old and sinister.

• The Absolute Universe, from DC Comics. These books take the Big Three — Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — and put them in a world where heroism is a dirty word, and the bad guys have been winning for so long it’s hard to imagine anything better. Despite that, what makes the characters shine is still there, proving that good still triumphs, no matter the odds.

• Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard’s THE POWER FANTASY. Another comic series, but set in an alternate 20th Century where superhumans appeared at the same time as the first atomic bomb test. If these six people fight, the world ends. Brings a whole new meaning to balance of power. The best comic I read all year.

• S.A. Cosby’s KING OF ASHES. A violent homecoming as a successful money manager returns to his family to find them in deep trouble, started by his brother’s debt to local gangsters.

• Claire North’s SLOW GODS. An epic sci-fi tale of deep space and deep time, from the genius author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I read everything North writes.

• Caroline Fraser’s MURDERLAND. A haunted and haunting history of “the greatest generation of serial killers,” many of whom were born and raised in the plume of toxic waste from the smelters that ran through the Pacific Northwest.

• And you can still pick up my first entry in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series, BURIED SECRETS, if you haven’t already or you know someone who needs a critically praised, bestselling mystery thriller. (Almost 2,000 five-star ratings on Goodreads. Just saying.)

Hope your holidays are merry and bright, and you find some peace somewhere here on Earth. And as always, thank you for reading.