The Year in Books

We’re nearing the end of 2020…yes, I know, I know, hold the applause. But this has also been a busy book year — and now that I’ve finally released my fourth (!) book since January, I figured it would be a good time to go back and take a look at what I’ve put in your hands this year. Remember, the Christmas shopping season is coming soon!

The first novel of 2020: THIEF RIVER FALLS, a stand-alone thriller about a writer in lonely northwestern Minnesota trying to rescue a young boy who’s being hunted by everyone around him (including the police). Last month, Amazon listed THIEF RIVER FALLS among its top 1o bestselling mystery/thrillers of the year so far, and the book is closing in on 9,000 reader reviews.

This summer, I had the incredible honor of taking over Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series, with my Bourne thriller THE BOURNE EVOLUTION releasing in July. I’ve been thrilled by the many readers and reviewers who felt as if they’d stepped right back into a Ludlum novel with this one. It’s a complete stand-alone, so even if you’re not a long-time Jason Bourne book fan (or movie fan), you can dive right in.

In September, my Duluth-based police lieutenant Jonathan Stride finally returned after a two-year hiatus in FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND. As Bookreporter said, “FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND is by far Brian Freeman’s most emotional novel, and to say that the ending is a wild one would be a gross understatement. Jonathan Stride is one of the more complex and therefore likable characters in crime fiction, and this latest entry in the series is a clear standout.”

Is three new books enough? Well, not this year. Okay, THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW isn’t actually new — it came out as an Audible Original in 2019 and hit the New York Times Bestseller list. But print readers have been waiting for the book ever since, and a paperback edition (e-book, too!) finally arrived in October. The book got a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “enthralling” and said “readers will have a tough time putting this one down.”

So now we’re really done for the year. But you better get reading! I’ll be back in early March with an all-new standalone thriller, INFINITE, which I can’t wait to put in your hands.