Detective Stilwell series – The Unseen Library

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight the outstanding upcoming novel Ironwood by the master of crime fiction, Michael Connelly.

Amazon

Michael Connelly is an author who needs very introduction on this blog, especially with the impressive array of awesome crime fiction novels he has released over the years. I have had so much fun reading and reviewing several of his most recent books ever since I started the Unseen Library, including his latest novel, The Proving Ground, which recently appeared on my favourite books of 2025 list. As such, all of Connelly’s new books are instantly at the top of my to-read lists, and this includes his next intriguing novel, Ironwood.

Set for release in May 2026, Ironwood is the sequel to Connelly’s other 2025 novel, Nightshade, and will once again follow the author’s newest protagonist, Detective Sergeant Stilwell of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department, a stubborn and dedicated detective banished to Catalina Island. This novel will once again see Stilwell in trouble, as he attempts to find out who targeted his men in a deadly firefight, while also crossing paths with another Connelly protagonist.

Plot Synopsis:

Sworn to protect a scenic island that is meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in.

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents it seems blissfully separated – by twenty-two miles of ocean – from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.

An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.

While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard.

Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined.

Ironwood sounds like another awesome novel from Connelly, especially as he expands on story elements from Nightshade. Once again utilising the unique Catalina Island as an interesting background setting, Ironwood will continue to see the banished protagonist try to uncover a deadly crime on his supposed island paradise. Once again sideline by his superiors, the main case of Ironwood sounds extremely awesome, and I’m curious to see how it will follow-up on some of the excellent storylines from the previous book. This will no doubt be an outstanding center to Ironwood’s exciting narrative, and I cannot wait to see how this main case unfolds.

While the focus on the failed drug arrest and shootout should be awesome on its own, Connelly will further expand the narrative of Ironwood by teaming up Stilwell with another one of his protagonists, Detective Renée Ballard. Ballard has been one of Connelly’s main police/LAPD protagonists in recent years (having appeared in books like Dark Sacred Night, The Night Fire, The Dark Hours and Desert Star), with Connelly clearly setting her up as one of the replacements for the aging Harry Bosch. As such, it isn’t too surprising that Stilwell’s first crossover will be with Ballard, especially as both characters are outsiders amongst their respective organisations. As such, I’m very curious to see the two of them work together in this new novel, especially as it will likely annoy both of their superiors. It is going to be very interesting to see how the Detective Stilwell series is incorporated into Connelly’s larger crime fiction universe, and it should result in a complex new novel from this great author.

Based on how exceptional all of Connelly’s most recent books have been, Ironwood is automatically at the top of my to-read list for 2026, and it is probably one of the crime fiction books I’m most excited to get my hands on. I had such an outstanding time with Nightshade last year, and I cannot wait to see how Connelly continues to utilise his new protagonist in this cool upcoming sequel. I have very high hopes for Ironwood, and I have no doubt it is going to be epic.

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (ebook – 20 May 2025)

Series: Detective Stilwell – Book One

Length: 351 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

The master of American crime fiction, Michael Connelly, introduces a cool new character with his outstanding 2025 novel, Nightshade, an incredible extremely addictive murder mystery that was a true highlight of the first half of this year.

Few authors are as consistently impressive and exciting as crime fiction legend Michael Connelly, who has continuously produced complex and captivating novels that fall across the various crime fiction sub-genres. I have had an outstanding time reading some of Connelly’s more recent books, including the outstanding Ballad and Bosche novels (Dark Sacred Night, The Night Fire, The Dark Hours and Desert Star), his Mickey Haller/Lincoln Lawyer novels (The Law of Innocence and Resurrection Walk), as well as the impressive Jack McEvoy novel Fair Warning (one of my favourite books of 2020). All these books have been highly enjoyable, and I am always eager to explore more mysteries and thrillers in Connelly’s shared universe. As such, I was very excited to get my hands on Connelly’s first 2025 release Nightshade, which introduced a new protagonist in a compelling scenario.

Plot Synopsis:

No. 1 internationally bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces Detective Stilwell: a determined cop on a purgatory beat in paradise.

Detective Stilwell of the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s department has been exiled. Once he manned a mainland homicide desk; now internal politics have relegated him to a low-key post, policing rustic Catalina Island. He’s beginning to think he could get used to it.

It’s all business as usual in his new territory, following up drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts, until Stilwell receives a report of a body found wrapped in plastic at the bottom of the harbour. He begins working the case, and soon he’s forced to cross all lines of protocol and jurisdiction in pursuit of justice.

But when Stilwell discovers dark secrets hidden in the shadows he must now ask: Is Catalina really the serene island it appears to be or is it brewing a deadly poison?

Nightshade was an intense and fresh new novel from Connelly, who successfully debuts a new character in a fantastic fashion. Featuring a slick mystery with a cool new location, Nightshade was an awesome read that I absolutely flew through. One of the better books from the first half of 2025, Nightshade gets a full five-star rating from me and comes very highly recommended.

Connelly produced an outstanding narrative in Nightshade that perfectly sets out a compelling series of mysteries on the picturesque Catalina Island. The plot starts off fast with new protagonist Detective Stilwell, an exiled detective turned top cop on Catalina Island, working low-level crime on the island, before discovering a murdered girl at the bottom of the harbour. Despite being instructed not to interfere in the case, Stilwell’s curiosity and rebellious nature get the best of him, and he soon engages in his own investigation, pulling strings through his island connections. Connelly sets the scene for this separate, protagonist-led enquiry nicely, and there is a compelling blend of investigation arcs and the protagonist resolving his many personal issues, including his growing connection to Catalina Island and its inhabitants. The author ratchets up the intensity of the plot, as his main enquiry brings to light several sinister secrets, while other smaller cases from the island further showcase the underlying corruption of the seemingly picturesque police posting.

The second half of Nightshade goes in some excellent directions, as Connelly keeps the intensity running high. Following a shocking yet well-set up additional death, Stilwell is forced to deal with numerous threats from all corners, including betrayal, a corrupt former partner, and a sinister assassin stalking the island. Thanks to a combination of some fantastic revelations, a powerful confession sequence, and an intense rescue, there is barely a second to stand still in the lead up to Nightshade’s conclusion, and the attempts to solve the partially interlocked cases allows for an excellent overall narrative. I felt that Connelly set up each of his major mysteries in Nightshade extremely well, and the solutions came about naturally through some excellent storytelling. While the main cases are solved, Connelly leaves a few story elements open, and I feel like the legal ramifications for a couple of arrests will be explored in any sequels that Connelly has planned for this novel.

I really enjoyed how Nightshade came together, and Connelly produces an excellent character-driven murder mystery with a lot of compelling moving parts to it. Perfectly focused on an interesting and complex protagonist, Connelly effectively builds a great mixture of plotlines for this novel, including two central mysteries and various personal elements for the protagonist. Each of these storylines are well balanced and come together in an effective overall narrative, with the reader easily following the various cool twists and moments of excitement. This is a very sharp and constantly moving novel that proves easy to get drawn into and hard to put down. I easily powered through Nightshade in a couple of days, mainly because I was curious to see how the various mysteries unfolded, but also because of the compelling personal drama surrounding the book’s characters.

This includes new protagonist, Detective Stllwell, who is an excellent mixture of professional sheriff and occasional rogue cop. Stilwell has a similar anti-authoritarian streak to several of Connelly’s other police protagonists, especially as he is on the outs with his superiors after doing the right thing. Connelly did an effective job of setting up Stilwell as a new ongoing protagonist, and there are some interesting hanging threads for the character, including a complicated romantic relationship and a growing contentment with his new post at Catalina Island, which clashes with his sense of injustice surrounding his banishment there. Stilwell worked well as a standalone protagonist in this novel, but there is also potential for Connelly to expand on him in the future, especially with several open storylines and potential long-running feuds with crooks and corrupt cops going forward. The rest of the cast of Nightshade is also well set up, and I liked the combination of Catalina Island locals and transplants from the mainland who wander into the case. There are some strong antagonistic forces surrounding the main character during this novel, and it was fascinating to see how Stilwell worked around them to crack his cases.

The final part of Nightshade that I must highlight is the compelling new setting of Catalina Island. I must admit I had never really heard of Catalina Island until reading this book, and it proved to be a very interesting alternate Los Angeles setting to set a crime fiction novel around. Connelly paints a vivid picture of the island as part of Nightshade’s plot, and I liked the depiction of it as a holiday island with its own unique charm. The focus on the local culture versus the mainland transplants taking it over was quite fascinating, and Connelly does a great job of diving into the fascinating history of the island and working that into the book’s plot. He also develops an interesting tale of corruption and crime on the island, which ties in nicely with some of the setting’s real-life features. The extra focus on maritime elements, police diving, and the environment of the island (including its surprising bison herds), as well as the isolated nature of the setting, gave Nightshade a distinctive feel, and this proved to be quite a memorable novel in Connelly’s shared universe.

Overall, Nightshade was an outstanding new novel from Michael Connelly that proved very hard to stop reading. With an intriguing new protagonist, setting, and original murder mysteries, Nightshade was a deeply compelling and highly exciting read that I had such a wonderful time with. This book comes very highly recommended, and I cannot wait to get my hands on Connelly’s next novel, which is set to come out very soon.