My Favorite Books Published in 2025

 

My Favorite Books Published in 2025   With the end of 2025 dangling on the horizon, it is time to look at the best of the best of all the terrific mystery fiction published during the year. My survey of the genre, of course, is limited to what I read with my own eyes. And truthfully my reading faltered not long after mid-year for a couple reasons I’ve explained in earlier posts. So this is a favorites list rather than a best list. And I tell you, I read some dandy tales in 2025. My only regret: I wish I had read more! So… without anymore wrangling, here are my five favorite mystery books published in 2025. The list is ordered by publication date.
THE MAILMAN – Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press / Jan. 28). This first installment in a new series by the author of the Andy Hayes, P.I. books, is a full-throttled thriller with action, violence, and plotting so good it is a shame it had to end. In my review I wrote: “The Mailman is a nail-biting escapist thriller with twists and whirls and everything else the genre promises. It’s damn fun, too.”   Read the review here.
GALWAY’S EDGE – Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press / Mar. 4). Bruen’s final novel, and the eighteenth entry in his Jack Taylor series, is a moody gash of humanity—the beauty and ugliness are rendered with an expert hand and a melancholy sort of acceptance. As I wrote in my review: “Galway’s Edge is, as is Ken Bruen, the real deal—interesting, thought-provoking, and in equal parts ugly and redemptive.” Ken Bruen died on March 29, a few weeks after Galway’s Edge was released in the U.S. His voice will be sorely missed, but his work will resonate for decades more.   Read the review here.
SKIN AND BONES – Paul Doiron (Minotaur / May 13). This collection of eight tales is an entertaining foray into the world of Doiron’s series character, Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch. Most are narrated by Bowditch, but a few are told from the perspective of Bowditch’s mentor, Charley Stevens. In my review I wrote: “Many of the stories are closer to novelette than short story length, which allows Doiron the room to paint his characters with a rich hue and his rural Maine setting with vivid color. Even better, he does all this without an unnecessary word or losing the mystery for the trees.” In a word, Skin and Bones is terrific!   Read the review here.
MARGUERITE BY THE LAKE – Mary Dixie Carter (Minotaur / May 20). This psychological thriller is a suspenseful novel in the mold of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic masterpiece, Rebecca. But it is more than simply an homage: it is original, clever, and spell-binding. As I wrote in my review: “[The] unreliable narration—made so by her own paranoia and guilt—is taut with suspense and infused with a teetering madness that makes it both terrifying and fascinating…. Marguerite by the Lake is a splendid and inventive thriller, and it is hands down the best book I’ve read so far this year.” And it still just may be my favorite book from 2025.   Read the review here.
PHOTOGRAPH – Brian Freeman (Blackstone / Oct. 7). Freeman is a master at weaving the supernatural into the mainstream thriller form, and Photograph—which features a Daytona Beach P.I., Shannon Wells—is no exception. As I wrote in my review: “The action is lively: there are gunfights, tightly ratcheted tension, and surprise after twisty surprise. While the concept is big and (some might say) over-the-top, Freeman’s clever plotting, his attention to detail, and his likable heroine smooth Photograph into a nail-biting, exciting, and caffeinated literary treat.”   Read the review here.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Ceylon Sapphires, by Mailan Doquang (Mysterious Press / June 3); and a special shout-out for two novelettes—“BAE-I” and “Room E-36”—written by Douglas Corleone.

Booked (and Printed): October 2025

 

Booked (and Printed) October 2025     October came and went with the same dreariness as a solitary night cap. The shortening daylight and crisp temps marked the passage from summer into autumn. Halloween was a blast, but with mixed emotions since it was the first year our sweet daughter spent the holiday with her friends rather than her dear old parents. But keep in mind my complaints are, at worst, superficial since I truly am a lucky man. I have a home, a family, a good job, and— Almost everything a man could want. Including more reading material than anyone could finish in a long, long lifetime. My reading was shallow again: two books—both novels—and seven short stories. This sparsity was due, mostly, to my continued eye troubles, which I’m not going to talk much about here but for the curious you can always read my prior Booked (and Printed) post here. Those same eye issues are why this post is so late, too. The month opened with a return to John Keyse-Walker’s brilliant Caribbean-set Teddy Creque mystery series. REEFS, ROYALS, RECKONINGS (2023), which is the final (so far at least) of four books. But hopefully not the last. In this one, a royal in direct line—albeit a distant one—to the throne of England is visiting the British Virgin Islands. At Government House welcome party, the royal and her husband, an American of little worth, are thrust into a murder investigation after a woman attending the gala is gunned down. Teddy is his usual affable and brilliant, if insecure, self. The mystery is tightly wound. The plot is fun and unique. And while I guessed the culprit earlier than I should have, the journey into Teddy’s world was a blast. If you enjoy BBC’s Death in Paradise, you’ll love Reefs, Royals, Reckonings, as well as the other three Teddy Creque mysteries. The other book-length mystery was the unorthodox WE CAN’T SAVE YOU, by Thomas E. Ricks (2025). We Can’t Save You is part mystery, part thriller, and part political manifesto. When a group of Maine First People organize a recurring protest on a bridge that routinely floods it gives rise (yeah, pun very much intended) to a larger movement: a First People’s protest against industrial caused climate change. The bulk of the narrative follows a peaceful march of natives down Maine’s coast. The issues We Can’t Save You discusses are interesting and relevant, but there wasn’t much of a mystery, or any suspense, either. But it still pulled me to the last page without more than a few complaints along the way.

Now for those seven short stories. Peggy Wurtz Fisher’s “THE PICKUP”—which appeared in the Department of “First Stories” in the October 1984 issue of EQMM—is a dazzling dark suspense tale about a single mother and a drifter. The perfectly ironic twist will bring a smile to even the most jaded reader. There is a touch of James M. Cain about “Pick Up”—and wow did I like it. “THE BOOK CASE,” by Nelson DeMille (2012), features DeMille’s recurring character, John Corey. The tale—the plotting, narrative, etc.—is pedestrian but readable. The real pain is Corey’s constant reminders of his brilliance as a detective. He had to remind us how damn good he is because it surely never surfaced in the narrative. Oy vey. It was like watching a Pink Panther movie without any of the humor. Joe Hill’s “THE PRAM” (2023), is as entertaining as any story I’ve read this year. About a married couple mourning a miscarriage, it is haunting and spooky with a dry wit and a lively and clever style. It is a horror story and a very, very good one. “BIG DRIVER,” by Stephen King (2008), is a revenge tale about a midlist cozy mystery writer—Tess Thorne—and her turn with a psychopath nicknamed Big Driver. The action, from almost the first page to the last, is brutal. There is a rape and an attempted murder. But Tess comes through the far side with a do-it-yourself kind of justice. I liked this one a bunch, but if violence and fear bother you, Big Driver is one you should skip. As an aside, “Big Driver,” was filmed as a Lifetime movie starring the always watchable Maria Bello. October ended with a trio of Jack Ketchum shorts—in honor of Halloween—culled from his brilliant collection Peaceable Kingdom (2003). “THE RIFLE” (1996), is a tale of fear and motherhood—what would you do if you discovered your child was evil? “THE BOX” (1994) is about a box with a secret so dark it ruins anyone that looks inside. “The Box” won a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers of America. And the final tale, “LUCK” (2000), is a weird western with a handful of hardcases stranded in an anonymous camp waiting for a comrade to die. My favorite story of October? It is most certainly, Joe Hill’s “The Pram.” Fin— Now on to next month…