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.

My Favorite Mystery Books Read (But Not Published) in 2024

My Favorite Mystery Books Read (But Not Published) in 2024   I debated about doing a second best of the year post featuring mystery books I read in 2024, but were published in a prior year. I mulled it over, lost sleep about it, and finally concluded—well, that conclusion is obvious, I guess. So…drum roll please…here are my favorite five mysteries I read in 2024, which were published in the far away past. My favorite mysteries published in 2024 can be found here.
SHOOTING SCRIPT, by Gavin Lyall (Charles Scribner, 1966). This aviation thriller from the master of the form, is Lyall’s fourth novel. Set in the Caribbean—Jamaica and the fictional Republic Libra—with a film crew, an ancient WW2 bomber, freedom fighters, and a little revenge. In my review I wrote: “Shooting Script is about as good as a mid-century thriller gets.”   Read the review here (see second paragraph). Check out Shooting Script here at Amazon.
THE SUMMONS, by Peter Lovesey (Mysterious Press, 1995). This traditional mystery, which is the third Peter Diamond investigation, is a marvelous fair-play puzzler with humor, wit, and a cracking good plot. In my review I wrote: “the denouement is a blissful surprise, and even better, a surprise that makes perfect sense.”   Read the review here. Check out The Summons here at Amazon.
ROBAK’S WITCH, by Joe L. Hensley (St. Martin’s Press, 1997). Don Robak, a trial lawyer that has just been elected as a rural Indiana judge, is recovering from a gunshot wound before he officially takes the bench. He agrees to help another lawyer defend a woman accused of killing two kids and what he finds is a marvelous mixture of the hardboiled and the traditional mystery. In my review, I wrote: “Robak’s Witch is simply terrific!”   Read the review here. Check out Robak’s Witch here at Amazon.
MADMAN ON A DRUM, by David Housewright (Minotaur, 2008). The fifth Rushmore McKenzie novel, which is also my favorite of the twelve series books I’ve read, is a personal case for McKenzie. When his goddaughter is kidnapped, there isn’t much McKenzie wouldn’t do to get her back. In my review, I wrote: “Madman on a Drum is a hardboiled tour-de-force private eye novel about justice and revenge.”   Read the review here. Check out Madman on a Drum here at Amazon.
SUN, SAND, MURDER, by John Keyse-Walker (Minotaur, 2016). This easy-going mystery is set on the tiny Caribbean Island of Anegada, part of the Royal Virgin Islands, where crime is uncommon and murder is unheard of. But, of course (as the title suggests), murder finds Anegada. In my review, I wrote: “Sun, Sand, Murder is a delightful whodunit (although it isn’t exactly fair-play) with a smattering of eccentric characters…a brilliant setting, and just enough action to keep the pages turning.”   Read the review here (see second paragraph). Check out Sun, Sand, Murder here at Amazon.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Hemingway’s Notebook, by Bill Granger (Crown, 1986); Turnabout, by Jeremiah Healy (Five Star, 2001); Flamingo Road, by Sasscer Hill (Minotaur, 2017)

My Favorite Books Published in 2024

My Favorite Books Published in 2024     There was a time not so long ago when I read enough new mystery and crime releases that I would have felt more comfortable (although not that comfortable) putting together a “best of the year” listing, but 2024 hasn’t been that kind of year. I have read a bunch of books published this year—I’ve even reviewed many of them here at the blog and at Mystery Scene’s website, which like the magazine is now gone—but my survey of the genre hasn‘t been broad enough to declaratively state what I think of as the best. So—instead of championing the following five titles as the best of the genre, these are my favorite of the books (of those I’ve read) published this year. As has been the case since 2016—when I took over as Mystery Scene’s short story critic—about two-thirds of my intake this year were story anthologies and collections. And this list reflects that disparity. So, without precedence, here are my favorite mystery and crime fiction books published in 2024:
HERO, by Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press / Jan. 16). This action-packed thriller from the author of The Old Man is everything I like about thrillers: fast, complicated without being busy, and a rush of pure adrenaline. In my review I called Hero “a shotgun blast from the first page to the last.” Read the review here. Check out Hero here at Amazon.
THE STARK HOUSE ANTHOLOGY, edited by Rick Ollerman & Gregory Shepard (Stark House / June 3). A big and ambitious celebration of Stark House’s silver jubilee, this anthology has 30 tales from mid-century to today. There are brilliant stories by Jada M. Davis—a short novel, really—Charles Runyon, Orrie Hitt, Dan J. Marlowe, Ed Gorman, Fredric Brown, Wade Miller, and—so many more. In my review, I called The Stark Anthology, “close to a perfect hardboiled story collection…” Read the review here. Check out The Stark House Anthology here at Amazon.
SAFE ENOUGH AND OTHER STORIES, by Lee Child (Mysterious Press / Sep. 3). If you’ve only read Child’s Jack Reacher series, many of these 20 standalone tales may surprise you. They showcase Child’s ability as a writer—sharp plotting, expert pacing, and subtle irony—without tying him down to the expectations of a series character. As I wrote in my review of Safe Enough, “[it] reads easy” and “there is nary a dud in the pack.” Read the review here. Check out Safe Enough and Other Stories here at Amazon.
CHRISTMAS CRIMES AT THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP, edited by Otto Penzler (Mysterious Press / Oct. 22). The twelve stories here are a catalogue of good short fiction by some of the genre’s best writers. Every tale has a scene or two in New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop and every single one is exciting, well-written, good-natured (aka nothing dark) and every story is different from every other story. About those writers—they include, Lyndsay Faye, Ace Atkins, Rob Hart, Jeffrey Deaver, Thomas Perry, and a bunch of others just as good. Read the review here. Check out Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop here at Amazon.
FLINT KILL CREEK: STORIES OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE, by Joyce Caro Oates (Mysterious Press / Nov. 5). This twelve-story collection is a dark ride into the underbelly of what it is to be human. The tales are dark, at times grotesque without ever being unbearable, and written with a power of language that allows them to live in the mind of the reader long after the pages have been turned. And here is my favorite line from the review I wrote for Flint Kill Creek: “It should appeal to fans of Joyce Carol Oates and anyone else with a humanist bent and an eye for the phantasm of gothic hallucinatory realism.” Read the review here. Check out Flint Kill Creek here at Amazon.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Man in the Water, by David Housewright (Minotaur Books / June 25); An Honorable Assassin, by Steve Hamilton (Blackstone / Aug. 27); Against the Grain, by Peter Lovesey (Soho Crime / Dec. 3).