CRIME NOVELS THAT I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING IN 2025

2025 has already gotten off to a good start with two enjoyable early British crime novels by Marion Todd (Dead Man’s Shoes) and Hannah Richell (One Dark Night), and a gritty outback noir tale by Michael Trant (Blood And Gold) arriving in a couple of weeks. At first glance, it promises to be another bumper year for crime and thriller readers, with a plethora of good looking titles by established and new authors scheduled for release. I have picked out below a baker’s dozen of the ones scheduled for release in the first five months of the year that I am most looking forward to.

Before diving into this year’s titles, I thought I would look back at those books I was most keenly anticipating at the beginning of 2024 and see whether they lived up to expectations!

In January 2024 I nominated 13 books that I was most looking forward to: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/crime-novels-that-i-am-looking-forward-to-reading-in-2024/

They were a diverse lot and they generally met the mark, although a couple were disappointing. Of the thirteen, four found their way onto my best reads of 2024 (Garry Disher’s Sanctuary, Dinuka McKenzie’s Tipping Point, John Connolly’s The Instruments Of Darkness and Juan Gomez-Jurado’s Black Wolf), while Sarah Bailey’s Body Of Lies was not far off it. Kristen Perrin’s How To Solve Your Own Murder was on my Best Debuts of 2024 list and C. L. Miller’s The Antique Hunter’s Guide To Murder was also close to being there. The rest were solid, but the ones by established authors tended to be a little disappointing and did not, in my view, represent their best work. I did, however, enjoy Charlie Donlea’s Long Time Gone, which was another good twisty tale by an always reliable author.

So for 2024, eight of the books I was looking forward to really met the mark, while two were close. Only three lagged somewhere behind my expectations. I hope to do better this year.

In picking through the upcoming releases, I have tried to cover the spectrum of crime fiction from gritty crime to police detection to twisty psychological suspense to a clever meta mystery and a fast paced Spanish thriller. There are also the best new Australian crime novels and a pair of promising looking debuts from ‘downunder’.

I have not included the books which I have already highlighted elsewhere, such as Cara Hunter’s Making A Killing, Harlan Coben’s Nobody’s Fool and John Lawton’s Smoke And Embers. I also did not include Deon Meyer’s excellent Leo, which I have already read and reviewed.

In addition to the ones below, I am also looking forward to releases later in the year by Michael Robotham, Riley Sager, Charlie Donlea, Mick Herron, Richard Osman and a new Hirsch novel by Garry Disher. There is also a new novel from Michael Connelly coming in May, Nightshade, the cover for which is yet to be revealed, and a new Gerald Seymour espionage thriller in April, A Duty Of Care.

I have included the Australian release dates below, which may vary from the British and American publication dates.

One of the first out of the starting gate is Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly, (Pan Macmillan, 14 January 2025).

Promising Alice’s usual mix of twists and thrills, Beautiful Ugly sounds like being another clever and surprising treat by one of the leaders of the psychological suspense genre.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there, but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.“

I have started reading Beautiful Ugly and it certainly gets off to an intriguing start. It is released in Australia on 14 January 2025 and in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2025.

Probably one of the books that I am most looking forward to is the new Sean Duffy novel by Adrian McKinty, Hang On St. Christopher (Blackstone, 4 March 2025).

The Sean Duffy books are dark, evocative and unforgettable, and the new one sounds great:

“Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land”. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.

But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protege is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: who hit the hitman and why?

This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5 and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.”

Hang On St. Christopher is released in the United States and the United Kingdom on 4 March 2025, but does not seem to be readily available until later in Australia. I will be ordering a copy from overseas.

After an almost 5 year break, Dervla McTiernan returns to her popular Irish detective, Cormac Reilly, in early 2025 with The Unquiet Grave, (Harper Collins, 30 April 2025).

I am a big fan of the Cormac Reilly novels and it will be great to be reacquainted with him in what seems to be an intriguing case.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“For years the boglands of Northern Europe have given up bodies of the long-deceased. Bodies that are thousands of years old, uncannily preserved. Bodies with strange injuries that suggest ritual torture and human sacrifice.

When a corpse is found in a bog in Galway, Cormac Reilly assumes the find is historical. But closer examination reveals a more recent story. The dead man is Thaddeus Grey, a local secondary school principal who disappeared two years prior.

There’s nothing in Grey’s past that would explain why he was murdered, or why his body was mutilated in a ritual manner. At first, progress on the case is frustratingly slow and Cormac struggles to keep his mind on the job. His ex-girlfriend, Emma Sweeney, is in trouble, and she’s reached out to him for help – Emma’s new husband has gone missing in Paris, and the French police are refusing to open an investigation into his disappearance.

Cormac is sure that he has found Grey’s killer, and is within hours of an arrest, when another mutilated body is discovered on the other side of the country. Two days later, a third body is found. Press attention is intense. Is there a serial killer at work in Ireland? Has Cormac been on the wrong trail? And if so, can he find the murderer before they strike again?”

The Unquiet Grave is released in Australia on 30 April 2025. Release dates for the United Kingdom are not yet available.

John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series certainly has some staying power! The twenty-second book in the highly acclaimed series, The Children Of Eve (Hodder & Stoughton), is being released on 8 May 2025 and seems to offer the usual mixture of crime, astute social observation and mild supernatural elements:

“Wyatt Riggins, the boyfriend of rising Maine artist Zetta Nadeau, has gone missing, leaving behind a cell phone containing a single-word message: RUN. Private investigator Charlie Parker is hired to find out why Riggins has fled, and from whom.

Parker discovers that Riggins, an ex-soldier, has been involved in the abduction of four children from Mexico: three girls and a boy, all belonging to the cartel boss Blas Urrea. Except Urrea’s family is safe and well in Mexico, which means the abductees cannot be his children. Yet whoever they are, Urrea wants them back, and has dispatched his agents to secure them, even if it means butchering everyone who stands in their way.

One of those agents is Eugene Seeley, a clever, ruthless solver of other men’s problems. The other is an unknown woman.

Every child has a mother. Now Charlie Parker will face one unlike any other, and learn the terrifying truth about the Children of Eve.”

John Connolly has long been one of my favourite authors and over the past couple of years he has been in particularly strong form. I am really looking forward to this one.

The Children Of Eve is released in Australia on 8 May 2025 and on 6 May 2025 in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Anyone who has just finished watching the exquisitely produced Moonflower Murders on the BBC, or a local streaming service, will be very keen for the next mystery featuring Susan Ryeland and the ghostly Atticus Pund. Marble Hall Murders (Century) by the always entertaining Anthony Horowitz is scheduled for release on 8 April 2025 and sounds great:

“Susan Ryeland has had enough of murder.

She’s edited two novels about the famous detective, Atticus Pund, and both times she’s come close to being killed. Now she’s back in England and she’s been persuaded to work on a third.

The new ‘continuation’ novel is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace who was the biggest selling children’s author in the world until her death exactly twenty years ago.

Eliot believes that Miriam was deliberately poisoned. And when he tells Susan that he has hidden the identity of Miriam’s killer inside his book, Susan knows she’s in trouble once again.

As Susan works on Pund’s Last Case, a story set in an exotic villa in the South of France, she uncovers more and more parallels between the past and the present, the fictional and the real world – until suddenly she finds that she has become a target herself.

It seems that someone in Eliot’s family doesn’t want the book to be written. And they will do anything to prevent it.”

I am sure that this one will be an intellectual and twisty treat.

Marble Hall Murders is released in Australia on 8 April 2025 and in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2025.

Alex North, also known as Steve Mosby, has written some very dark and quirky novels under both names. Not all of his books hit the mark for me, but when they do, they are topnotch. His new one The Man Made Of Smoke (Penguin, 8 May 2025) sounds very promising and I will be keen to try it.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“Dan was just a teenager when he had a chance encounter with the elusive killer known only as “the man made of smoke”. Nobody could blame him for being too scared to intervene, for being too scared to save the latest victim, for letting the killer vanish again. Nobody except Dan himself.

Years later, Dan has a successful career as a criminal psychiatrist, unpicking the very darkest of human behaviour. Because, despite what he saw that day, Dan knows there’s no such thing as a monster.

But now his father, John, has gone missing. And, when Dan returns to the small island where he grew up, he finds out that not long before his disappearance, John had stumbled across a body.

As Dan begins to dig, he finds unsettling links, stretching all the way back to the man made of smoke.

Which means this might just be a chance to not only save his dad, but to finally find redemption.
But what if he’s been wrong about that day for all these years.“

The Man Made Of Smoke is released in Australia and the United Kingdom on 8 May 2025.

Juan Gomez-Jurado’s Red Queen trilogy about Spanish detective extraordinaire Antonia Scott, who mixes great mental skills with several bad flaws, has been one of the highlights of the past two years. Now we have the final book in the trilogy. White King, (Macmillan, 11 March 2024), finds Antonia finally up against the enemy who has stalked her over the first two books.

The publishers have provided the following details:

“Antonia Scott has an unusually gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. She’s the lynchpin of a top-secret project, Red Queen, created to work across borders and behind the scenes to solve the most devious and dangerous crimes, those that are beyond the skills of the regular police forces.

But the Red Queen project is under attack on all fronts. Across Europe, its agents are murdering each other and cases from the past, long believed resolved, are rearing their deadly heads again. At the center of it is the mysterious Mr. White, who has been weaving a web around Antonia for a very long time. He is as smart and capable as her but, unlike her, he’s a psychotic killer who has isolated Antonia Scott. Jon Gutierrez, Antonia’s protector and the only person she trusts, has been kidnapped. Antonia’s husband has been killed and her remaining family is in hiding. With Jon’s life at stake, Mr. White gives her a seemingly innocuous challenge: solve three crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice. The only way to keep Jon alive is to play Mr. White’s game, but can even Antonia win a game when she can only see part of the board?”

This should be a wild rollercoaster of a read!

White King is released in Australia and elsewhere on 11 March 2025.

There were some outstanding Australian debut novels in 2022 and 2023, but few more so than Michelle Prak’s Rush. It was a terrific ‘foot to the floor’ read and I am hoping that Barren Cape, (Simon & Schuster, 2 April 2025), is just as good.

I have started reading Barren Cape and it seems to employ the same frequently shifting viewpoint between three females characters, that made Rush so effective. Once again Michelle quickly generates a sense of tension and suspense, and sets the book against a very topical contemporary backdrop.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“An abandoned resort seems the perfect place to hide, but is Barren Cape a refuge or a trap?

Former housemates Mac and Erika are homeless.

Well, Erika is fine, she just has to live with her parents until she can find another rental. Mac’s situation is much worse – family isn’t an option and she’s surfing the couches of her increasingly exasperated friends.

Driving around one lonely afternoon, Mac discovers Barren Cape. Once destined to be a luxury escape, now it’s just wire fence and grey cement. It’s stark, but quiet. Surely there’s no harm in staying here a little while …”

Barren Cape is released in Australia on 2 April 2025. Overseas release dates are not available.

Shelley Burr’s Wake from 2022 was also an impressive debut. She has since followed it up with the almost as good Ripper, and now we have Vanish (Hachette, 30 April 2025).

The troubled Lane Holland was one of the main characters in Wake, and he also had a cameo role in Ripper. Now in Vanish he seems set to step back into the central spotlight again.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“People go to the isolated Karpathy farm looking for a new life – and are never seen again.

Lane Holland’s crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. With his parole hearing approaching, he faces the grim reality that as an ex-con can never work as a private eye. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Never one to follow the rules, Lane finds a lead – a mysterious farm community led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. His farm attracts lost souls. People who want a more meaningful life. People who are hiding from their pasts. People with nowhere else to go.

But those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

Is it a commune? Is it a cult? Is it something even more dangerous? Lane goes undercover at the farm to find its dark secret – but could he too find himself intoxicated by the prospect of a new life on the land?”

Holland is an interesting, flawed character who was more richly developed in Wake than most characters in Australian crime fiction. The mixing of cold and current crime mysteries worked well in Shelley’s previous books and I am keen to see whether she can manage it as well this time.

Vanish is released in Australia on 30 April 2025 and on Kindle in the United States and the United Kingdom on the same day.

One Australian novel by a new crime writer that has caught my eye is James Bradley’s Landfall, (Penguin, 23 April 2025).

Set in a vividly realised near future where the climate change warnings have come to fruition, Landfall sounds like it is going to be a compelling read:

“In an already swamped city, a disastrous weather system looms, making the search to find a missing child urgent.

The world is in the grip of climate catastrophe. Sydney has been transformed by rising sea levels, soaring temperatures and rocketing social divide and unrest.

When a small girl on the margins goes missing, Senior Detective Sadiya Azad is assigned to find her. She knows exactly what it is to be displaced, and swallowed by the landscape. A murder at the site of the child’s disappearance suggests a connection and web of corruption, but fear keeps eyes turned and mouths closed.

With few leads to go on and only days until a deadly storm strikes the city, Sadiya and offsider Detective Sergeant Paul Findlay find themselves locked in a race against time.

Chilling and utterly compelling, Landfall is crime writing at its best – and a terrifying vision of the future bearing down on us.”

Landfall is released in Australia and the United Kingdom 23 April 2025

From across the other side of the Tasman Sea comes Carved In Blood, (Simon & Schuster, 30 April 2025), by the very talented Michael Bennett.

Michael has quickly developed a strong following as the result of his first two novels about Auckland detective Hana Westerman, Better The Blood and Return To Blood, and he seems set to cement his reputation with his new book.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“It’s a chilly Auckland winter, but for Hana Westerman and her family, it is a time of excitement. Matariki is approaching – the small cluster of stars also known as the Seven Sisters is a sacred constellation in Māori culture, heralding a time of new beginnings. Hana’s daughter Addison is getting engaged and Hana’s new role within her community is going well. For once, life is good, peaceful.

But this Matariki brings unwelcome change. When Hana’s ex-husband Jaye, a high-flying Detective Inspector, is shot in what looks like a random hold-up, Hana offers her help to the senior police officer spearheading the investigation, DI Elisa Grey. With access to police intelligence, Hana makes a breakthrough that leads to a potential suspect with links to a Chinese organised-crime syndicate. But then Addison receives a phone call telling her that the police have the wrong man.

Was Jaye really just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is his shooting related to something else – an old undercover case deep in his past?”

Carved In Blood is released in Australia on 30 April 2025 and in the United Kingdom and the United States on 24 April 2025.

One New Zealand debut which is garnering a bit of early attention is When The Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole (Penguin, 4 February 2025) by Geoff Parkes.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“A missing woman and a townful of suspects. The haunting debut crime novel that transports the reader back to the 1980s and a small rural town in New Zealand.

It’s January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand’s rugged King Country.

It’s a bittersweet trip: he’s working long, punishing hours as a woolpresser, he needs to sell his late mother’s house, and he’s increasingly feeling like an outcast in his childhood town.

But mostly he’s haunted by memories of Sanna Sovernen, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before – then vanished without trace.

Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers, and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Because Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveler in the area to disappear.

Sounds intriguing and I am planning on reading it over the next couple of weeks.

When The Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole is released in Australia on 4 February 2025 and in the United States on Kindle on the same day.

Finally, one on the lighter side that I am looking forward to reading is Tess Gerritsen’s The Summer Guests (Bantam, 25 March 2025).

The Summer Guests is the follow-up to her The Spy Coast, which I quite enjoyed. The books revolve around the central conceit of a bunch of retired spies who have settled down in a quiet coastal town, but who still have the deadly skills that made them so successful in their previous lives. A bit like The Thursday Murder Club, but with more action.

The publisher has provided the following details:

“The Martini Club is not open to everyone.

Maggie Bird’s ‘book group’ is an unusual one – a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than ‘reading’ (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching. But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive.

For acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems – packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake.

When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees.

Can Jo and the Martini Club find a way to work together, as they uncover one of the deadliest scandals their small town has ever seen?”

Sounds very enjoyable. The Summer Guests is published in Australia and the United Kingdom on 25 March 2025 and in the United States on 18 March 2025.

So there are my picks of the best new books coming out between now and the end of May 2025. It is only the tip of the iceberg and I am sure that other good books will pop up over the next few months. Check back for my ‘spoiler free’ reviews.

Happy New Year everyone.