FORECAST FRIDAY: THE BEST NEW RELEASES OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2025

With just over two months to Christmas, the annual flood of new thriller and crime books is picking up momentum, with some great titles scheduled for release in the next few weeks. I have looked over the forthcoming releases, and picked out ten of the most promising ones from across the spectrum of crime fiction.

Note: the release dates quoted are for Australia, this may vary for the United Kingdom and the United States.

Leading the releases by big name authors is Michael Connelly’s The Proving Ground, (Allen & Unwin, 21 October 2025).

Michael Connelly is easily in the top half dozen of the world’s best crime writers, and a new release from him is always a highlight of the reading year. His latest book returns us to the world of the ‘Lincoln Lawyer’, Mickey Haller:

“Mickey Haller has moved from criminal to civil court, but murder remains in his sights—in particular, the case of a chatbot encouraging the killing of a teenage girl.

Mickey files a civil lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company responsible for the chatbot and instantly finds himself on the wild frontier of the billion-dollar AI industry. Grappling with a terrifying lack of regulation and data overload, Haller partners with journalist Jack McEvoy. But they are up against mega-forces, and even the bravest whistleblower faces grave danger.

In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with an unexpected gambit. In a Herculean new match of man vs machine, can Haller pull off a winning play for humanity?”

I have started reading The Proving Ground and it is typical Connelly so far, with easy flowing writing, great descriptions and a hint of pending murder and mayhem. A definite pre-Christmas read.

It would not be the pre-Christmas season without a new Jack Reacher novel.

Exit Strategy, (Bantam, 4 November 2025), is the thirtieth Jack Reacher novel and the sixth since Lee Child handed over the primary writing role to his brother Andrew (Grant), but the formula seems very much the same. 

“Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for.

First – a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing about. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.

Second – a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climes. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.

Third – wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more.”

Sure to be another massive hit for the Childs!

Another big name release is the high profile collaboration between Harlan Coben and Reese Witherspoon, Gone Before Goodbye (Century, 14 October 2025). I am always a bit sceptical about celebrity collaboration books, which seem designed to get on bestseller lists due to the names on the cover rather than the quality of the story, but Coben is such an entertaining author that I am more willing to give it a go.

Gone Before Goodbye certainly has an intriguing premise:

“Maggie McCabe is on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge.

But now, after a devastating series of personal tragedies, Maggie is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy – as well as absolute discretion.

Halfway across the globe, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfils her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself.”

It sounds like it will be enjoyable fun read for the festive holidays.

The pick of the British releases is the latest Karen Pirie novel by the masterful Val McDermid, Silent Bones (Sphere, 28 October 2025).

Silent Bones is the eighth novel in the DCI Karen Pirie cold case series, and its release coincides with the appearance of the second season of the television series in Australia.

Silent Bones opens with the discovery of a body when a torrential storm causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland. Karen and her Historic Cases Unit quickly identify the victim as journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in the murder of his fiancé when he disappeared eleven years ago. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. But what did Tom Jamieson’s book club have to do with his demise?

I have already read Silent Bones and it is classic McDermid, with an engaging plot, a great cast of characters and believable investigative detail. I will be posting the review shortly, but it is certainly one to put on your ‘to read list’.

Also from the United Kingdom comes the intriguing Quantum Of Menace, (Bonnier, 2 December 2025), by the talented Vaseem Khan.

Described as a cosy, spin-off crime series set in the world of James Bond, it follows the activities of Major Boothroyd (better known as Q) who finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water after being unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem uninterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier’s ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces.

I have started reading Quantum Of Menace and it is very enjoyable so far!

Peter James is pulling out all the stops with his latest Detective Roy Grace mystery, The Hawk Is Dead (Macmillan, 28 October 2025).

Grace is purportedly Queen Camilla’s favourite fictional detective, and her Majesty features in the latest entry in the series.

Queen Camilla, is aboard the Royal Train heading to a charity event in Sussex when disaster strikes – the train is derailed. A tragic accident or a planned attack? When, minutes later, a trusted aide is shot dead by a sniper, the police have their answer. Despite all the evidence, Roy Grace is not convinced that The Queen was the intended target. But he finds himself alone in his suspicions. Fighting against the scepticism of his colleagues and the Palace itself, Grace pursues his own investigation. But when there is a second murder, the stakes rise even higher, and Grace is at risk of being embroiled in a very public catastrophe – and in mortal danger.

It sounds like a wild ride. James has a very loyal following and I am sure that The Hawk Is Dead will find its way into many Christmas stockings this year.

Leading out the Australian crime releases is Jack Heath’s intriguingly titled, Kill Your Boss (Allen & Unwin,
4 November 2025).

Over the past few years, Heath has quietly established himself as a leading writer of quirky, slight offbeat crime novels with a dark undertone to them. His latest one certainly falls into this category, and it is probably the book I am most looking forward to reading when I get a copy.

“Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui has just broken up a loud brawl between two blokes in front of the Warrigal Public Library. But just as she’s about to leave the scene, a man inexplicably plummets from the sky and slams into the bike rack right in front of her, dead.

Neville Adams was the head of library services, hated by staff, borrowers, and in fact anybody who had ever met him. Kiara quickly seals the building, trapping everyone who might have pushed him off the roof. She expects to have someone in custody within minutes.

Instead, the investigation becomes the most challenging and dangerous of her career as it spirals outward, ensnaring half the town. It seems that Neville was connected to the disappearance of Emmylou Chisholm – a case that Kiara could never solve, and that has haunted her ever since.

If the killer isn’t found fast, the first two victims won’t be the last.”

The follow-up to Heath’s Kill Your Husbands, Kill Your Boss sounds like a good summer read here in Australia. Go out and order a copy!

Alan Carter is one of my favourite Australian authors and his latest book, Franz Josef (Fremantle Press, 4 November 2025), looks really good. The third book in his series about New Zealand detective Nick Chester, it finds Nick, and his partner Latifa Rapata, investigating a body suspended in the frozen Franz Josef glacier. They soon uncover more victims and a web of international corruption.

Carter is very good at linking contemporary international concerns with small town local crimes, and I am very keen to catch up with Nick and Latifa again.

Like Alan Carter, Jo Dixon lives in rural Tasmania and her latest book, A Disappearing Act (Harper Collins, 28 October 2025), seems as though it will make great use of the forbidding local setting.

“Bestselling author Marnie Elliott has invited her three oldest friends to a secluded holiday house in Tasmania. On the surface it’s an excuse to catch up and drink champagne, but really Marnie’s there to escape the fallout from an upcoming exposé. Sure, she’s told some lies over the course of her career… but this time the allegations go further… Did Marnie even write the books that made her millions?

As the days unfold, it becomes clear that time has pulled the women apart, and that perhaps they don’t know each other as well as they thought they did. And when long-buried secrets and resentments rise to the surface, tensions spiral out of control.

And then one of them disappears.

No one can survive the harsh elements of a Tasmanian winter for long, and soon panic sets in. Did she get lost? Run away? Or is something far more sinister at play?

And does it have anything to do with what happened twenty-five years ago, when the four of them lived together in a rambling warehouse, fueled by ambition, and where nothing — absolutely nothing — mattered more than being part of the group?”

I quite enjoyed Jo’s debut crime novel, The House of Now and Then, and I am looking to this new tale of psychological suspense.

Australian author Matthew Reilly is best known for his wild, over-the-top thrillers that have captivated readers around the world. However, with recent books he has been spreading his wings a bit more and with his latest, The Detective (Macmillan, 21 October 2025), he steps back from the fantastical themes of his recent books, and heads into the realm of the crime novel with a sharp social edge:

“For 150 years, women have been going missing in an isolated corner of the American South. And all of the investigators who went in search of them – from 1877 to the present day – have disappeared, too.

Now Sam Speedman, a most unique private detective, is on the case. Brilliant, direct and disarming, Sam is … different. He’s not your average private detective. But then again, this isn’t your average case. For not even he will be prepared for what he will find.”

It sounds intriguing and from what I have read so far, it is a fast paced tale with Reilly’s panache for simple language and attention grabbing scenes clearly on display.

So in all, plenty of good releases to keep you reading all the way to Christmas and beyond.