MARCH MAYHEM: EXCITING NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 2025

The criminal reading year is well underway, with some very good 2025 books by Ronni Salt, Cara Hunter, Geoff Parkes and Ashley Kalagian Blunt already out and being enjoyed.

March is always a big release month, and this year is no different with some outstanding crime and thriller titles coming our way. I have already highlighted Harlan Coben’s Nobody’s Fool which is due out 25 March, https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/new-harlan-coben-book-for-2025-nobodys-fool-and-looking-back-at-missing-you-before-its-release-on-netflix/, but there are also plenty of other good releases to look out for. I have picked out nine of the ones that should have wide appeal, including a clutch of promising looking debuts.

Probably the one I am most looking forward to is Adrian McKinty’s Hang On St. Christopher (Blackstone, 4 March 2025).

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. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his
pension. 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?

The Sean Duffy novels are always a dark and enjoyable read and I have already ordered my copy.

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.

Another one with a dark edge to it is Charles Beaumont’s A Spy At War, (Canelo, 27 March 2025).

Beaumont’s A Spy Alone was an outstanding piece of credible espionage fiction, and his new book once more follows former British Intelligence spy Simon Sharman down a dangerous path.

Simon Sharman is out for revenge, pursuing the assassin of his former colleague across war-torn Ukraine. Back in London, a Russian spy ring at the heart of the British Establishment remains active and a secret, and trying to sabotage the West’s support for Ukraine. Meanwhile on the battlefields of the Donbas, Simon may have a chance to locate the assassin but larger forces are at work and he finds himself sucked into a terrifying shadow conflict between Russia and the West.

A Spy At War apparently scarily foreshadows some of the recent events in the Ukrainian conflict following the election of Trump, and it is sure to be another thrilling mix of authentic spycraft and riveting plot. It is high on my list to read.

A Spy At War is released in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2025 and in Australia on 1 April 2025.

Offering a lighter change of pace is Kristen Perrin’s follow-up to her sparkling 2024 debut, How To Solve Your Own Murder. How To Seal Your Own Fate, (Quercus, 27 March 2025), follows on shortly after the events in the first book and once more finds amateur sleuth Annie Adams on the trail of a murderer.

It is autumn in Castle Knoll and Annie Adams is busy settling into her new home. She doesn’t find Gravesdown Hall particularly cosy, especially since she found two dead bodies there over the summer. What’s more, ever since she arrived in the village, Annie has had the creeping sense she’s being watched.

Lonely, and desperate for some company, Annie starts talking to a stranger she meets in the grounds of the estate. The striking old woman introduces herself as Peony Lane, the fortune-teller who predicted Great Aunt Frances’ murder all those years ago. And now she has a fortune to tell Annie.

Desperate not to fall into the same trap as Frances, Annie flees Peony Lane, refusing to hear any of her grim predictions. But she can’t outrun Peony for long, as hours later she finds her, dead on the floor of Gravesdown Hall, a ruby-hilted dagger plunged into her back.

But who killed the mysterious fortune teller and why? And can Frances’ library of evidence help Annie solve the case?

How To Solve Your Own Murder was a very enjoyable murder mystery with an engaging and witty narrator and plenty of references to classical mystery novels. I am expecting the same of the new book. Here is a link to my review of How To Solve Your Own Murder: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/march-mayhem-new-crime-from-zoe-sharp-kristen-perrin-and-gavin-strawhan/

How To Seal Your Own Fate is released on 27 March 2025 in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Another big release will be the new Tess Gerritsen novel, 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 Summer Guests is published in Australia and the United Kingdom on 25 March 2025 and in the United States on 18 March 2025.

Leading off the debuts is Chris Chibnall’s dark murder mystery, Death At The White Hart, (Michael Joseph, 27 March 2025).

Chibnall is the creator of the cult television show Broadchurch, and Death At The White Hart should provide the same mix of murder, clues and small town secrets. As the tagline says: Nothing keeps a small town together like secrets.

Here is a summary provided by the publisher:

When Nicola Bridge moves back to Dorset after years as a CID detective in the big city, the last thing she expects is for the picturesque village of Fleetcombe to become a grisly crime scene. Jim Tiernan, landlord of the White Hart pub, has been found dead, the body staged with macabre relish on an isolated country road. As soon as she starts asking questions, Nicola realises everyone in the village has something to hide. Frankie, the hairdresser who isn’t a skilled enough actor to conceal they’re lying about the night of the murder. Eddie, the delivery driver whose heart starts racing every time he drives past the crime scene. Deakins, the embittered farmer still living in the shadow of a supposedly murderous ancestor. And even the little girl, hidden at the top of the playground slide, who’s watching them all.

Whispers. Rumours. Lies. But Nicola knows that somewhere among them, a killer is hiding in plain sight.

Death At The White Hart is released in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2025 and in Australia shortly after.

Also featuring a small British town and old secrets is Sarah Hornsley’s Bad Blood, (Hodder & Stoughton, 27 March 2025).

What would you do if your childhood sweetheart was accused of murder?

Justine Stone left her hometown in Essex eighteen years ago, and she hasn’t looked back since. Married to Noah, with a beautiful house and a high-flying career as a barrister, she rarely thinks about her ex-boyfriend, Jake.

Until she’s given her first murder case as a prosecutor, and sees his face staring up at her, charged with a horrific double murder.

The Jake that Justine loved would never have hurt anyone. But as evidence begins to come to light, Justine has to face up to the fact that perhaps she never really knew Jake at all. And as the past begins to merge with the present, Justine’s life that she’s worked so hard to create begins to fall apart. In order to find the truth she is forced to return to her home town to investigate.

You can run from your secrets. But they’ll always catch up with you.

Bad Blood is released in Australia and the United Kingdom on 27 March 2025.

From Australian author Laura McCluskey comes the Scottish-based suspense thriller The Wolf Tree, (Harper Collins, 28 February 2025).

A gripping and atmospheric debut crime thriller set on an isolated Scottish island … where outsiders are not welcome.

‘There’s always someone whispering about something.‘

On a small island off the coast of Scotland, an isolated community is grieving. Eighteen-year-old Alan Ferguson was found at the foot of the lighthouse – an apparent suicide.

DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate. A raging storm keeps them trapped on the island for five days. And the locals don’t take kindly to mainlanders.

As George and Richie question the island’s inhabitants, they discover a village filled with superstition and shrouded in secrets. But someone wants those secrets to stay buried. At any cost.

The Wolf Tree is released in Australia on 28 February 2025 and in the United Kingdom on the same day, but with a different cover.

Described as fierce, wild fun and having razor sharp writing, I am quite keen to try Hannah Deitch’s Killer Potential, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 20 March 2025).

A scholarship kid with straight As and massive potential, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she’d be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as a private tutor to the children of Los Angeles’s super-rich.

Everything changes when Evie arrives at the Victor family’s lavish mansion for her weekly lesson to discover, not the bored teenager she excepted, but pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr and Mrs Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the house.

Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives.

Suddenly at the heart of a nation-wide manhunt, Evie finds that her mysterious companion, who refuses to speak, has quickly become the most important person in her upside-down life. Meanwhile, the press runs wild with Evie’s story – anointing her the new Charles Manson, a blood thirsty ninety-nine percenter looking to start a class war.

Droll, dark and deeply insightful, Killer Potential is an edge-of-your-seat break-neck ride, a queer love story, and a darkly funny critique of the horrors of late capitalism and how the stories we’re sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives.

Killer Potential is released in Australia and the United Kingdom on 20 March 2025 and in the United States on 18 March 2025.

So certainly a diverse range of crime books on the way. In addition to the above I would also recommend a couple that I have previously previewed: White King by Juan Gomez-Jurado (Macmillan, 11 March 2023) and The Body Next Door by Zane Lovitt (Text, 4 March 2025).