Welcome to our running list of the best mystery books of 2025, which we'll continue to update through the end of the year. A broad range of books are filed under 'mysteries' these days, and we try to give a flavour of what's out there. On this list, we also include books that have been nominated for prestigious awards, like the Edgars in the US and the Dagger Awards in the UK. Bear in mind that these are the best books of the previous year, rather than the very latest—with the advantage that they're already likely to be in paperback.
When it comes to new mystery books, 2025 has been a good year for instalments in existing mystery series. For a police procedural set in a bleak landscape, The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan is a good choice:
If you love long books where you spend a lot of time with the main protagonists, the Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith (a pen name for J.K. Rowling) is the way to go:
For psychological thrillers, it’s hard to go wrong with books by Ruth Ware, a British novelist:
As well as being shortlisted for the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, domestic thriller The God of the Woods by Liz Moore also garnered good reviews in a number of eminent publications, including the New Yorker and the New York Times:
If you’re looking for a psychological thriller set in the U.S., The Business Trip is another option, set partly in a trailer park, partly in the glamorous world of TV news, and partly in Atlanta:
Featuring a podcaster and a lippy main protagonist, Listen for the Lie is quite dark but also a lot of fun:
If you want a mystery that makes you giggle, the Finlay Donovan series fits the bill. The books don’t need to be read in order, and you can start with the new one from 2025 (the fifth in the series):
A more soulful book is Guide Me Home, the final book in Attica Locke’s trilogy set in Texas, featuring a now ex-Texas Ranger as the main protagonist:
The Hunter, the sequel to The Searcher, is another beautiful book, set in a small village in Ireland, where a divorced American cop has retired:
There are a number of historical mysteries on prize shortlists this year, two set in Italy (one of which won the ‘Gold Dagger,’ the UK’s most prestigious mystery book award) and one in Washington state in the late 19th century:
Also shortlisted for the Gold Dagger in 2025 was a dual timeline mystery set in the English countryside:
A very different book also made the shortlist. The Bell Tower is a human drama set in a high-security prison in the United States:
The In-Crowd was the winner of this year’s Edgar for best novel, the most prestigious US mystery book award. It’s the second book in a series set in London and featuring Detective Inspector Gaius Beauchamp:
Also on the Edgar prize shortlist was this Argentinian noir meets coming-of-age novel:
The Tainted Cup belongs to a popular new hybrid genre, fantasy mystery, but is probably more fantasy than mystery:
Another debut author to make the prize shortlists this year, Sarah Easter Collins’s book is about a sister who disappeared from home:
September 23, 2025
Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]
