Welcome to our running list of the best mystery books of 2025, which we'll continue to update through the end of the year. 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.
Of all the mystery books shortlisted for prizes in 2025, our favourite was probably The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore. As well as being shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards—the most prestigious US award for a mystery—the book also garnered good reviews in a number of eminent publications, including the New Yorker and the New York Times:
The winner of the Edgar for best novel was The In-Crowd by Charlotte Vassell, described as “a bitingly witty…crime novel about the bad behaviour of the rich and powerful”:
The UK’s most prestigious mystery award, the ‘Gold Dagger’, went to a historical mystery, an increasingly popular genre. The Book of Secrets is set in Baroque-era Rome:
If you’re looking for a psychological thriller set in the U.S., The Business Trip is a good 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:
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:
When it comes to new mystery books, 2025 has been a great year for instalments in existing mystery series. For a police procedural set in a bleak landscape in Ireland, The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan is a good choice:
If you love long mystery 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) are the way to go. You do, however, need to start with the first book in the series, The Cuckoo’s Calling; otherwise, it’s hard to be invested in the characters. The books work particularly well as audiobooks, all narrated by Robert Glenister.
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):
Other historical mysteries on prize shortlists this year include one set in Renaissance Italy:
And another set 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:
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:
November 19, 2025
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