2025’s Best Books of the Year So Far: Mystery, Thriller & True Crime edition

Unusual Suspects

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I love the way readers are taken into a Jamaican community in England, with all their different personalities and lives in the past and present. Bonus: the audiobook narrator, Debra Michaels, does a fantastic job of subtly changing between all the characters, and it’s lovely to hear the Jamaican accent.

Miss Hortense, who emigrated from Jamaica to England in the ‘60s, was once part of the Pardner group which came to be (after a disastrous funeral) in order to financially help the local Jamaican Brits. But Miss Hortense was kicked out following her sleuthing in a series of attacks on women in her community. Now there’s a dead man and a lot of questions to be answered, which Miss Hortense—a fellow nurse with a no-nonsense attitude and a police officer nephew—is going to get to the bottom of.

I love that the inside of the book is as good as its gorgeous cover, that it has a tiny “magical” element that is introduced in a way that feels like it exists in our current world, and that the character’s voice grabs you from the opening.

High schooler Sariyah has a tiny power that is really a curse: she can always hear what everyone needs. As you can imagine, it can be very overwhelming to be in a room and hear that the person next to you needs a pencil, and someone else needs money, all overlapping each other. On top of that, her mom is currently depressed and Sariyah’s doing her best to look after her younger brother when her best friend goes missing. Now she’s willing to put herself in danger using her power in order to help…

Between Last Call and The Man Nobody Killed, Elon Green has become an automatic buy author for me. The true crime genre (nonfiction books, the world) needs more journalism that is deeply researched and that reads like narrative nonfiction. In my original review, I wrote, “If this isn’t on Best of Lists and award lists at the end of the year, it’s because judges/writers didn’t read it.” and I fully stand by that. Plus—I’m not sure I’ve ever said this before—even the author interview at the end of the book is worth reading.

This is a thoughtful, insightful dive into Michael Stewart’s life, killing, and the court case against the officers charged that took place in NY in the ‘80s. The book has everything from a juror who had to face the judge after being caught playing amateur sleuth to Madonna, Spike Lee, and the ‘80s NY art scene. Bonus: Dion Graham narrates the audiobook!

I love a well-done exploration of the long arm of crime/trauma without sensationalizing or feeling like trauma porn, and books that mix genres like The God of the Woods.

Isabel is sexually assaulted by a home intruder while her husband Edward is tied up. Now, 30 years later, they are divorced and facing the attacker’s trial. How does a traumatic experience change you, your life, your relationships, and the way others see you and treat you?

S.A. Cosby’s writing makes me feel like I’m physically along for the ride, including when I’m screaming nooooooooooooooooooooo! I love that I deeply know his characters even when they break my heart, and especially when I don’t like their choices.

Some things to know about Roman Carruthers’: his family runs a crematorium in the town he grew up in; his mom disappeared when he was a teen and rumors have always pointed at his father; his sister has been running the crematorium because his father is in a coma. The latter is why Roman returns home, clearly with a ton of baggage to face. What he’s not expecting is to have to save his brother from a bad decision that ultimately will pit Roman against the local crime boss. But Roman thinks he’s always in control and can fix anything for his family, so he keeps trying to dig them out as the danger continues to escalate and he refuses to think that he’s been cornered…