2025 has been an exciting year for thriller fans everywhere looking out for the next big twist. It’s seen an intriguing surge in metafiction and other wildly experimental novels, but there’s been an equally strong showing from sequels and veterans of the genre. From time-travelling detectives to Golden Age tributes, here are five of the year’s best murderous offerings:
Elly Griffiths, The Frozen People
The mere mention of ‘time travel’ and ‘crime fiction’ in the same sentence will be enough to send some readers running for the hills, but trust me: it works. Having retired her long-running archaeologist detective Ruth Galloway back in 2023, Griffiths’s new detective Ali Dawson takes investigating cold cases to new extremes working for a secret police unit dedicated to historical crimes. Soon enough, Ali finds herself teleported back to 1850, looking into a Victorian gentlemen’s club with some dark secrets and a complex connection to her own life back in the present day. It’s impossible to describe without making it sound like children’s fantasy, but Griffiths dials down the potentially ridiculous to focus on the timeless business of detection and her surprisingly ordinary protagonist. With a sequel already on the cards, it looks set to become the first of a genre-bending series which will surely win over many a reluctant fan.
Louise Hegarty, Fair Play
Part crime, part literary fiction, Hegarty’s debut novel slots firmly into the metafictional, wildly experimental category I mentioned earlier. The first section appears to be a completely normal set-up, as Abigail hosts a murder mystery–themed birthday weekend for her brother Benjamin and his friends. The next day, Benjamin is found dead, and the narrative divides into two strands. In one, Abigail has to deal with the painful, all-too-real mystery of how to deal with the grief most crime fiction would rather ignore. In the other, renowned private detective Auguste Bell arrives to investigate this classic country house murder, openly discussing the endless “rules” whodunnits must follow along the way. Crime fiction might usually be thought of as escapism, but Hegarty expertly shows how its foibles and formulaic plots can be used for something completely different and genuinely powerful. If you like a tidy story with a neat ending, this might not be for you—but you’ll be missing out on a truly unique crime novel which leaves you with plenty of food for thought.
Holly Jackson, Not Quite Dead Yet
When browsing the shelves for the latest thrillers, it often feels like the writers are in a competition to see which of them can come up with the maddest concept and still pull it off. Best known for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Jackson’s first novel for adults can be pithily summed up in a single question: could you solve your own murder? It isn’t the first novel to try out this seemingly impossible twist, but it is one of the most original and best executed. Professional rich girl Jet lives a carefree, privileged life until she is attacked in her own home one Halloween. But she doesn’t die immediately; instead, she is given seven days to live before her brain injury turns fatal. Determined to finally do something with her life, she resolves to find her own killer before the week is out. Tonally, it hardly differs from Jackson’s young adult fiction, especially given Jet’s tendency to act like a reckless teenager. But that doesn’t take away from it being an immensely readable and compelling novel, with its constant twists and turns making it seem much shorter than its 448 pages.
Janice Hallett, The Killer Question
After a run of time travel, metafiction, and death-defying detectives, you might fancy something a bit more…down to earth. Hallett’s novels are always slightly unconventional—being made up of texts, emails, and audio transcripts rather than your typical prose—but this one takes place in the rather more normal world of country pub quizzes. This might not seem like the obvious set-up for a gripping thriller, but be assured it quickly spirals from a minor feud between the long-standing local teams and a group of unknown potential cheats into an intriguing mystery over what is really going on with landlords Mal and Sue and their connection to the body found in the local river. Every time you think you know what’s coming, Hallett pulls the rug from underneath you and changes the game entirely. And if you think all this fuss over a pub quiz sounds a little far-fetched, you clearly don’t remember the Barking Dog’s cheating scandal making national news back in November.
Martin Edwards, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife
Over the last few years, most crime authors have tried their hand at writing Christmas novellas to be piled up as stocking fillers on bookshop tables. Former Crime Writers’ Association Chair, Diamond Dagger winner, and general legend of the modern crime fiction world Martin Edwards doesn’t do things by halves, though, releasing this full-length festive whodunnit back in September. A group of six crime writers, publishers, and reviewers gather together for a murder mystery game with a life-changing prize. Obviously it’s not long until a real killer and a seasonally appropriate snowstorm strike, trapping the group up in the hills. Both the main plotline and the mystery-within-the-mystery are equally well-constructed, adding an extra interactive element to the main puzzle of trying to guess the murderer. It’s the perfect read for the festive season—and beyond.
Honourable Mentions
Terry Deary, Actually, I’m A Murderer: The Horrible Histories author proves himself equally adept at crime fiction with this light-hearted foray into the genre. Four strangers’ lives are forever changed when a fellow train passenger reveals himself to be a trained assassin, inadvertently causing decades of chaos for them all. A million miles away from Griffiths’ and Hegarty’s outlandish outputs, this has cosiness and old-fashioned charm aplenty.
Alice Feeney, Beautiful Ugly: Feeney’s latest novel seems onto a winner from the start, with bags of atmosphere and the intriguing set-up of a man seeing his missing, almost certainly dead wife alive on a remote Scottish island. So it’s a shame it all hinges on a frankly unforgivable plot twist, which risks surpassing even the average thriller fan’s willing suspension of disbelief.
Ragnar Jónasson, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer: Icelander Jónasson has moved from the gritty Scandi noir of his earlier work to a slightly less intense feel in his two latest novels. In this sequel to 2024’s Death at the Sanatorium, young police detective Helgi must balance the personal fallout from the first instalment with investigating the disappearance of a famous author (and a few other, less important subplots). A dramatic ending is guaranteed.
Whether you prefer your whodunnits to be comfortingly familiar or ever so slightly bizarre, 2025 has brought something for every kind of crime fan. Every year, new trends emerge even as the old classics refuse to get killed off. So that just leaves one mystery unsolved: what new twists and turns will 2026 bring?
Words by Eleanor Harvey
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