23 greatest thriller and murder-mystery books we read in 2025

Award-winning dystopian literature to get into this summer

the novel follows clarice starling, a younger fbi agent who forms a relationship with an imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer, hannibal lecter, to catch one other active killer, dubbed buffalo invoice. To catch buffalo bill, starling must dive into the dark mind of not one, however two, of the evilest criminals the world has ever seen. One of probably the most established legal thriller writers working today, john grisham has seen ongoing success with his first guide, “a time to kill,” which stays a favorite amongst his followers.

The fourth lady is a twisty thriller about secrets, friendship, and the darkish issues individuals bury. It starts with the mysterious disappearance of a teenage lady on promenade night time and only her three closest pals know what really occurred. Now, twenty-five years later, those self same pals return to the scene, and one other body turns up. Wendy corsi staub does an excellent job switching between past and present while slowly revealing the truth.

A celebrated writer of asia-focused fiction, yangsze choo is launched her profession with this stunning book. Decide up mexican gothic, the critically acclaimed 2020 bestseller from silvia moreno-garcia, a latinx author whose books belong on every reader’s shelves. This supernatural tale options an unlikely heroine in noemí taboada. A fashionable debutante, she is beckoned to the mexican countryside by her just lately married cousin, who begs her to save her from a terrible fate.

A psychological puzzle, the story will get more compounded and complicated with the flip of each web page, but the ending comes together in an extremely satisfying way. Lee kid’s debut novel, and the first book to characteristic jack reacher, “killing ground” is among the greatest thrillers to return out of the previous few a long time. In the book, reacher, an ex-military policeman, is accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Whereas trying to clear his name, he stumbles upon some heavy felony activity that he takes it upon himself to cease.

With just one method to entry the property, which has been washed out by a raging storm, it seems a killer is of their midst. As is usually the case, nearly everyone is hiding one thing, with secrets slowly coming to gentle – these are parsed out at an accelerated pace as the story picks up velocity. When it comes to a few of the finest police procedural thrillers, karin slaughter has quite the back catalogue. Despite this being the 12th e-book in the will top thriller novels trent series, it could be read as a standalone (it additionally options the character of sara linton, from slaughter’s grant county series). The lincoln lawyer himself, mickey haller, is the place this book actually shines. The character’s charisma is all-encompassing and has you on his

Side from the get-go. the true-crime thriller appears at the homicide of the clutter family, in addition to the investigation, trial, and conviction of their killers. Impressed by the real-life case of elisabeth fritzl, a younger girl who was kidnapped and held hostage by her own father within the cellar of his house for twenty-four years, “room” is a bone-chilling crime novel. The story is narrated by a 5-year-old boy named jack, the son of a kidnapped woman, and follows the duo as they try to escape their small world for a a lot larger one. In 2015, a movie starring brie larson was released based on the award-winning guide. Described as compulsively readable, ruth ware’s psychological thriller “the girl in cabin 10” is set on an ultra-exclusive cruise ship crusing