Finding Fine Crime in All Corners

Every December, I wait eagerly to see which crime, mystery, and thriller novels Wall Street Journal critic Tom Nolan will declare are his favorites of the year. Tom has been a contributor to the Journal for the last 35 years, but I first became acquainted with him when I interviewed him for January Magazine in 1999. He and I seem frequently to share reading preferences, so I like to see if there are any books he chooses that for some reason I missed. Sure enough, in his new article, “The Best Books of 2025: Mystery” (scheduled to appear in tomorrow’s print edition of the Journal, but available online today—behind a paywall), there are a couple of yarns I skipped originally, and will now have to catch up with in the weeks to come.

Here are the 10 crime tales Tom found most rewarding in 2025:

• The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne, by Ron Currie (Putnam)
• Beartooth, by Callan Wink (Spiegel & Grau)
• Murder at Gulls Nest, by Jess Kidd (Atria)
• Kill Your Darlings, by Peter Swanson (Morrow)
• Fair Play, by Louise Hegarty (Harper)
• The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• A Case of Mice and Murder, by Sally Smith (Raven)
• The Doorman, by Chris Pavone (MCD)
• The Diary of Lies, by Philip Miller (Soho Crime)
• The Good Liar, by Denise Mina (Mulholland)

* * *

In the meantime, The New York Times has sprung forth with two lists of interest to Rap Sheet readers. The first comes from Sarah Weinman, and covers her choices of the “Best Mystery Novels of 2025”:

• Dead in the Frame, by Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday)
• At Midnight Comes the Cry, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur)
• Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man), by Jesse Q.
Sutanto (Berkley)
• Glory Daze, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Crime)
• Notes on Surviving the Fire, by Christine Murphy (Knopf)
• History Lessons, by Zoe B. Wallbrook (Soho Crime)
• Her One Regret, by Donna Freitas (Soho Crime)
• Death Takes Me, by Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth)
• Heartwood, by Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster)
• Hollow Spaces, by Victor Suthammanont (Counterpoint)

And Sarah Lyall submits her “Best Thrillers of 2025” selections:

• The Doorman, by Chris Pavone (MCD)
• Your Steps on the Stairs, by Antonio Muñoz Molina (Other Press)
• Venetian Vespers, by John Banville (Knopf)
• The Impossible Thing, by Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Dissolution, by Nicholas Binge (Riverhead)
• The Vanishing Place, by Zoë Rankin (Berkley)
• A Beautiful Family, by Jennifer Trevelyan (Doubleday)
• The Good Liar, by Denise Mina (Mulholland)
• The Predicament, by William Boyd (Atlantic Crime)
• The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)

Both of these pieces are scheduled for inclusion in the print version of The New York Times this coming Sunday, December 14.

* * *

Finally for today, CrimeReads has added its six picks of this year’s best espionage fiction to its previous selections of 2025’s top 20 crime novels and best debut novels:

• Oxford Soju Club, by Jinwoo Park (Dundurn Press)
• Clown Town, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• The Poet’s Game, Paul Vidich (Pegasus Crime)
• Pariah, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf)
• The Oligarch’s Daughter, by Joseph Finder (Harper)
• Mrs. Spy, by M.J. Robotham (Aria/Bloomsbury)