Post Toasts and Times Tributes

What with high-profile resignations, financial pressures, turmoil provoked by shifts of direction in its editorial section, and consequent subscriber cancellations, 2025 has been a trying year for The Washington Post. But at least that newspaper has maintained its tradition of publishing “best books of the year” lists. Two of particular pertinence have been released over the last couple of days.

First up we have critic and former librarian Karen MacPherson’s choices of “The 10 Best Mystery Novels of 2025”:

• The Black Wolf, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Bone Thief, by Vanessa Lillie (Berkley)
• Detective Aunty, by Uzma Jalaluddin (Harper Perennial)
• The Dentist, by Tim Sullivan
(Atlantic Crime)
• The Game Is Afoot, by Elise Bryant (Berkley)
• Guilty By Definition, by Susie Dent (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Hidden City, by Charles Finch (Minotaur)
• The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• The Killing Stones, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)
• Murder Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Then today brought us the Post’s “10 Best Thrillers of 2025” picks:

• The Ascent, by Allison Buccola (Random House)
• Dead Money, by Jakob Kerr (Bantam)
• Heartwood, by Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster)
• King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron/Pine & Cedar)
• Not Quite Dead Yet, by Holly Jackson (Bantam)
• The Note, by Alafair Burke (Knopf)
• A Thousand Natural Shocks, by Omar Hussain (Blackstone)
• The Vanishing Place, by Zoë Rankin (Berkley)
• We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough (Flatiron/Pine & Cedar)
• What Kind of Paradise, by Janelle Brown (Random House)

Additionally, three crime/mystery titles feature among the Post’s “10 Best Audiobooks of 2025”: Don’t Let Him In, by Lisa Jewell (Simon & Schuster Audio); The Impossible Thing, by Belinda Bauer (Dreamscape); and The Queens of Crime, by Marie Benedict (Macmillan Audio).

* * *

Also this week, Britain’s daily Financial Times has delivered two shorter selections of works from this genre. Seemingly ubiquitous authority Barry Forshaw named his five favorite crime reads:

• The Burning Grounds, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The Good Liar, by Denise Mina
(Harvill Secker)
• Kill Your Darlings, by Peter Swanson
(Faber & Faber)
• King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• Making a Killing, by Cara Hunter (Hemlock Press)

And Adam Lebor applauded these five thrillers:

• Appointment in Paris, by Jane Thynne (Quercus)
• The Protocols of Spying, by Merle Nygate (No Exit Press)
• Moscow Underground, by Catherine Merridale (Fontana)
• The Poet’s Game, by Paul Vidich (No Exit Press)
• Red Water, by Jurica Pavičić (Bitter Lemon)

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Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, which has been keeping a watchful eye on the release of this year’s “bests” rolls, points us as well to mystery- and thriller-fiction lists compiled by both the Chicago Public Library and the online audiobook retailer Audible.