With the end of 2025 hurtling our way, “best books of the year” selections have been gushing forth from both print and Web publications. Our sister blog, The Rap Sheet, joined in the merriment this last week, posting lists of its contributors’ favorite crime, mystery, and thriller fiction from the last dozen months. There are six parts to its celebration, from that same number of critics:
As editor Pierce explained in his introduction to the series, “This marks the 10th time in a row that The Rap Sheet has showcased its contributors’ favorite crime, mystery, and thriller releases of the year. And the job never gets easier! Choosing favorites means revisiting everything we’ve read over the last 12 months, accepting the fact that there are other (usually many other) books we should have tackled but never quite got around to, and picking those works that struck us as the most well-plotted, most character-rich, and most memorably written that we enjoyed between January and December. We call these our ‘favorites,’ rather than the ‘best of the year,’ because we make no pretense of having read everything. Even if we had, these lists would still just express our opinions.”
There are many excellent reading (and holiday gift-buying) opportunities to be found in The Rap Sheet’s posts, including the latest works from Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Louise Hegarty, Lou Berney, Christa Faust, John Shannon, Laura Lippman, Jake Hinkson, Megan Abbott, Gerald Petievich, Oriana Ramunno, Ace Atkins, Tim Sullivan, and Mariah Fredericks, Sorry that checking out the choices will likely lead to an increase in the already daunting height of your TBR pile, but you could have worse problems. ◊
Leave a Reply