My Rave Reads of 2025
My Rave Reads of 2025
#RaveReads2025
Here are my Rave Reads of 2025. Throughout December I’ve been inviting author friends to share one of their Rave Reads of 2025. Today it’s my turn and I’m going all out with my top six reads of the year. #RaveReads2025
My Best Book of the Year
Nicci Cloke is the queen of intricately woven plots and disparate viewpoints. Her protagonists are five men linked to a woman on trial for multiple murder – her father, her barrister, her former school friend, her ex-lover and a journalist.
Each narrator addresses their chapters to 'you', the woman on trial, and builds a picture of her backstory, their relationships and the events that led to the murders. But are we seeing the full picture? The author knows how to keep the reader guessing and reading.
Clever. Clever. Clever.
Please see my full review here.
It’s the second time this author has hit the top spot on my lists of the year. Written under the penname of Phoebe Locke, The Tall Man, published in 2018, made my list when I read it in 2020. I eagerly await Nicci’s next book.
My Other Rave Reads of 2025:
The Crime Writer by Diane Jeffrey
Matt, a crime writer, finds himself chief suspect in his wife’s disappearance. When I read this one in advance of its publication in March, I predicted it would make My Rave Reads of 2025. It oozes character and suspense. My full review is here.
This is another one I predicted would make My Rave Reads of 2025 when I read it before its publication in April. Alex, a bestselling true-crime writer, takes the job as a ghostwriter for a project about historic abuse cases at Coram House, a former orphanage. She soon senses the full truth still isn’t known and embarks on a dangerous investigation. My full review is here.
The best book yet in the outstanding Cal Lovett Files crime series. The author weaves timelines together seamlessly and keeps up the page-turning suspense. My full review is here.
Evocative, suspenseful and well-written. After serving a long sentence for the murder of her former employer’s daughter in a drowning incident at a luxury villa, Josie returns to the Côte d'Azur. Also returning is Nina, younger sister of the dead girl, whose testimony sent Josie to prison. Both women are to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster. My full review is here.
The Surfacing by Claire Ackroyd
From the start, I was hooked on this tight, controlled and tense thriller of buried secrets, difficult friendships, family conflict and murder, featuring a unique narrator. My full review is here.
I also loved:
A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf (published 2020) – historical fiction. Review here.
The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs – comedy crime caper. Review here.
The Other Girl by Emily Barr – Young Adult thriller. Review here.
Isabella’s Not Dead by Beth Morrey – poignant yet suspenseful mystery. Review here.
Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor – thriller. Review here.
Dead of Night by Lisa Gray – thriller. Review here.
Almost Nothing Happened by Meg Rosoff – Young Adult crime caper. Review here.
The Counting Game by Sinéad Nolan – suspenseful mystery. Review here.
Other Authors’ Rave Reads of the Year Posts
#RaveReads2025
Linda Huber, Georgia Hill and Maggie Christensen
Michael Wood, Penny Batchelor and Terri Nixon
Fergus Smith, A.S. Andrejevic and Anne Coates
Della Galton, Brian Price and Gillian Walker
Peter Garrett, Mary-Jane Riley and Victoria Gemmell
Rob Gittins, Rosemary Gemmell and Julie Anderson
Amanda Brittany, Daniel Aubrey and Sheila Bugler
Hilly Barmby, Jo Furniss and Eva Glyn