“Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
If you love edge-of-your-seat suspense, shocking twists and dark mysteries, 2025 is shaping up to be an incredible year for thrillers. From psychological mind-benders to high-stakes crime dramas, this year’s releases promise to keep readers hooked from the first page to the last. Whether you’re a fan of unreliable narrators, gripping police procedures or domestic thrillers housing shocking secrets, there’s something on this list for you. In this roundup here at What We Reading, we’re diving into some of the best new thriller books of 2025, featuring must-read releases from established authors and exciting new voices in the genre alike. These books are all brimming with tension, unexpected twists and unforgettable characters, making them the perfect go-tos for thriller lovers looking for their next fix.
King Of Ashes – S.A. Cosby
Kicking off our list of the best new thriller books from 2025 is S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes. When Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals, and his sister, Neveah, exhausted after holding his family and their business together. With her father, Neveah runs the Carruthers Crematorium in the Virginia town of Jefferson Run. But, despite seeing death every day, mortality appears closer than ever when it comes to light that their father’s crash was no accident.
To help his family, Roman, a financial whiz with a knack for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, begins to work for the criminals while Neveah attempts to solve the mystery of what happened to their mother, who vanished when they were teenagers. Unbeknownst to the criminals, Roman is far less of a pushover than his brother, and he is willing to do anything to save his family.
Release date: 10 June 2025
Julie Chan Is Dead – Liann Zhang
Julie Chan, an employee in a supermarket with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet tumultuous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were total opposites of one another and rarely ever spoke. Yet, when Julie stumbles upon Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she leaps at the opportunity to live the life she has always been jealous of.
Transforming into Chloe is much easier than expected. Julie deftly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer lifestyle, complete with designer clothes, a meticulously ordered skincare routine and hordes of adoring followers. However, Julie soon discovers that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but in Liann Zhang’s new thriller book from 2025, Julie Chan is Dead. As events spiral out of control, Julie discovers sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise, realising that she may be about to become their next target in the process.
Release date: 29 April 2025
You Are Fatally Invited – Ande Pliego
When infamous anonymous novelist J.R. Alastor enlists former aspiring writer Mila del Angel to host a writing retreat at his private manor off Maine’s coastline, she jumps at the opportunity – especially because she has one of the guests in her crosshairs. On the guest list are six thriller authors, all of them masters of deceiving, misdirecting and stirring up mayhem.
Alastor and Mila have orchestrated a week of games, trope-fueled riddles and perhaps even a few jump scares along the way. It’s the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But, when a guest winds up dead – and not the one she had planned for – Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether. A gripping locked-room mystery and an enthralling homage to the likes of And Then There Were None, Ande Pliego’s You Are Fatally Invited is one of the new thriller books 2025 any hardcore fans of the genre shouldn’t miss out on.
Release date: 11 February 2025
The Man Made Of Smoke – Alex North
Dan Garvie’s life has been plagued by the crime he witnessed as a child, an experience that saw him barely escape from an encounter with an infamous serial killer. He has since dedicated his life to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to find justice for innocent victims. So, when his father dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death.
In his new thriller book from 2025, Alex North brings readers a shocking and suspenseful tale of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets and the fight we all face attempting to escape the trauma of the past in The Man Made of Smoke.
Release date: 13 May 2025
The Queens Of Crime – Marie Benedict
London, 1930. Five of the greatest female crime writers have joined together in a secret society to show to the world that they are no longer willing to serve as second-class citizens. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers and including the likes of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Baroness Emma Orczy, they dub themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? To solve the murder of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have had ties to the highest echelons of the British establishment.
May Daniels was a young English nurse on an excursion to France who appeared to disappear into thin air as she and her friend prepared to board the ferry back home. When her body is found months later, it bears all the hallmarks of a locked-room mystery that all of these women have become renowned for. Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime is an exhilarating new 2025 thriller book based on a true story that follows these talented women as they embark on their investigation and fight to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world.
Release date: 11 February 2025
Don’t Let Him In – Lisa Jewell
Restauranteur Paddy Swann was the life and soul of the party, right up until a man pushed in the path of a train, upending the lives of his twenty-something daughter, Ash, and wife, Nina, in an instant. Shortly after Paddy’s funeral, the two receive a strange note and package from Nick Ratcliffe, an old friend of his, as well as a nondescript lighter that he had once owned. The gift unexpectedly brings Nick and Nina closer, much to Ash’s dismay.
Martha is a small-town florist with dreams of growing her business. She lives with her second husband, Al, her baby, and two sons from a previous marriage. They never seem to have any money, Al is always travelling and, after a sudden emergency, Martha realises that something needs to change. In Lisa Jewell’s latest 2025 thriller, Don’t Let Him In, neither Nick nor Al may be who they claim to be, leading these women on a shocking collision course with devastating consequences.
Release date: 24 June 2025
The Crash – Freida McFadden
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately attempting to put her disappointing life firmly in the rearview mirror. So, she sets out on a road trip to stay with her brother until she can work out her next move. But, after driving straight into a blizzard, she soon finds herself stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and a broken ankle. In what appears to be a miracle, she is saved by a local couple who offer her a room in their cabin until the worst of the snow clears.
But something isn’t right. Tegan thinks she is just waiting out a storm, but slowly begins to realise that she is in grave danger. The safe haven she has been promised isn’t what she thought it was, and agreeing to stay inside may prove to be her most deadly mistake in Freida McFadden’s latest novel, The Crash.
Release date: 28 January 2025
Beautiful Ugly – Alice Feeney
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, gets out of her car, and then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the side of a cliff, the headlights are on, the driver’s door is open, and even her phone is there. But, his wife has vanished.
A year on, Grady is still grappling with grief and remains desperate to know what happened to Abby. Unable to write anything, he retreats to a tiny Scottish island in an effort to begin getting his life back together. Then, he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. Another one of the best new 2025 thriller books from the serial bestselling Alice Feeney, Beautiful Ugly is a gripping and deliciously dark mystery all about marriage.
Release date: 14 January 2025
Famous Last Words – Gillian McAllister
It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and the life of new mother Camilla is about to be upended forever. After months of being on maternity leave, she will drop off her infant daughter at her daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. But, when she wakes up, her husband, Luke, isn’t by her side. In his place is just a cryptic note.
Then it begins. A hostage situation in London, with her husband right at the heart of it. But, instead of being one of the hostages, the police inform Camilla that Luke, a doting husband and eternal optimist, is the gunman. From the bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time, Gillian McAllister’s 2025 thriller novel Famous Last Words promises a pulsating reading ride brimming with shocking, gut-wrenching revelations.
Release date: 25 February 2025
Kills Well With Others (Killers Of A Certain Age #2) – Deanna Raybourn
After over a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are called back into action. When they receive a call from Naomi Ndiaye, the head of an elite assassin organisation known as the Museum, they know they are about to confront the greatest challenge of their careers.
Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, all of them tied to a shadowy figure: an Eastern European gangster who rules over her business empire with an iron fist and who plays puppet master in global affairs. Noami is convinced this criminal queen is hellbent on revenge, bumping off agents who try and stop her. And the four ageing agents are next on her list. In her 2025 thriller, Kills Well with Others, Deanna Raybourn follows the four women as they embark on a global mission to root out the Museum’s mole, relying on all their experience and wit to hunt down both the gangster and assassin before they become their latest victims.
Release date: 11 March 2025
Check Out These Books You Have To Read In 2025
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
