As the genre dictates, once again it is time to gather the suspects and review the clues for this season’s crime fiction preview. The findings are clear: as has been the case for some time, blends are big. “A lot of today’s readers are not exclusively drawn to one particular genre over another and in fact read actively across different genres, hopping in between mystery, romance, fantasy, literary fiction, and more. So it makes perfect sense that writers would begin to take elements from different genres and mash them up,” says Jane Nutter, senior marketing and communications manager at Kensington. Horror, romance, and historicals are the genres of choice for a crime fiction mix and mingle, but other trends are on the rise as well. Look for more books featuring older sleuths; titles centered on books, writing, and libraries; and works featuring serial killers. Mysteries set within games are big too, as are all things Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, and AI.

The Horror, the Horror

Blurring lines between genres continues to be a growing trend in crime fiction, with horror, in particular, bleeding over at a prodigious rate into mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. A number of examples explore the trend, including Linwood Barclay’s Whistle (Morrow), in which a toy train set found in the new home of a mother and her young son sets in motion a horrifying chain of events. In Jennifer Givhan’s Salt Bones (Mulholland), the disappearance of Malamar Veracruz’s sister Elena years ago and the number of recently missing women in the Mexicali borderlands may be connected. Miranda Smith’s Smile for the Camera (Bantam) brings actor Ella Winters back in contact with her castmates from her breakout horror film Grad Night, but will everyone survive the reunion? Scott Carson mixes Cold War espionage, horror, and a coming-of-age story in Departure 37 (Atria). Margaret’s participation in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial could be the death of her in Caitlin Starling’s The Graceview Patient (St. Martin’s). Danielle Valentine, whose last book, Delicate Condition, was snapped up by the American Horror Story franchise, teases readers with the secret ingredient that may be part of a famous recipe in The Dead Husband Cookbook (Sourcebooks Landmark).

Detecting with Benefits

Forget Netflix and chill, the hottest thing in dating—at least in the world of crime fiction—is solving a mystery with the object of one’s affection. Marriage-proposal planner Jess Bricker’s latest job involves dealing with a dead body and grumpy yet sexy chef Dean Osbourne in Molly Harper’s A Proposal To Die For (Berkley). Detective Rav Trivedi’s investigation into the murder of a record executive hits a snag when he starts falling for the lead suspect in Erin Dunn’s He’s To Die For (Minotaur). Two rival spies with a romantic past must figure out a way to work together again if they don’t want their latest mission to be their last in Ally Carter’s The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold (Avon). Allison Brennan gives her book-loving protagonist Mia Crawford the chance to actually become involved in a real mystery (and do a little flirting along the way) in Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds (Mira). In Tess Sharpe’s No Body No Crime (MCD), PI Mel Tillman’s latest case involves finding the love of her life, with whom she shares a dark secret. Professor Penny Collins’s plans for the summer didn’t involve going on the lam with a hot “fixer” named Anthony in Holly James’s The Big Fix (Kensington). Kate Posey’s debut, Serial Killer Games (Berkley), features Dolores dela Cruz, who can’t tell if office temp Jack Ripper is the new love of her life or a serial killer. And Billie McCadie’s boring life in Eastport suddenly turns interesting when a cryptic love letter addressed to “Gertrude” turns up in Etiquette for Lovers and Killers (Putnam) by Anna Fitzgerald Healy.

Puzzling Out the Past

Historicals have long been blended with mysteries. Authors are pushing the timeline in opposite directions this season as Christina Dodd reaches back to Renaissance Italy in the second entry in her Rosie Montague series, Thus with a Kiss I Die (Kensington), and Frank “Fraver” Verlizzo edges into the 1970s with his debut, The Scenery of the Crime (Camel), in which theatrical ad execs Vic Senso and Bettie Balbo investigate a murder on Broadway. Two different historical queens play detective this season: Elizabeth II returns in SJ Bennett’s The Queen Who Came in from the Cold (Crooked Lane), and a young soon-to-be-queen Victoria features in Darcie Wilde’s new series launch, The Heir (Kensington). The 1920s are roaring in historical mysteries, with Olesya Lyuzna’s Glitter in the Dark (The Mysterious Pr.), featuring a reporter and a PI investigating a murder in Harlem; Claire Anderson-Wheeler’s The Gatsby Gambit (Viking), in which Jay Gatsby’s younger sister Greta spends the summer sleuthing at their West Egg mansion; and Murder at the Wham Bam Club (Kensington) by Carolyn Marie Wilkins, which stars a young, widowed psychic investigating the mysterious disappearance of a woman last seen in the company of a jazz trumpeter. Fans of Jane Austen–inspired mysteries will have several titles to savor in 2025, which marks the 250th anniversary of her birth. There’s Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator (HarperVia) by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar and The Rushworth Family Plot (Vintage), the latest in Claudia Gray’s series featuring amateur sleuths Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, plus the Austen-era historical mysteries A Terribly Nasty Business (Random) by Julia Seales, The Art of a Lie (Atria) by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, and Revenge, Served Royal (Minotaur), Celeste Connally’s third “Lady Petra Inquires” book.

CALL TECH SUPPORT

Since artificial intelligence seems to be taking over every corner of life as readers know it, it should be no surprise that one of the new trends in crime fiction is mysteries and suspense novels that incorporate AI and other technologies. In Stacey Abrams’s Coded Justice (Doubleday), Avery Keene, a lawyer, investigates when her mega tech client’s new AI system, designed to revolutionize health care, appears to have a few murderous bugs. CEO Kaitlin Goss must team up with ex-nun Maude Brookes when the world’s most powerful supercomputer goes on a rampage against humanity in Paul Bradley Carr’s The Confessions (Atria). Mae Byrne’s daughter Fiona creates the ideal AI-generated love interest, but when Fiona disappears, Mae must find her daughter before it is too late in Ava Roberts’s The Perfect Boyfriend (Severn River).

Comfy with Crime

As with genre blends, the ongoing stress on cozies shows no signs of weakening. Indeed, the forecast is sunny and bright. In the category of tried-and-true favorites, including culinary, crafty, and cuddly (that is, pet-related) cozies, is Sandra Jackson-Opoku’s debut, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes (Minotaur), in which the sweet potato pie at a Chicago soul food café becomes the center of a murder investigation. Allie Pleiter launches a new series with One Sharp Stitch (Kensington), in which Shelby Phillips takes over her mother’s needlework shop, only to become stitched up in a murder investigation. In How To Talk to Your Dog about Murder (Crooked Lane), a debut by Emily Soderberg, pet behaviorist Nikki Jackson-Ramanathan becomes the main suspect in the murder of her wealthy new employer.

The boundaries of the cozy mystery world are also expanding with upcoming mysteries, such as Leonie Swann’s Big Bad Wool (Soho), continuing the sleuthing adventures of the sheep of Glennkill, and The Dead Come To Stay (Hanover Square) by Brandy Schillace, in which a neurodivergent American amateur sleuth teams up with an English detective in a case involving the black-market trading of rare artifacts and antiquities.

While small-town settings are practically obligatory elements of cozies—see, for instance, the village of Pudding Corner in Paula Sutton’s The Potting Shed Murder (Kensington)—Larissa Ackerman, senior communications manager at Kensington, predicts that “cozy mysteries set in more urban areas will continue to see a rise in popularity.” A perfect example is Sam Lumley’s How To Have a Killer Time in DC (Kensington Cozies), a debut featuring a young, gay, autistic travel writer who finds murder and romance while on an assignment in the nation’s capital.

Prime Time

Senior sleuths have been a mainstay of the mystery genre ever since Agatha Christie introduced readers to the redoubtable Miss Marple in 1927. Recent novels have shown a new appreciation for detectives in their golden years, as evidenced by the popularity of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, whose Untitled fifth installment will appear from Viking in 2025, along with a film adaptation starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and David Tennant. There’s also Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age, whose protagonists return this year in Kills Well with Others (Berkley), and the sequel to Jessie Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) (Berkley). It was only a matter of time before The Golden Girls, television’s most famous senior quartet, made the leap to print mysteries with Rachel Ekstrom Courage’s Murder by Cheesecake (Hyperion). Romance author Uzma Jalaluddin pivots toward mysteries with Detective Aunty (Harper), in which widowed Kausar Khan investigates when her thirtysomething daughter Sana is accused of murder. Retired homicide detective Sean Tanner becomes the latest member of a enthusiastic crime-solving group of retired detectives, prosecutors, and forensic experts when he investigates the death of a neighbor in Brian Thiem’s The Mudflats Murder Club (Severn River). Bruce Nash’s All the Words We Know (Atria) features octogenarian nursing home resident Rose; her memory may not be the sharpest, but she knows her friend’s recent death was no accident. Author Mel Pennant debuts with A Murder for Miss Hortense (Pantheon), introducing readers to a retired nurse investigating a death that may be connected to a community group with which she was once involved. And don’t miss A Senior Citizen’s Guide to Life on the Run (Severn House) by Gwen Florio, author of the Lola Wicks mysteries.

Once Is Not Enough

The term “serial killer” wasn’t coined until 1974, but readers have long been fascinated by this particular breed of murderer. Berkley Executive Editor Jen Monroe says, “There’s always been an appetite for serial killer stories, and the rise of true crime has made the subject even more mainstream. Readers are drawn to the dark side of human nature and the way that these ‘monsters’ hide in plain sight. Serial killers challenge our understanding of humanity and morality in a way that captivates.” For instance, Alex North returns with The Man Made of Smoke (Celadon), in which criminal profiler Dan Garvie, who barely escaped a childhood encounter with a serial killer, returns home to look into his father’s mysterious death. In Of Flesh and Blood (Crooked Lane) by N.L. Lavin and Hunter Burke, a forensic investigator has a classic 23andMe moment when he discovers that he shares genetic ties with an infamous serial killer. Christina Dotson’s Love You to Death (Bantam) shows that crashing weddings with one’s best friend could prove to be deadly. And within one of the three seemingly normal Rowling sisters lurks SHE, an evil entity bent on killing, in KD Aldyn’s Sister, Butcher, Sister (Poisoned Pen).

In some of this season’s titles, the murderers are the protagonists. Rob Hart brings back Assassins Anonymous (a 12-step program for killers) in The Medusa Protocol (Putnam). In Samantha Downing’s Too Old for This (Berkley), serial killer Lottie Jones comes out of retirement to deal with a pesky journalist asking too many questions. Paula Bomer takes a darkly comic approach in The Stalker (Soho) with Robert Doughten Savile, a con man whose only true gift is preying on women. And even serial killers take vacations; at least, that’s the case in Sienna Sharpe’s A Killer Getaway (Sourcebooks Landmark).

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP CHRISTIE

Agatha Christie, the most famous mystery author of all time, is having a moment in 2025. Sophie Hannah returns with her sixth Christie estate–approved Poirot mystery, The Last Death of the Year (Morrow). Book conservator Tory Van Dyne gets some unexpected help solving a murder from a woman claiming to be the very much deceased Christie in Amanda Chapman’s Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library (Berkley). Colleen Cambridge’s Two Truths and a Murder (Kensington) brings back Phyllida Bright, fictional housekeeper to Christie, for another adventure in sleuthing. And Christie’s own Murder on the Orient Express gets the deluxe collector’s-edition treatment from Morrow this fall.

Booked for Murder

A trend we see across genres, bibliocentric and academia-set stories, is also permeating crime fiction. Perhaps this is unsurprising, as escaping into a book—or a mystery about books—is a beloved experience. Anthony Horowitz writes another marvelous metafictional mystery featuring book editor Susan Ryeland and fictional detective Atticus Pünd: Marble Hall Murders (Harper) has Susan working with a new author who is continuing the Pünd series. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont’s new project—completing her late father’s final book—may finally reveal the truth about an old murder case in Julie Clark’s The Ghostwriter (Sourcebooks Landmark). Bailey Seybolt’s Coram House (Atria) features a true crime writer investigating two mysterious deaths at a Vermont orphanage. Mystery author Berit Gardner’s writing conference in France is rudely interrupted by the discovery of the corpse of the keynote speaker in Just Another Dead Author (Poisoned Pen) by Katarina Bivald. An anonymous letter sent to the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary may help newly hired editor Martha Thornhill finally solve the mystery of her missing sister in Susie Dent’s Guilty by Definition (Sourcebooks Landmark). Literature professor Emily Reilly faces off with a killer who gains inspiration from great works of fiction in Murder by the Book (Mira) by Amie Schaumberg. Mary Anna Evans’s The Dark Library (Poisoned Pen) centers on a dark secret hidden somewhere in the library of rare books at Rockfall House.

New Voices

Readers in search of something new are in luck: 2025 will feature a wealth of fresh voices offering their unique perspectives on the world of crime fiction. Former special-ops pilot and current treasure hunter Ethan Cain tries to connect the dots between an ancient scroll and the destruction of the International Space Station in Ryan Pote’s Blood and Treasure (Berkley). In Christy J. Kendall’s Erie Ending (Camel), the manager of Ohio’s Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge investigates when an environmental activist is murdered on the shores of Lake Erie. Romance novelist Emily Sullivan makes her mystery debut with A Death on Corfu (Kensington), in which a widow and a grumpy mystery writer work together to solve the murder of a young maid. In Jennie Godfrey’s 1979-set The List of Suspicious Things (Sourcebooks Landmark), a pair of young girls hope to discover why women are disappearing from their Yorkshire neighborhood. Iceland’s First Lady Eliza Reid debuts with Death on the Island (Poisoned Pen), in which an ambassador’s wife tries to pick out the murderer from among a closed circle of suspects gathered on an island. Three decades after their father was tried for murder, two siblings attempt to discover whether he was guilty or not in Victor Suthammanont’s Hollow Spaces (Counterpoint). Lacey N. Dunham’s publisher bills her new book, The Belles (Atria), as Mean Girls meets The Secret History. Lastly, don’t miss A Case of Mice and Murder: The Trials of Gabriel Ward (Raven) by Sally Smith, a gas-lamp historical debut set in the legal world of London’s Inner Temple and featuring a barrister who finds a dead body on his doorstep.

THE GAME IS AFOOT

Whether it’s old-school Clue or today’s Murdle, mysteries and games have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship for decades. These upcoming titles merge games and mystery-solving in one neat, bookish package. Readers can channel their inner Encyclopedia Brown when they try to solve an infamous cold case from the 1970s in Hazell Ward’s The Game Is Murder (Berkley). In Karen Dukess’s Welcome to Murder Week (Gallery), American Cath decides to use her late mother’s ticket to a murder mystery event in England. In Alex Pavesi’s Ink Ribbon Red (Holt), friends celebrate a birthday by playing a game that one of them invented called Motive Method Death, while six people try to win a prize for solving the murder of a fictional writer in Martin Edwards’s Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife (Poisoned Pen).

Well-Loved Writers

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of learning that a favorite author has something new in the works. Fortunately, 2025 has in store a veritable feast of crime fiction treats from bestselling novelists. Flatiron launches its Pine & Cedar imprint with S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired crime epic. James Lee Burke is back with Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie (Atlantic), another in his “Holland Family” series. With his trademark acerbic sense of humor, Carl Hiaasen delves back into a politically polarized Florida in Fever Beach (Knopf). A doorman at a luxury apartment building in New York City becomes entangled in murder in Chris Pavone’s The Doorman (Macmillan). In Karin Slaughter’s new stand-alone, We Are All Guilty Here (Morrow), a small town is torn apart when two teenagers disappear. Readers will be treated to a long-lost, eerily timely novella by the late Elmore Leonard when Picket Line (Mariner) is finally published. Joe Hill brings out King Sorrow (Morrow), and Ruth Ware follows up The Woman in Cabin 10 (coming soon to Netflix) with The Woman in Suite 11 (Gallery). Lou Berney turns in Crooks (Morrow), an epic crime family saga, while Martha Grimes returns with another Richard Jury mystery, The Red Queen (Atlantic), and FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller is called in when five college students disappear in Alex Finlay’s Parents Weekend (Minotaur). Cozy mystery queen Leslie Meier serves up the first in her new “Empty Nest” series, A Matter of Pedigree (Kensington), while Laura Lippman ventures into cozy territory with Murder Takes a Vacation (Morrow). Finally, Megan Miranda offers up another of her twisty suspense novels, You Belong Here (S. & S.).

Case Never Closed

As crime fiction’s parameters collapse and expand, the genre’s skilled purveyors of clues and consequences are busy not just refining the standard courses but also plotting new avenues. From crime-solving sheep to secrets hidden in libraries to the questionable authorship of a beloved Edwardian book to a swoony romance conducted during a murder investigation, there are no limits to the genre’s subjects, plotlines, characters, or abiding appeal.

Helping readers anticipating the buzzy film adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club? Trying to navigate the myriad of genre blends with a crime fiction edge? Hoping to find a smart cozy to read after a hard day? Consult our listing of forthcoming titles, available as a downloadable spreadsheet, with trends indicated: bit.ly/4aRddnX

After working in public libraries for more than 30 years, John Charles retired and now plays literary matchmaker at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ. The coauthor of four nonfiction books, including The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Mystery, Charles has been reviewing books for a number of publications, including Library Journal, ever since fax machines were the hot new thing in technology.