Writers Who Kill

 

The Writers Who Kill Favorite 2025 Reads

By Heather Weidner

When we are not writing mysteries and thrillers, we are readers, too. Here are the Writers Who Kill 2025 favorite reads.

Fantasy

James Jackson: Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

James Jackson: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Historical Fiction

Lori Roberts Herbst: This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Susan Van Kirk: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

Mystery – Cozy

Sarah E. Burr: Trebled Waters by Leah Dobrinska

Heather Weidner: Basket Case by Nancy Haddock

Grace Topping: The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

E. B. Davis: Coeds and Cattails by Jana DeLeon

Grace Topping: The French Paradox by Ellen Crosby

Heather Weidner: Vice and Virtue by Libby Klein

Grace Topping: Murder in Venice by T.A. Williams

Molly MacRae: Cat on the Edge by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

E. B. Davis: The Violet Hour by Victoria Benton Frank

Lori Roberts Herbst: How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

Susan Van Kirk: Villain in the Vineyard by Judy L. Murray

Grace Topping: Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood

Mary Dutta: Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Molly MacRae: The Librarians by Sherry Thomas

 

Mystery – Historical

Marilyn Levinson and Susan Van Kirk: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Judy L. Murray: A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

Heather Weidner: Disco Dead by Marcia Talley

Judy L. Murray: The Blackout Murders by Anna Elliott and Charles Veley

 

Mystery – Legal Thriller

Marilyn Levinson: The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins

Heather Weidner: The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

 

Mystery – Thriller

Sarah E. Burr, Grace Topping, and Heather Weidner: Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

James Jackson: Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby

Heather Weidner: King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby

James Jackson: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Susan Van Kirk: The Sequel by Jean Korelitz 

Annette Dashofy: We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter

Mystery – Traditional

Lori Roberts Herbst: The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose

Susan Van Kirk: Apostles Cove by William Kent Krueger 

Grace Topping: The World‘s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant by Liza Tully

Heather Weidner: The Black Wolf by Louise Penny

Shari Randall: The Three Coffins (UK title: The Hollow Man, 1935) by John Dickson

Annette Dashofy: At Midnight Comes the Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Grace Topping: A Grave Deception by Connie Berry

 

Mystery – Police Procedural

Martha Reed: The Silent Trumpet by Bill Gormley

E. B Davis: Gray Dawn by Walter Mosley

James Jackson: The Waiting by Michael Connelly

Grace Topping: Niki Unleashed by James M. Jackson

 

Mystery – Young Adult

James Jackson: The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

James Jackson: The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

James Jackson: The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston

 

Nonfiction

Debra H. Goldstein: Heart of a Stranger by Angela Buchdahl

Heather Weidner: Heaven Help Us: How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighbors, and Build the Future by John Kasich

Molly MacRae: Joyride by Susan Orlean

Susan Van Kirk: You Never Know by Tom Selleck

Molly MacRae: Cokie: A Life Well Lived by Steven V. Roberts

 

Poetry

Susan Van Kirk: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Science Fiction

Lori Roberts Herbst: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

 

Women’s Fiction

Kait Carson: The Women by Kristin Hannah

Lori Roberts Herbst: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

What were your favorite reads from last year?

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. She blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.

Her short stories appear in a variety of anthologies, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a crazy Mini Aussie Shepherd.