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.
