Every year it gets more difficult to narrow down a list of psychological, social, and domestic thriller books alongside the locked room, murder, and historical mysteries—there are just too many good books out there. Know that for every title on this list, there were three more that had to get cut, so no matter which way your reading tastes tend, you have a thrilling 2025 in store.
Here we have inheritance scandals that sound like Succession plotlines, “eat the rich” family curses run wild, bloodbaths courtesy of MLMs and podcasters, crossover romantic thrillers, and the ticking clock of a brain aneurysm to solve your own murder. Our sleuths are amateurs and professionals alike, numbering among their ranks museum detectives, matchmakers, therapists, TV detectives, heart transplant recipients, and faux influencers. Follow them from Karachi to Sag Harbor, snowed-in motels to New Year’s Eve Airbnbs, message boards to road trips to suburbia. I’m starting with the Airbnb, but you can’t go wrong.
The Note by Alafair Burke
Release Date: January 7 from Knopf
Why We’re Excited: A thriller trope that I personally find overused involves estranged friends linked by some youthful stupidity, an adolescent secret they’re all protecting. What intrigues me about Alafair Burke’s latest, however, is that the stupid secret is due to drunken bravado by a trio of grown-ass women with obvious chips on their shoulders thanks to 15 years of friendship (and fuck-up) history.
While on a girls’ weekend in the Hamptons, they leave a dumb note for some tourists for their own amusement—but then one of the tourists goes missing, and it’s all the fault of May and her friends. Add in racial and socioeconomic tensions among these thirtysomethings, and this sounds juicier than a wine tour.
Publisher’s Description: It was meant to be a harmless prank.
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.
But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she’s had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.
When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.
What had they gone and done?
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
Why We’re Excited: Oof. “Excited” might not be the word for this one—it’s moreso the feeling that Clay McLeod Chapman has his finger on the pulse of the moment not only in a national sense, but possibly also my personal pulse? This social horror tale makes me nervous but in an anticipatory way; yes, it’s a deeply disturbing premise but also a grimly affirming one, and I’m eager to see how far he carries it.
Publisher’s Description: Noah has been losing his polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of her many conspiracy theories. But when his phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles and his parents locked in a terrifying trancelike state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it.
Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.
But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart—literally—as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend glued to a screen. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn—but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?
This ambitious, searing novel from one of horror’s modern masters holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.
Vantage Point by Sara Sliga
Release Date: January 14 from MCD
Why We’re Excited: We as humble readers can’t help but be compelled by upper-class curse narratives, in part due to horrified fascination at witnessing a Kennedy-esque clan meet gruesome ends, but probably also a smidgeon of schadenfreude for all that money and privilege not being able to save them from freak accidents or misfortunes.
So to set a mystery within a family losing its members to a supposed curse already challenges us to examine what we love about those narratives; then there’s the added layer of, as one blurb points out, how social media warps how people believe they’re being perceived versus the reality. The deepfakes really hammer that home; I have a feeling we’re going to see that plot element in a number of thrillers, especially ones hinging on paranoia and the inability to trust in what’s true.
Publisher’s Description: The old-money Wieland family has it all—wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed.
Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later, they’ve mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara’s best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point.
Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate—an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn’t remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?
Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grasp on reality. But she knows the truth: the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now, it’s coming for her.
Sara Sligar, the critically acclaimed author of Take Me Apart, returns with a shocking family drama full of suspense. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point carefully unravels a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the nature of “truth” in our digital age.
The Last Room on the Left by Leah Konen
Release Date: January 14 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Why We’re Excited: It’s becoming a welcome pattern to spend the winter with a Leah Konen thriller set in upstate New York. This year is the Catskills, as alcoholic writer Kerry makes a last-ditch attempt to not lose her book advance by setting up a self-directed writing retreat at a motel by working as the caretaker. But from the moment she checks in, she becomes aware of another hard-partying female guest, whose stuff is still strewn about her room—and whose body shows up in the blizzard outside. Except that Kerry seems to be the only one aware of this body, even as she’s sure that the killer is still stalking her and the motel’s other inhabitants.
Konen’s last few mysteries have twists hinging on complicated female friendships and the dark costs of reinventing oneself; I’m curious to see how the latter, if not also the former, plays into Last Room on the Left.
Publisher’s Description: Kerry’s life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal—the one that was supposed to change everything—is looming, she can’t write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It’s the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh.
But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ…
Cross My Heart by Megan Collins
Release Date: January 14 from Atria Books
Why We’re Excited: The press release for Megan Collins’ latest pitches this as Gillian Flynn crossed with You’ve Got Mail, but the Meg Ryan vibe I’m getting more of is When Harry Met Sally’s Sally Albright—extremely high-maintenance but unapologetic about it. Yes, this is a thriller involving a woman who develops a psychotic crush on the widowed husband of her heart donor… but it sounds like we’re on her side from the start, which I find just deviously funny. Especially once she nabs the guy and then considers that maybe she doesn’t want him, that maybe he’s got some skeletons in his romantic history.
Publisher’s Description: Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.
A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.
As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie’s keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break—or is she next?
Dead Money by Jakob Kerr
Release Date: January 28 from Bantam
Why We’re Excited: This murder mystery feels like Succession if it were told entirely from the point-of-view of Gerri Kellman—someone embedded in that world but with enough perspective to not get entirely sucked in. Well, more like someone with an ever-shrinking opportunity to still escape the madness, at least until they get mixed up in all the blood and bonds.
Publisher’s Description: In her job as unofficial “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.
But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems.
The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.
Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.
Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.
Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.
Anything at all.
Big Name Fan by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare
Release Date: February 28 from Kensington Books
Why We’re Excited: Having grown up in early-2000s fandom, some of which involved watching Big Name Fans self-destruct via sock puppet accounts in real-time, I’m excited to see such jargon making its way into a cozy mystery-slash-romance.
This plot is also a great way to tap into the current nostalgic frenzy in television right now, between rewatch podcasts (this one brings to mind the One Tree Hill women’s podcast Drama Queens) and decades-later reboots that are equally likely to be successful or to fail. The latter could certainly be a motive for murder…
Publisher’s Description: Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer aren’t detectives, but they play them on TV. Well, played, past tense. The iconic cult hit that was Craven’s Daughter ended five years ago, and their friendship died along with it. Fans were disappointed that the pair’s legendary chemistry went unfulfilled—and other fans were crushed that the actual spark between actresses Bex and Sam didn’t pay off, either. The network never intended for two women to get romantic, in life or onscreen, despite the fans. But the bigger tragedy was the loss of their dear friend, makeup artist Jen Arnot, whose accidental death cast a pall over the series’ last episodes.
Now the network has decided on a reunion special, and Bex and Sam are thrust together once more as hosts of a rewatch podcast that will feature favorite episodes. Their first guest—a megawatt star who played a murder victim early on—drops a bombshell. Among the millions of pixels of fanfic written about the show online, one truly prolific author, known in the fiction world as the show’s Big Name Fan, was an insider, almost certainly someone from the cast or crew.
As the podcast moves along—and the spark between Bex and Sam threatens to burn down the studio—the pair realize they’re faced with two actual mysteries: Who is their Big Name Fan? And was Jen’s death an accident, or did someone want her dead? Sifting through clues as they question cast and crew, the duo will need to separate fact from fiction as they make their personal partnership into an unmistakable canon…
Gothictown by Emily Carpenter
Release Date: March 25 from Kensington Books
Why We’re Excited: Remember when, stuck inside during lockdown, we all daydreamed of escaping to some remote Italian town and renovating a villa for next to nothing? There were plenty of reasons why that was nothing more than a fantasy, but it sounds as if Gothictown will detail exactly how it’s too good to be true—at least, the American version of it.
I sometimes look askance at thrillers where the town elders are exerting an undue amount of power, but the fact that this one hearkens to both Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” gives me (appropriately grim) hope for a disturbing tale of trying to start over.
Publisher’s Description: The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once-thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true… or a devil’s bargain.
A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised—two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a “gentle jewel” with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signs…
But Billie’s sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana’s founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.
There’s something about “Gentle Juliana”—something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she’s starting to wonder how, and if, they’ll ever leave.
The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips
Release Date: April 1 from Soho Crime
Why We’re Excited: This series debut traces histories both global and personal, as archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani must work again with the Karachi police—the first time being three years ago, when her niece went missing but they let the trail go cold within just a few months. This time they’re calling her in for her expertise, involving a mummy purportedly from Persepolis, a potentially history-changing discovery. It sounds like there’s a treasure trove of emotional depth, a vibrant setting, and some familiar genre conventions (can’t wait to meet Gul’s “team of unlikely misfits”). Plus, it’s inspired by a real-life antiquities scandal!
Publisher’s Description: When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance and distracts herself through work: a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, she is one of the country’s leading experts in archaeology and ancient civilizations, a hard-won position for a woman.
But there is no news of Mahnaz. Instead, Gul is summoned to a narcotics investigation in a remote desert region in western Pakistan. In her wildest dreams, Gul couldn’t have imagined what she’d find there: amid a drug bust gone wrong, there is a mummy—life-size, seemingly authentic, its sarcophagus decorated with symbols from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The discovery confounds everyone. It is both too good to be true, and for Gul, too precious to leave in careless or corrupt hands.
Aided by her team of unlikely misfits, Gul will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it, even as her quest for the truth puts her in the throes of a dangerous conspiracy and threatens to collide with her ongoing search for Mahnaz. A portrait of a city fueled by corruption and a woman relentlessly in pursuit of justice, The Museum Detective is an exciting, gritty new crime thriller that announces a whip-smart and brilliant sleuth and builds to a stunning, emotional conclusion that readers won’t soon forget.
The Last Session by Julia Bartz
Release Date: April 1 from Atria Books
Why We’re Excited: It’s not quite celebrity sex cult (now where are all the NXIVM thrillers?!), but Julia Bartz’s latest pulse-pounder sounds like it’ll scratch that same salacious itch. Especially the very fun twist of throwing a social worker into a boundary-pushing wellness center, where she has her own repressed memories to unpack under the watch of the most unethical gurus…
Yep, it’s that same slow-mounting tension of watching someone step into a situation that you know is going to turn out disastrous, which makes you root even more for them to claw their way back out.
Publisher’s Description: When a catatonic woman shows up at the psychiatric unit, social worker Thea swears she knows her from somewhere. She’s shocked to discover the patient holds a link to a traumatic time in her past. Upon regaining lucidity, the patient claims she can’t remember the horrific recent events that caused her brain to shut down. Thea’s at a loss—especially when the patient is ripped away from her as suddenly as she appeared.
Determined to find her, Thea follows a trail of clues to a remote center in Southwestern New Mexico, where a charismatic couple holds a controversial monthly retreat to uncover attendees’ romantic and sexual issues. Forced to participate in increasingly intimate exercises, Thea finds herself inching closer not only to her missing patient, but also to tantalizing answers about her harrowing past. However, time is running out, and if she stays for the last session, she too might lose her mind… or worse.
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Release Date: April 8 from Harper
Why We’re Excited: I’ve been searching for a book that conjures the spirit of one of my absolute favorite movies Clue, and this might be the one to do it: a murder mystery party where suspects play predetermined archetypes, an Airbnb likely full of hidden rooms not featured on the listing (and perhaps a lurking host)—but also real gravitas about grief and loss juxtaposed with solving a murder in real-time? Now that’s more compelling than any clue.
Publisher’s Description: A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve. It is Benjamin’s birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery-themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d’oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else’s heart is broken.
In the morning, all of them wake up—except Benjamin.
As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother’s death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems.
Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss?
The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed
Release Date: April 8 from Bantam
Why We’re Excited: This romantic thriller reminds us how dangerous falling in love can be, and how fraught weddings get—not just the worry about a dress mishap or seating chart snafu, but actual sabotage and murder. I love the idea of the amateur sleuth being the matchmaker behind these nuptials, someone who obviously possesses useful mystery-solving skills like attention to detail, the ability to read people, and probably a healthy sense of risk. And her partner in crime-solving is her fake fiancé? Frosting atop what sounds like a fun romp.
Publisher’s Description: Business has never been better for Nura Khan, a third-generation matchmaker in Atlanta. Her exclusive clientele benefits from her impeccable track record. And while a single thirty-one-year-old matchmaker would normally raise some perfectly threaded eyebrows in the community, Nura’s childhood best friend, Azar, is willing to double as her pretend fiancé at her clients’ weddings—even though Nura’s feelings for him might not be so pretend.
But all that glitters isn’t gold. While it’s not uncommon to get the occasional hate mail from rejected prospective clients, Nura is blindsided after a couple’s carefully constructed wedding implodes, the first in a cascading chain of suspicious and increasingly terrifying events. Someone is taking things too far, and with Azar and her matchmaking team by her side, Nura embarks on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that threatens not only her safety but everything she’s worked so hard to build.
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
Release Date: May 13 from Atria Books
Why We’re Excited: The Parent Trap meets influencer culture? Hell yes. I’m seeing a number of mysteries revolving around content creators (shout-out to Anna-Marie McLemore’s Kardashians-esque The Influencers) out next year, but this one has hooked me with the impersonating-your-estranged-dead-twin premise. It’s a modern spin on the Everywoman gaining access to the upper echelon in all its luxury and sinister secrets, complete with the set piece of a lavish influencer getaway on a remote island.
Publisher’s Description: Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.
Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.
Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott
Release Date: June 24 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Why We’re Excited: I just reread Abbott’s You Will Know Me over the summer after the Olympics, which is to say that she’s got a book for every tier of girlhood or womanhood. It’s actually shocking that it’s taken her this long to take on MLMs, especially as plenty of exposés and documentaries have us primed to expect the darkness within. So, how will Abbott find a new way into depravity? If it’s anything like the gut-clenching twists driving Know, or the competing female scientists thriller Give Me Your Hand, it’s going to be bloody good fun.
Publisher’s Description: When Harper moves in with her sister Pam, she’s surprised to find Pam doing so well financially after her messy divorce. After all, Pam’s ex-husband wiped their bank accounts, even stole from their kids. But Pam managed to find her way back. Thanks to the Wheel…
Twice a month, the women of the Wheel meet. New members bring cash to the party that is pooled together and then gifted to one lucky member. It’s all about giving back. Lifting each other up. As women should. As they must.
But when Harper is invited, with the promise of an end to her financial burdens, the sisters inadvertently unleash a darkness lurking within the group. If they’re not careful, it might just get them killed.
Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pavesi
Release Date: July 22 from Henry Holt and Co.
Why We’re Excited: There have been a lot of recent thriller stories involving writers on retreat, but I’m even more tickled by the idea of dear old friends penning amateur tales of murdering one another—the pettier, the better. Write what you know becomes kill how you know, and perhaps having all that mess out in the open will spur one of them to become their best self and root out the murderer from among their best frenemies.
Publisher’s Description: Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention: Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: Everyone chooses two players at random, then writes a short story in which one kills the other.
Points are awarded for making the murders feel real. Of course, when given this assignment, it’s only natural for each friend to use what they know. Secrets. Grudges. Affairs. But once they’ve put it in a story, that secret is out. It’s not long before the game reawakens old resentments and brings private matters into the light of day. With each fictional crime, someone new gets a very real motive.
Can all six friends survive the weekend, or will truth turn out to be deadlier than fiction?
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Release Date: July 22 from Bantam
Why We’re Excited: In the past few years I’ve seen a number of thrillers in which the protagonist gets the opportunity to solve their own murder, but those usually involve speculative elements in the form of ghosts and/or clones.
The hook on Holly Jackson’s (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder) adult debut is darkly compelling: Suffering from a fatal head injury, a young woman has one week to figure out who attacked her. At the end of that week, she will succumb to her injuries in the form of an aneurysm, so she might as well go out knowing who wanted her dead. Just like AGGGTM, I bet this will get snatched up as a Netflix series before we know it.
Publisher’s Description: In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.
Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.
Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.
She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.
Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.
She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:
Jet is going to solve her own murder.