It’s always a pleasure too look back on the year and think about the reads that left a lasting impressions. I have five very different books here but they do share two things: great characters and engrossing storytelling. In 2025, Vera took a final bow leaving a vacancy for a North-Eastern TV detective and rumour has it Mari Hannah’s Kate Daniels might be in line. Which brings us to the first on my list:
5 – Her Sister’s Killer by Mari Hannah
The fifth outing for detective duo Frankie Oliver and David Stone is an emotionally charged police thriller because it’s Frankie’s most personal and complex challenge. As a newly promoted inspector, Frankie has to leave the Murder Investigation Team run by Stone to take over a rural station in Northumberland. Her first posting as team leader in charge of an area comes with a first case as senior investigating officer – a nasty road traffic accident.
While what’s happening in the present is intriguing, the heart of the novel is Frankie’s past. She has spent all entire adult life under the shadow of her sister’s murder back in 1992. She is haunted by the need for justice for Joanna and finally a possible link to the killer has emerged. Stone is pursuing it without her, which opens up a rift between them. The possibility of resolution makes this a thrilling read. If Frankie does find out who killed Joanna, will it bring her peace? This proves that a police procedural can be an intriguing mystery with a touch of grit and lots of heart. Read our review here.
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4 – Son by Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger
French author Johana Gustawsson and her Norwegian collaborator Thomas Enger are each formidable in their own right. With Son they’ve joined forces to begin a new crime series set in Norway. It features Kari Voss, a psychologist with specialist skills who works for the Oslo police department on a brutal murder investigation. All the while she is coping with the fact that her own son went missing seven years ago.
Son is a dark slice of devilish Nordic noir. In a village outside, Oslo two teenage girls have been murdered. In the frame is Jasper, who happened to be the best friend of Kari’s missing son. She believes he is innocent and sticks up for him but will have to convince others she is right. A consultant psychologist, Kari is an expert in body language, which helps her understand victims, survivors and perpetrators. This is a well-told story but is elevated by the devastating and powerful ending which packs a strong emotional punch. A taut, chilling psychological drama. Read our review here.
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3 – Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan
Welcome to the James Bond universe, Vaseem Khan. This is his first adventure featuring Major Boothroyd – AKA the gadget man Q – who here becomes an amateur detective. The new M has kicked him out of the Secret Service but he is still only in his 50s. Q moves back to the little town he grew up in, leafy Wickstone-on-Water, where faced with the tragic loss of his best childhood friend he investigates the murder.
Peter was a world-leading quantum mechanics scientist. He left a cryptic note for Q, who is immediately intrigued by the puzzle it represents. Mastering quantum physics has become the holy grail of science. Q realises that the research Peter was doing might have made him a target for rivals and criminals.
Quantum of Menace is very much a crime novel in the cosier vein, with clues and red herrings to delight readers who love puzzles. The Q we meet here is clever and resourceful. He’s fun to be with, discombobulated by retirement and stretched to new limits by the case. For the fact that this leaves you feeling better about them world when you finish it than when you started, it’s a solid winner. However, if you want an out-and-out spy novel this is not for you. Read our review here.
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2 – Gunner by Alan Parks
Gunner begins a new detective series set during World War II. It’s 1941 and former detective turned soldier Joe Gunner returns to Glasgow to recover from wounds sustained at Dunkirk. His old boss DI Drummond takes him to a murder scene to get him intrigued in the case, hoping to rope him back into the force. The unidentified man was bludgeoned, the only clue is his dental work. It’s clear the victim was German.
So Gunner starts his investigation at the local POW camp where the commander claims no prisoners are missing but Gunner is sceptical. Most of those held at the camp are low-risk civilians. However, one hut houses ‘black’ Germans, the Nazis and soldiers, awaiting transfer to more secure facilities. The scene is set: lost love; bitter gangland enemies; and the identity of the dead man is at the heart of a powerful conspiracy story.
It all makes for an intelligent and pacy crime thriller that sprang from the story of Nazi minister Rudolph Hess and his mad, crash-landing peace mission to Britain. Parks knows Glasgow and this is like experiencing the wartime streets of a city under siege from bombers and suffering the deprivations of war. Joe Gunner is a solid new creation. He has his demons, he has a quiet wit and an instinct that pays off when he’s on the hunt. Read our review here.
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1 – The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead
The influence of the Golden Age on modern crime fiction is huge. Readers simply cannot get enough of the closed-circle murder mystery and the locked-room puzzle. No one knows the tropes and tricks better than Tom Mead.
The House at Devil’s Neck is the fourth outing for illusionist/detective Joseph Spector, brilliant on stage and off, though very much out of the theatre here. It’s August 1939, as a small group of passengers assemble in London for a journey to a haunted mansion at an isolated spot called Devil’s Neck. The building was used as a World War I field hospital and the spirits of its patients are said to roam the corridors.
Among the travellers is sceptic Joseph Spector, who has seen charlatans up close but cannot resist the adventure. Back in London, Scotland Yard Inspector George Flint has a strange case to deal with. It relates to an investigation a quarter of a century earlier over the inheritance of a fortune. Naturally, the two cases are connected.
Tom Mead employs his extensive invention to create an ingenious story, and manages to reach a level of originality that proves both locked-room and closed-circle are as exciting as ever in his hands. Clever, intriguing and entertaining. Read our review here.
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