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This year, the game’s heaviest hitters shook the genre’s landscape, and then some. From the tactical pulse of Jack Carr to the covert intrigue from Brad Thor, the mind-bending puzzles of Dan Brown, the breakneck cat-and-mouse velocity of Harlan Coben (who teamed up with Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon), and the authentic wilderness grit of C.J. Box.
So many titans came out swinging, and now, just before we turn the page to 2026, I decided to have one more look at the very best of the best that 2025 had to offer.
Within this mega-list, you’ll find 100 must-read books—all mysteries and thrillers—and my review of each title. Though not ranked in any particular order, I’ve compiled a mix of my very favorite books from this year, so expect a few surprises as you scroll through to see which ones cracked my final Top 100.
Next week, I’ll crown which book from 2025 is my very favorite, so make sure to check back for that. In the meantime, though, have fun browsing the best of 2025, and be sure to leave me a comment to let me know if you discovered any new titles from the list.
Happy Reading!
P.S. — I agonized over this list and spent many, many hours compiling it (even more writing all the reviews). Therefore, the first 10 listed are free, and the other 90 require a paid subscription to The Real Book Spy Substack.
Gone Before Goodbye by Harlan Coben & Reece Witherspoon
Grand Central Publishing
An unforgettable suspense novel that combines the storytelling talents of Academy Award-winning actor Reese Witherspoon and internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben. Gone Before Goodbye is the story of a woman trapped in a deadly conspiracy—where uncovering the truth could cost her everything.
Maggie McCabe is teetering on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact. And it was all going to plan … until it wasn’t.
Upside down after a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion.
Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is … Gone Before Goodbye.
My Review: Heart-racing, twist-loaded, and impossible to put down, Coben and Witherspoon, a surprising dream team, deliver pure suspense with Gone Before Goodbye, a can’t-miss thriller that fans of smart, suspenseful, and emotionally charged fiction will devour in a single sitting. (Read my full review here.)
Cry Havoc: A Tom Reece Thriller by Jack Carr
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
From the “hottest author on the thriller scene today” (The Real Book Spy), #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr brings the worlds of special operations and CIA paramilitary units into direct collision in the jungles of Vietnam with his explosive new thriller introducing young Navy SEAL Tom Reece, a man torn between the blurred lines and allegiances of the military and the increasingly murky world of intelligence. This is how it all began…
1968. A time of division. A time of civil unrest. A time of war.
Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea.
The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong.
As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power.
Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.
From the Kremlin to the White House, from the streets of Saigon to the rugged A Shau Valley, along the paths of Ho Chi Minh Trail and into the secret war in Laos, Navy SEAL Tom Reece has an official mission assigned by Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, but it’s his unofficial mission that might get him killed.
From “master novelist” (Ballistic) Jack Carr comes a fast-paced and brutally realistic thriller, one that will make you question all you thought you knew about Vietnam, pressing “emotional buttons that other writers wouldn’t dare explore” (The Real Book Spy).
My Review: In his most explosive novel to date, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr pulls the pin and drops a grenade into the heart of the Vietnam War’s shadow conflict with Cry Havoc, his first book starring Tom Reece, available in stores October 7th. (Read my full review here.)
Thomas & Mercer
From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a twisted psychological thriller about the bonds of family and the disconnect between memory and the truth.
Come here. Come closer.
Halley James knows her marriage is over. But she’s not prepared for the rest of her life to fall apart too.
No one can hear you. No one can help you.
She just lost her job at the forensics lab. Her dad needs emergency surgery. But the biggest blow comes back home in Marchburg, Virginia, where she discovers her mother didn’t actually die in a car crash. Her mom was murdered—and her father lied about it all these years.
I have nothing to hide from you. Are you hiding something from me?
Since she was six years old, it’s been Halley and her dad. Now, she doesn’t know what to believe. Desperate for the truth, Halley chases down a lead in Brockville, Tennessee. But all there is not as it seems. Brockville’s utopian charm hides a chilling darkness. And Halley’s search for answers threatens to expose an unspeakable reality.
My Review: I’ve had the absolute pleasure of covering Ellison’s work for a little more than a decade now, and without question, she has been one of my favorite writers from the very start. I love everything she’s written, and her latest is yet another chilling thriller that will leave you breathless. Here, Ellison masterfully weaves a tale of buried secrets, fractured memories, and family betrayal, all into one unputdownable story that grabs you from the start and never lets go. I was on the edge of my seat as Halley James, a newly unemployed woman who wasn’t at all ready for the numerous curveballs life is suddenly throwing at her, peels back the lies that shaped her childhood—like the fact that her mother didn’t die of natural causes but was actually murdered, something her father kept from her. Think Southern gothic nightmare cloaked in small-town charm, but with a touch of seething, psychological dread. Yeah, it’s utterly fantastic. I cannot rave enough. Seriously.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Outlaw falconer Nate Romanowski is off the grid and out for revenge in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C. J. Box.
The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who lost almost everything. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance.
When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany.
As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge . . . at Battle Mountain.
My Review: When C.J. Box is at his best, there’s no writer alive today who can top him—and he’s brought his A-game with Battle Mountain. For fans of the Joe Pickett series, this novel offers everything you’ve come to expect—high stakes, sharp twists, and unforgettable characters (both new and old)—while delving deeper into the dark, untamed corners of Nate Romanowski’s soul. For newcomers, it’s a perfect entry point into the gritty, atmospheric world C.J. Box has built, and once you’ve gotten a taste, good luck trying not to binge the whole series before the 26th book comes out sometime next spring.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with an exhilarating new Scot Harvath thriller.
After six months abroad, America’s top spy returns to a new administration, a new set of global priorities, and a power struggle—the likes of which the United States has never experienced.
Drawn into a web of deceit and deadly politics, Scot Harvath is thrust into a high-stakes conspiracy that could change the course of history. A cabal of shadowy elites is maneuvering for control and if they succeed, they will bring the country to its knees.
When trust is fleeting and survival means making impossible decisions, Harvath finds himself at the precipice. The actions he takes will shape the future of America—and might cost him everything he holds dear.
With enemies at every turn, one wrong move could push the nation over the edge.
My Review: As global power brokers pull the strings behind the scenes, Scot Harvath is forced into his most dangerous and timely mission yet. Riveting, relentless, and impossible to put down, Thor once again proves why he’s the undisputed master of the political thriller. Edge of Honor is a must-read for anyone who craves hard-hitting action and super-charged suspense torn right from tomorrow’s headlines. If you read one book this summer, make it this one! (Read my full, featured review here.)
Minotaur Books
No greater friend. No deadlier enemy.
The explosive new novel in the New York Times bestselling Orphan X series is flipping the acclaimed series on its head. Find out why series superfans and new readers alike are calling it a “knockout” (firstCLUE).
Evan Smoak is a highly trained former government assassin who has survived for years by keeping his circle to a few trusted confidants and a strict code he calls “The Ten Commandments.” But when Evan suddenly finds himself at odds with his oldest friend, all the rules he lives by shatter―and the consequences are murderous.
Tommy Stojack might be Evan’s best friend in the world. He’s a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan’s own weapons and combat gear. But now, he has apparently crossed one of Evan’s hardest lines and their argument explodes into open warfare. Now Evan has no choice but to track and face down his only friend.
My Review: Nemesis flips the Gregg Hurwitz blueprint with a gut-punch betrayal that leaves no code intact and no reader breathing easy. Having Evan Smoak face off against his closest ally, the brilliant gunsmith Tommy Stojack, is one heck of a combustible twist that’s equal parts kinetic genius and emotional shrapnel. Hurwitz ramps the craftsmanship and white-knuckle pacing to 11 here, making this as ideal for longtime fans of the Orphan X as it is for first-time recruits. It’s lean, mean, and nonstop fun—but with a broken-glass edge that changes everything you thought you knew about the series. An absolute knockout.
Harper
Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon must solve the perfect crime in the dazzling new tale of murder, greed, and corruption from #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Daniel Silva.
Sometimes the only way to recover a stolen masterpiece is to steal it back . . .
Gabriel Allon has been awarded a commission to restore one of the most important paintings in Venice. But when he discovers the body of a mysterious woman floating in the waters of the Venetian Lagoon, he finds himself in a desperate race to recover a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.
The painting, a portrait of a beautiful young girl, has been gathering dust in a storeroom at the Vatican Museums for more than a century, misattributed and hidden beneath a worthless picture by an unknown artist. Because no one knows that the Leonardo is there, no one notices when it disappears one night during a suspicious power outage. No one but the ruthless mobsters and moneymen behind the theft — and the mysterious woman whom Gabriel found in a watery grave in Venice. A woman without a name. A woman without a face.
The action moves at breakneck speed from the galleries and auction houses of London to an enclave of unimaginable wealth on the French Riviera — and, finally, to a shocking climax in St. Peter’s Square, where the life of a pope hangs in the balance. An elegant and stylish journey through the dark side of the art world and the Vatican’s murky finances, An Inside Job proves once again that Daniel Silva is the reigning master of international intrigue and suspense.
My Review: Daniel Silva has done it again. An Inside Job is a breathtaking blend of high-stakes espionage, art-world deception, and pulse-pounding action that proves why Gabriel Allon remains one of the most compelling protagonists in modern thrillers. Set against the haunting beauty of Venice and the opulence of the French Riviera, Silva, one of the greatest to ever do it, crafts a plot as intricate as a lost Leonardo—one filled with murder, stolen masterpieces, and a global conspiracy rooted in the deepest vaults of the Vatican. From the first body in the lagoon to the jaw-dropping finale in St. Peter’s Square, this one has everything Silva’s fans want and then some.
The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware
Gallery/Scout Press
In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.
When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?
My Review: Ruth Ware, continuing her dominant run, delivers yet another knockout thriller. Lo Blacklock is back—and better than ever—in Ruth Ware’s electrifying follow-up to The Woman in Cabin 10. Her latest, The Woman in Suite 11, is a gripping, high-stakes adventure that thrusts readers into a pulse-pounding chase across Europe. As always, Ware expertly blends glamour and danger, motherhood and ambition, paranoia and purpose, crafting a main character who’s as relatable as she is relentless. With each twist, the tension ratchets higher, and just when you think you’ve caught your breath, Ware sucks the wind right back out of your lungs. If you thought Cabin 10 was a wild ride—just wait until you check into this one.
The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline
Grand Central Publishing
An international bestselling author crafts a gothic “thriller with dashes of romance and excellent twists!” (Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author) in which a young widow inherits a Tuscan estate from a mysterious benefactor and finds herself thrust into the crosshairs of a dangerous conspiracy—twisty, transportive, and haunting, this is suspense with a passport.
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.
Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard—but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.
There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi, and even to Caterina, Julia is further unnerved when she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.
Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her troubled mind. When events turn deadly, Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.
My Review: Evocative, eerie, and helplessly enthralling, Lisa Scottoline serves up a passport to paranoia in the best possible way with her latest must-read thriller, The Unraveling of Julia. From the moment Julia Pritzker inherits a mysterious Tuscan estate (and truthfully, her bad luck strikes even before then), the story unspools with cinematic beauty and nonstop suspense, which is so thick and palpable you’ll need more than a butter knife to cut through it. A mesmerizing blend of gothic atmosphere and page-turning tension, with some well-timed surprises that’ll keep you guessing until the very end.
You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego
Bantam
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exclusive thriller writer’s retreat hosted on a private island turns lethal when one of the authors is found murdered.
When renowned anonymous author J. R. Alastor hires former aspiring writer Mila del Angél to host a writing retreat at his private manor off the coast of Maine, she jumps at the chance—particularly since she has an axe to grind with one of the invitees. The guest list? Six thriller authors, all masters of deceit, misdirection, and mayhem.
Confess the crimes, survive the tropes.
Alastor and Mila have masterminded a week of games, trope-fueled riddles, and maybe a jump scare or two—the perfect cover for Mila to plot a murder of her own. But when a guest turns up dead—and it’s not the murder she planned—Mila finds herself trapped in a different narrative altogether.
One by one, you’ll lose your turn.
With a storm isolating the island, and the body count rising, Mila must outwit a killer who knows literally every trick in the book.
Until only one of us remains . . .
My Review: Oh, this one is so much fun! A wildly successful author asks another writer of the same genre to plan and help host a writer’s retreat with a handful of other mystery writers. Mila del Angél, an author who has an ax to grind with one of her colleagues, realizes that this retreat is her chance to finally plan and carry out the perfect murder. After all, as a storied crime writer, how hard could it be? Then comes the first twist—someone else beats her to the punch, having planned their own perfect murder, and now, stuck in a mansion with a killer and several potential victims, it’s a race to uncover who’s really behind the mayhem before they can strike again. The ultimate whodunit experience, this book was written for fans of locked-room mysteries, taking them inside the minds of writers who think up jaw-dropping twists and turns for a living. I started this book at night, which was a mistake, because I had to eventually put it down and go to sleep—but if you crack it open during the morning hours, I’ll bet you have this one wrapped up, case solved by sundown.
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