Books to Look Out For in 2025 Q2

I love looking at all the wonderful books we have to look forward to (you can see my Q1 picks here). Here are a few of the titles that I’m particularly excited about from the next three months. Covers and publication dates are correct at time of writing.

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Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
(Penguin, 10 April)

I love Anthony Horowitz’s novels, and while I prefer the Daniel Hawthorne series, this one sounds excellent.

Susan Ryeland has had enough of murder.

She’s edited two novels about the famous detective, Atticus Pünd, and both times she’s come close to being killed. Now she’s back in England and she’s been persuaded to work on a third.

The new ‘continuation’ novel is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace who was the biggest selling children’s author in the world until her death exactly twenty years ago.

Eliot believes that Miriam was deliberately poisoned. And when he tells Susan that he has hidden the identity of Miriam’s killer inside his book, Susan knows she’s in trouble once again.

As Susan works on Pünd’s Last Case, a story set in an exotic villa in the South of France, she uncovers more and more parallels between the past and the present, the fictional and the real world – until suddenly she finds that she has become a target herself.

It seems that someone in Eliot’s family doesn’t want the book to be written. And they will do anything to prevent it.

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Sleeper Beach by Nick Harkaway
(Corsair, 10 April)

I loved the first novel in this series, Titanium Noir, combining detective noir with a sci fi element. It works brilliantly, and I can’t wait to see where this next instalment goes.

On the shore of a rundown holiday town, a young woman washes up dead. Martha Erskine, the matriarch of a local dynasty, suspects a member of her own family might be involved in the murder, and calls in Cal to investigate.

Cal Sounder is a detective first and a Titan second, but it’s not easy to make that work. It’s hard to be an ordinary guy when you’re fundamentally not ordinary anymore. Cal has recently taken a dose of T7, a rare drug that is usually the preserve of the rich, making its users – called the Titans – younger and bigger each time they take it, so that as they age the bodies of the ultra-wealthy become as immense as their bank accounts.

As Cal digs into the crime, he finds this forgotten town is simmering with wage disputes, strikes, and political conflict, and no one is quite who they say they are – not even the victim. As Cal second-guesses everyone he meets, he is forced to confront his own identity and ask himself who he wants to be from the far side of the mirror of power, age and greed.

Sleeper Beach is a hugely original, powerful and action-packed novel from the acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway.

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The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
(Picador, 1 May)

I absolutely loved The Lamplighters and I can’t wait to read this second novel from Emma Stonex.

In January 1989, Birdie wakes to the news she’s been waiting eighteen years to hear. Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been freed from jail. Birdie leaves for London with a gun and a plan: to find him and make him pay. But there’s another side to the story, and she’s about to enter a world of family lies, worn-out loyalties and long-buried betrayals.

Did Jimmy kill Birdie’s sister, or is he the only one she can really trust? And when the truth is finally revealed, will she choose forgiveness – or retribution?

A heart-stopping new novel of murky shared pasts and a fury-fueled present, The Sunshine Man is a thrilling cat and mouse chase set against the salt-drenched backdrop of England’s south coast, from bestselling author Emma Stonex.

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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
(Tor, 10 June)

I love V. E. Schwab’s work, and while the blurb here is as light touch as it gets, I’m still in.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.

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The Rush by Beth Lewis
(Viper, 10 June)

Beth Lewis is an autobuy author me, and this latest offering sounds great.

Gold fever has taken him. I believe he means to kill me…

Canada, 1898. The gold rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.

In its midst, three women are trying to survive on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister, who fears that her husband will kill her. Martha’s hotel is under threat from the local strongman who is buying up the town. And down by the river, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the gold they risked so much to seek.

When a woman is murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer, they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold…

Rich in its setting and characters, The Rush is a gripping historical crime novel perfect for readers of Stef Penney by way of Kristin Hannah and C Pam Zhang.

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These are just a few of the wonderful books coming out in the next few months that I’m really excited about. Anything here take your fancy? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!