2025 Year End: The Twixties

2025 was a roller coaster in my personal life. I spent the first half of the year recovering from eye surgery. While this was ultimately a positive change, I was more or less blind for several months. The household was plagued by sickness,work had a lot of burnout and drama, and this fall I had an injury that seemed minor at the time but has spiraled into relapses and ongoing treatment. All this against the backdrop of constant static anxiety from living in America and working in a field very much under attack by the far right. I read a fair amount, but didn’t have the wonderful experience I had with Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway in 2024, where a book series captured my heart and mind and gave me solace all year. But reading (and art) were still probably the best things in my life in 2025. Instead of a straight top ten list, here are some off the cuff awards–which are reminding me with a sting that I really should at the very least keep a running list of titles that I read because it’s hard to remember!

Favorite reread: The Unpleasantness at the Bellonna Club by Dorothy Sayers
Peak early Lord Peter! Maybe peak Lord Peter across the board? Favorite rereads are books that are more interesting and engaging on the revisit, and even though I did and do reread fairly often, this book was deeply rewarding to revisit as an adult after last reading it as a teen. Read more of my thoughts about it here.

Spunkiest Sleuth: Wilowjean “Will” Parker, Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
AKA my cozy category. I only read book one in this series but I am looking forward to continuing. I liked the queer characters and themes, the mid 20th century setting, and the brash Will and self-possessed Lillian. The detective and apprentice (or detective and chronologist) is a dynamic I enjoy, and Will is the apprentice in this series. Spunk in a cozy novel is often badly done and illogical, existing to propel characters into stupid decisions. But Will feels human, smart and brave; she makes mistakes, but for believable reasons.

Slowest burn (complimentary): Charlotte Sloane and Lord Wrexford, Wrexford & Sloane series by Andrea Penrose
Set in the Regency, this series features Charlotte Sloane, a widow who makes broadside cartoons under her dead spouse’s pseudonym, and Lord Wrexford, a member of the British aristocracy who is also a gentleman scientist. Unlike mixed genre novels that put romance before mystery and always end with a couple together, Penrose is satisfyingly patient in allowing the pair to grow as individuals and in relation to each other over a span of books. There’s also the rare well-written child urchin characters with a sweet found family angle. I’d also give these a hat tip as my favorite historical mysteries of the year: though the Regency is one of the most popular settings in historical fiction, they feel unique and well-researched because of their interest in science and early forensics. Penrose captures science of the era very well, imbuing it with the sense of both discovery and precarity that is easily lost (or, worse, treated as a joke) in historical fiction.

Best road trip company: Lane Holland series, Wake and Murder Town by Shelley Burr
Because of aforementioned vision issues, I tend to bring the podcasts, audiobooks and the music to road trips while others bring the vehicles and the driving. Shelley Burr’s Lane Holland books were a great success on a trip with a family member with whom I share a fondness for Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk series. Like Harper, Burr writes about the impact of crime on small communities in Australia. I particularly liked Murder Town with its scrutiny on true crime tourism. That said, these books are't too deep: they're propulsive and plotty, like all good roadtrip listens should be. I’m looking forward to book three getting an American release!

Favorite Setting: The WW2 Blitz hospital, Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
I wrote about this recently so I won’t repeat myself, but I’ve thought a lot about this setting in time and place in the several months since I read the book! For me, setting is both time and place, both physical (can I picture the layout in my mind as I listen or read?) and atmospheric. Brand succeeds at all in the second Cockrill book. I wouldn't want to go there, but I can imagine it in detail!

Most indispensable (AKA favorite criticism or reference source): The Life of Crime by Martin Edwards’
This masterful history of crime writing was surprisingly easy to follow on audio, but not so much the footnotes, so I asked for the book for Christmas in 2024. I spent a lot of time with it in 2025, exploring it for recommendations. It has made me feel much more confident in my understanding of the genre.

Favorite true crime: Lay Them to Rest by Laura Norton
Though I listen to some podcasts, I don’t actually read a great deal of true crime: I’m really picky about it because I hate when it’s schlocky or feels exploitative. Familiar with Norton from her podcast The Fall Line (which is great, and very ethical for that medium), I knew I’d like this book. It’s fascinating and heartfelt and taught me a great deal about cold cases and about how genealogical investigation works. It was a good pairing to the true crime podcast I listened to the most according to my podcatcher stats, which was DNA:ID, all about cases solved by genetic genealogy! 

Most haunting (AKA all around best): Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
No, it’s not a category for ghost stories: it’s just the mystery novel I thought about literally the most all year long. Gosh this was good! What a stunner! Maybe Christie’s finest??? Someday I’ll write an essay about it here :)

I have some reading predictions and goals for 2026, but I'll save them for another post so as not to dilute the glory of these works' inclusion on to the first annual Twixties!