Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and it is now being hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For details of all of the latest prompts for January to March, see Meeghan’s post here.
The topic this week is Top 5 anticipated reads for Q1 2025. It’s time to talk about all the shiny new books coming out in January, February and March in 2025. What are the books you can’t wait to hold in your hands the most?
Murder as a Fine Art (A book in the Julian Rivers series) by Carol Carnac (E.C.R. Lorac) Publication date 10 January 2025
When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department. Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry’s dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer – though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal devilment. Taking charge of the case, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard enters a caustic world of fine art and civil service grievances to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight.
Murder on the Marlow Belle (The Marlow Murder Club Mysteries, Book 4) by Robert Thorogood Publication date 16 January 2025
Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.
Oliver was a rather complicated chap and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll crack the case in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and the gang will need to keep their wits about them, otherwise a killer may sail away scot-free …
Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine Publication date 13 February 2025
Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.
Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.
Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside? With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…
The Frozen People: An Ali Dawson Mystery by Elly Griffiths Publication date 13 February 2025
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?
Murder at Gulls Nest: Nora Breen Investigates by Jess Kidd Publication date 13 March 2025
Somewhere in the north, a religious community meets for Vespers. Here on the southeast coast, Nora Breen prepares for braised liver and a dining room full of strangers.
After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit and set her sights on the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. Why there? Why now? Instinct tells her it’s better not to reveal her reasons straight away. She takes a room at Gulls Nest guest house and settles in to watch and listen.
Over disappointing – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora realises that she was right to keep quiet: her fellow lodgers are hiding something. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness: there is a mystery to solve, and she is the only person for the job.
BooksPlease 